Patent ID: 7886069

Claim:
A method of progressively playing back a media sequence by a playback device stored as a media file on a remote server, comprising: obtaining information concerning the content of the media file from the remote server; identifying a starting location within the media sequence by a playback device; identifying byte ranges of the media file corresponding to media required to play the media sequence from the starting location by the playback device; requesting the byte ranges required to play the media sequence from the starting location by the playback device from the remote server; maintaining a mask of the portions of the media file that have been downloaded; buffering received bytes of information pending commencement of playback; playing back the buffered bytes of information; receiving a user instruction; identifying byte ranges of the media file corresponding to media required to play the media sequence in accordance with the user instruction by the playback device; identifying that at least a portion of a byte range required to play the media in accordance with the user instruction has already been downloaded using the mask; flushing previous byte range requests; requesting only the portions of the required byte ranges that have not already been downloaded from the media server to play the media in accordance with the user instruction on the playback device from the remote server.