Patent ID: 7912974

Claim:
A method of transmitting an encoded sequence over a network to a terminal, comprising: storing a plurality of encoded versions of the same sequence, wherein each version comprises a plurality of discrete portions of data and each version corresponds to a respective different degree of compression; transmitting a current one of said versions; ascertaining the data transmission rate permitted by the network; ascertaining the content state of a receiving buffer at the terminal; for at least one candidate version, computing, in respect of one or more discrete portions thereof as yet unsent, the maximum timing error value as the maximum of a set of computed timing error values for any number of portions starting with said discrete portion up to and including any particular portion if sent at the currently ascertained data transmission rate; comparing the computed maximum timing error values of each said at least one candidate version with the ability of the receiving buffer to accommodate the respective maximum timing error values given the ascertained buffer content state; selecting one of said versions for transmission, in dependence on the results of said comparisons; and transmitting the selected version, wherein a computed timing error the value for a portion up to and including the particular portion when sent at a said data transmission rate is the difference between (a) the time needed to transmit at the said data transmission rate, the said portion for which the timing error is being computed and zero or more consecutive subsequent portions up to and including the said particular portion, and (b) the difference between the playing instant of the said particular portion and the playing instant of the portion preceding the said portion for which the timing error value is being computed.