Patent ID: 7940653

Claim:
A method, comprising: storing user-preference data indicating a user's video quality preferences, the user-preference data comprising: a first video quality parameter having a first ranking by the user and specifying a first video quality characteristic; and a second video quality parameter having a second ranking by the user relative to the first ranking and specifying a second video quality characteristic which is different from the first video quality characteristic; storing data representing the performance of the first network terminal; storing data representing the performance of the network; the network communicatively coupled to the first network terminal and a second network terminal; determining at least one video transport parameter based on at least the first network terminal performance data, the network performance data, and the rankings of the first and second video quality parameters; encoding the video data based on the determined at least one video transport parameter; and transmitting the encoded video data over the network from the first network terminal to the second network terminal.