Patent ID: 8291102

Claim:
A method for presenting a media clip at a wireless terminal comprising a buffer, the method comprising: selecting, at the wireless terminal, a presentation mode for presenting the media clip at the wireless terminal; determining an acceptable user wait time; determining a buffer size associated with the buffer of the wireless terminal; determining a size and a length of the media clip; and selecting the presentation mode using the acceptable user wait time, the buffer size, and the size of the media clip when the acceptable user wait time is greater than or equal to the length of the media clip and the buffer size is greater than or equal to the size of the media clip, selecting a first presentation mode of the plurality of presentation modes supported by the wireless terminal; when the acceptable user wait time is less than the length of the media clip or the buffer size is less than the size of the media clip, selecting one of a second presentation mode or a third presentation mode of the plurality of presentation modes supported by the wireless terminal; receiving, at the wireless terminal, a data stream conveying the media clip, the data stream being received at a media transmission rate; and presenting the media clip at the wireless terminal, wherein the media clip is presented at a presentation rate that is greater than the media transmission rate, wherein the media clip is presented using the selected presentation mode; wherein the buffer is controlled to bridge the mismatch between the media transmission rate and the presentation rate according to the selected presentation mode.