Media player with instant play capability
First Claim
1. A method for playing a media item on a media player, the media player having a storage disk and a cache memory, said method comprising the acts of:
- (a) receiving an indication of a particular media item to be played on the media player, the particular media item being one of a plurality of media items stored on the storage disk of the media player, the particular media item having an initial media data portion and a remaining media data portion, the remaining media data portion being different than and not including the initial media data portion; and
(b) playing the particular media item on the media player, said playing (b) including at least;
(b1) retrieving the initial media data portion of the particular media item from the storage disk;
(b2) playing the initial portion of the particular media item using the initial media data portion as retrieved from the storage disk, without first storing the initial media data portion into the cache memory;
(b3) loading, concurrently with at least one of said retrieving (b1) and said playing (b2), at least a remaining media data portion of the particular media item into the cache memory from the storage disk; and
(b4) thereafter playing the remaining media data portion of the particular media item from cache memory.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A media player and a method for operating a media player are disclosed. A media program is able to substantially immediately begin playing after a media play selection has been made. Through intelligent operation, the media program is able to start playing even before the media program has been substantially or completely loaded from disk storage into semiconductor memory (i.e., cache memory). Additionally, the media program can be loaded into semiconductor memory through use of a background process without disturbing the playing of the media program. Further, if desired, the disk storage is able to be aggressively “powered off” when not being accessed, thereby enhancing battery life when being battery-powered.
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Citations
49 Claims
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1. A method for playing a media item on a media player, the media player having a storage disk and a cache memory, said method comprising the acts of:
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(a) receiving an indication of a particular media item to be played on the media player, the particular media item being one of a plurality of media items stored on the storage disk of the media player, the particular media item having an initial media data portion and a remaining media data portion, the remaining media data portion being different than and not including the initial media data portion; and (b) playing the particular media item on the media player, said playing (b) including at least; (b1) retrieving the initial media data portion of the particular media item from the storage disk; (b2) playing the initial portion of the particular media item using the initial media data portion as retrieved from the storage disk, without first storing the initial media data portion into the cache memory; (b3) loading, concurrently with at least one of said retrieving (b1) and said playing (b2), at least a remaining media data portion of the particular media item into the cache memory from the storage disk; and (b4) thereafter playing the remaining media data portion of the particular media item from cache memory. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method of retrieving media data to be played by a media player, the media player having a storage disk and a cache memory, said method comprising:
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(a) identifying a media item to be played on the media player; (b) determining whether media data for the media item is stored in the cache memory; (c) retrieving and then playing a portion of the media data for the media item directly from the storage disk when said determining (b) determines that the media data for the media item is not stored in the cache memory, the media data for the media item includes a series of distinct portions; (d) retrieving and then playing a portion of the media data for the media item from the cache memory when said determining (b) determines that the media data for the media item is stored in the cache memory; and (e) repeating said determining (b) and said retrieving (c) or (d) for each subsequent portion of the media data for the media item. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A method of retrieving media data to be played by a media player, the media player having a storage disk and a cache memory, said method comprising:
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(a) identifying a media item to be played on the media player, media data for the media item includes a plurality of data portions, the data portions including an initial portion and remaining portions, the remaining portions being different than and not including the initial portion; (b) determining whether the media data for the media item is stored in the cache memory; (c) retrieving and playing the initial portion of the media data for the media item directly from the storage disk when said determining (b) determines that the media data for the media item is not stored in the cache memory; and (d) initiating processing to load at least the remaining portions of the media data from the storage disk to the cache memory. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A consumer electronics product, comprising:
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a storage disk that stores a plurality of media items; a user input device that enables a user of said consumer electronics product to at least select a particular media item from the plurality of media items, the particular media item having a first portion and subsequent portions, the subsequent portions being different than and not including the first portion; a cache memory capable of storing at least one of the media items; and a processor operatively connected to said storage disk, said user input device and said cache memory, said processor causes said consumer electronics product to play the particular media item substantially immediately following the selection of the particular media item by the user without regard to whether media data for the particular media item resides in said cache memory or on said storage disk; wherein when the media data for the particular media item is not initially stored in said cache memory, said processor concurrently retrieves and plays a first portion of the media data directly from said storage disk while substantially concurrently initiating background loading subsequent portions of the media data for the particular media item from said storage disk into said cache memory; and wherein once the subsequent portions of the media data for the particular media items are available in said cache memory due to the background loading of the subsequent portions of the media data for the particular media item, said processor retrieves the subsequent portions of the media data for the particular media item from said cache memory. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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42. A computer readable medium including at least computer program code for retrieving and playing media data by a media player, the media player having a disk-based data store and a semiconductor-based data store, said computer readable medium comprises:
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computer program code for identifying a media item to be played on the media player, media data for the media item includes a plurality of data portions, the data portions including a first portion and remaining portions, the remaining portions being different than and not including the initial portion; computer program code for retrieving the first portion of the media data for the media item from the disk-based data store; computer program code for playing the first portion of the media data for the media item retrieved from the disk-based data store without first storing to the semiconductor-based data store, the semiconductor-based data store being operable at least in part as a cache memory having a faster access time than does the disk-based data store; computer program code for initiating processing to load at least the remaining portions of the media data from the disk-based data store to the semiconductor-based data store; and computer program code for playing the remaining portions of the media data retrieved from the semiconductor-based data store. - View Dependent Claims (43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49)
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Specification