METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SYNCHRONIZING PLAYBACK OF MULTIPLE MEDIA TYPES OVER NETWORKS HAVING DIFFERENT TRANSMISSION CHARACTERISTICS

摘要

A method for synchronizing the playback of data on a primary media (114) with data on a secondary media (112) stored remotely over a network (108) is provided. Generally, the network (108) can not deliver data on the secondary media (112) as quickly to an audio or video device as data on the primary media (114) stored in the audio or video device (102) is delivered. This makes it difficult to synchronize playback of data on the primary and secondary media. To overcome this problem, implementations of the present invention download data on the secondary media (112) in advance and coordinates the playback of the data. Initially, data on the primary media (114) is identified using a unique identifier. The unique identifier is used to locate data on the secondary media (112) stored remotely over a network (108). Data on the secondary media (112) matching the unique identifier is downloaded over the networek (108) and stored in a storage area local to the audio or video device (102) such as a cache. Timing information is then used to synchronize playback of data on the primary media (114) with data on the secondary media (112) stored in cache.