Playback of streamed media

摘要

The invention discloses a method of improving the playback of streamed media on a client device by overcoming problems caused by variations in the transmission delay of packets due to network and transport protocol operation and variations in encoding/server specific delays. In an embodiment of the invention, a client device has a decoder ( 120 ) and a predecoder buffer ( 110 ) which receives streamed packets from source server via a packet network. The pre-decoder buffer is variable in size and has a variable initial buffering time for receiving the transmitted packets from the source server prior to decoding in the decoder. The initial buffering time and pre-decoder buffer size can be dynamically adapted for improved playback performance by the source server. In a further aspect of the invention, a post-decoder buffer operates in conjunction with the pre-encoder buffer to reduce decoding-related delay variations.