Patent ID: 8504572

Claim:
A digital content distribution system comprising: (a) at least one central content warehouse for storing digital content; (b) a distributed architecture of decentralized content hosting and delivery clusters and at least one information appliance component in each cluster; each decentralized content hosting and delivery cluster in said distributed architecture comprising a distribution content warehouse operatively connected to said at least one central content warehouse; said distribution content warehouse storing content received from said central content warehouse; at least one information appliance component operatively connected to said distribution content warehouse and receiving digital content provided by said distribution content warehouse; said at least one information appliance component being operative to play said received digital content for a user; (c) a number of distributed user databases, each one distributed user database operatively communicating with a number of information appliance components; and (d) one pre-content management component, in each one information appliance component, operatively connected to sub-components of said each one information appliance component; said one pre-content management component receiving data from one distributed user database; said one pre-content management component determining, after a sub-component in said one information appliance component selects content for viewing, a time required for downloading selected content, identifying pre-content and playing the identified pre-content until a preselected percentage of selected content has been downloaded; wherein each of said central content warehouse, said distribution content warehouse comprise at least one server.