Patent ID: 8205236

Claim:
A contents distribution system for distributing a plurality of contents to a plurality of terminals of each user through a communication network, comprising a distribution server which connects to said plurality of terminals through said communication network to distribute contents, wherein said distribution server includes: for each of said plurality of contents to be distributed, a plurality of contents input means for sequentially dividing data of the contents to be distributed into frames to generate frames coded by a predetermined plurality of different coding systems, and for each of said plurality of terminals of a distribution destination, a plurality of frame selection means for selecting, based on a request from said user's terminal, a frame appropriate for said request from among frames output from said contents input means, wherein each said frame selection means includes multicast transmission means for receiving in a multicast way a frame output from each said contents input means, wherein said contents input means: executes intraframe coding, which is coding based on data in an individual frame, of each frame of contents to be distributed to generate an intraframe-coded frame, executes interframe coding, which is coding based on data in an individual frame and correlation between the frames, of each frame of contents to be distributed to generate an interframe-coded frame, and sequentially outputs both of said intraframe-coded frame and said interframe-coded frame, wherein said contents input means simultaneously executes the intraframe coding and the interframe coding for said each frame of contents to be distributed, wherein when accepting, from said user's terminal, a request for distribution of new contents, a request for distribution of another contents and a refresh request for the purpose of elimination of an occurring failure, said frame selection means selects an intraframe-coded frame of the contents in question as a frame to be transmitted to the terminal in question, wherein when accepting a request for distribution of accumulated contents which have been coded, said frame selection means selects an intraframe-coded frame of the coded contents as a frame to be transmitted to the terminal in question, wherein when accepting said request for distribution of new contents, said request for distribution of another contents and said refresh request, for each of said plurality of contents to be distributed, said frame selection means outputs said intraframe-coded frame generated by said content input means as an initial frame to each said terminal, and sequentially then outputs said interframe-coded frame generated by said content input means as second and succeeding frames to each said terminal.