Description:Please see the attachments , Claims:Please see the attachments 1. A method comprising:
at a device including a processor and a non-transitory memory:
detecting a request for a user interface (UI) while playing a media content item from a
buffer;
5 sending to a server the request and status of playing the media content item from the
buffer;
receiving from the server a switch point determined by the server based at least in part
on the status and the requested UI;
determining whether or not the buffer has sufficient UI frames rendered by the server
10 in response to the request for the UI at the switch point; and
switching to playing the UI frames from the buffer at the switch point upon determining
the buffer has sufficient UI frames.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the status includes a current player position and one or
more next available switch positions.
15 3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving from the server the switch point determined
by the server based on the status and the requested UI includes:
pausing downloading the media content item to the buffer;
accumulating the UI frames in the buffer; and
inserting the UI frames at the switch point.
20 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the switch point is an I-frame of the media content item
in the buffer.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether or not the buffer has sufficient UI
frames rendered by the server in response to the request for the UI at the switch point includes:
receiving from the server a switch policy indicating a threshold; and
25 determining whether or not the UI frames in the buffer exceeds the threshold.
6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:
delaying the switch point to a next switch point indicated in the status according to the
switch policy upon determining the buffer has insufficient UI frames.
- 25 -
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, upon determining the buffer has insufficient
frames:
retrieving from a cache a video to fill the buffer;
playing the video from the buffer until a next switch point indicated in the status; and
5 inserting the UI frames into the buffer at the next switch point.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
establishing a data channel with the server in response to detecting the request; and
sending to the server the request and the status and receiving from the server the switch
point via the data channel.
10 9. The method of claim 8, wherein:
the media content item is received from the server via a channel, different from the data
channel; and
a license for decrypting the media content item is obtained via the channel.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the server is configured to:
15 create multiple DRM license sessions, including a first DRM license session and a
second DRM license session;
associate the first DRM license session with a first license request from the server,
wherein the server uses the first license when generating the UI frames; and
associate the second DRM license session with a second license request from the
20 device