Patent ID: 8266314

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving, at a computing device, a multimedia data stream comprising an audio data stream and a video data stream from a server; generating an audio output signal for the audio data stream and a video output signal for the video data stream; detecting, via the computing device, a user interface action that blocks output of one of the audio data stream and the video data stream comprising one of: detecting a user interface action associated with placement of a graphical user interface (GUI) application window over the output of the video data stream on the display that blocks the output of the video data stream; and detecting a user interface action associated with a mute request that blocks the output of the audio data stream via the audio output device; and sending a multimedia traffic reduction request to the server instructing the server to stop transmission of a portion of the multimedia data stream associated with the blocked output of the one of the audio data stream and the video data stream.