Patent ID: 7100192

Claim:
A video data distributing system, comprising: a plurality of video servers, each storing video data; a controller connected with the plurality of video servers and a plurality of terminals via a network, wherein each of the terminals is arranged to send a video data request, including a first video data identifier for uniquely identifying the video data, to the controller; wherein the controller includes storing means and control means, and the storing means is arranged to store: a video data information table including the first video data identifier, a video server identifier, and a second video data identifier, linked with one another, the video server identifier identifying one of the video servers having the video data identified with the first video data identifier and used for accessing the identified video server, and the second video data identifier identifying the video data in the identified video server and indicating a location of the video data in the identified video server, and a video server information table including a terminal identifier identifying a terminal and the video server identifier of the identified video server having the video data to be distributed to the terminal, linked with each other; wherein the controller, upon receiving the video data request, obtains the video server identifier corresponding to the terminal identifier of the terminal originating the video data request from the video server information table, extracts the second video data identifier from the video data information table using the obtained video server identifier and the first video data identifier in the video data request, and data sends the video server identifier and the second video identifier to the terminal originating the video data request; and wherein the terminal originating the video data request accesses the identified video server with the received video server identifier, and obtains the video data from the identified video server using the received second video data identifier.