Patent ID: 8631451

Claim:
A media server operable to serve video programs to a plurality of client media players across at least one distribution network, the media server comprising: a network interface communicatively coupled to the at least one distribution network; a memory unit operable to store the video programs; video output selection circuitry communicatively coupled to the network interface and to the memory unit and operable to receive respective manufacture/model numbers from each of the plurality of client media players, to access a look-up table using the manufacture/model numbers to retrieve media player parameters for each of the plurality of client media players, to determine communication characteristics for delivery of content of the video programs to each of the plurality of client media players, and to make video format selections for each of the plurality of client media players based thereupon, the look-up table including two or more of: model number, type of device, manufacturer of client media player, screen size, refresh rate required, frame rate, audio format information, user preferences, resizing of windows and desired quality of display; video transcoder circuitry communicatively coupled to the memory unit and to the video output selection circuitry and operable to transcode video content of the video programs to a plurality of video formats based upon differing video format selections to produce at least two differing video signals for at least two requesting client media players, the video transcoder circuitry adaptively adjusting at least one video format of the video content when the media player parameters or the determined communication characteristics of at least one of the at least two requesting client media players changes; and video output circuitry communicatively coupled to the video transcoder circuitry and to the network interface and operable to communicatively output the at least two differing video signals to the at least two requesting client media players.