Patent ID: 8750115

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a media stream that includes a plurality of media units, each of the media units having at least one frame including one or more objects, wherein the media stream is received via a packet switched network; storing the received media units in a buffer; identifying an importance rating included in the media stream for each of the media units, the importance rating for a media unit being based on whether an object included in the media unit is a primary, secondary, or static object and is associated with user interaction; selectively flushing at least some of the received media units with a lower importance rating from the buffer based on the importance rating; and providing at least some of the units that remain in the buffer to a coder/decoder, wherein the coder/decoder selectively retrieves frames from the buffer, synchronizes audio and video of the retrieved frames to obtain synchronized media frames, and selectively provides, to a media player, output based on the synchronized frames.