Personal content distribution network

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, instruct the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:

• downloading, at a first device, a content item from a site that is remote from the first device, wherein the content item is encoded in a first encoding format that the multimedia device is not configured to decode and wherein the content item comprises a first portion and a second portion;
• concurrently with the first device downloading the content item:
• automatically transcoding, at the first device, upon receiving the first portion of the content item, the first portion into a second encoding format which the multimedia device is configured to decode;
• transmitting, subsequent to the first device automatically transcoding the first portion of the content item and prior to the first device transcoding the second portion of the content item, a notification from the first device to the multimedia device wherein the notification informs the multimedia device that the content item in the second encoding format is available for the multimedia device to access;
• receiving, at the first device, a request for the content item from the multimedia device;
• and
• transmitting, in response to receiving the request, the transcoded first portion of the content item from the first device to the multimedia device, wherein the first device transmits the first portion to the multimedia device simultaneously with downloading, at the first device, the second portion of the content item from the site and transcoding, at the first device, the second portion of the content item from the first encoding format to the second encoding format.

A computer-implemented method for transcoding content, the method comprising:

• in response to receiving a specified type of tag in a web page by a browser at a first device, performing:
• the browser executing, at the first device, a browser plug-in that is used to obtain from a site a URL that refers to content that is stored at the site, the URL being obfuscated so that only the browser plug-in is allowed to obtain the URL from the site;
• the browser plug-in, as executed by the browser, performing a transaction that obtains, from the site, the URL that refers to the content that is stored at the site, the URL being obtained after the browser plug-in executes a transaction with the site;
• downloading, to the first device, the content to which the URL refers;
• transcoding, at the first device, the content to which the URL refers from a first encoding format which a multimedia device is not configured to decode to a second encoding format which the multimedia device is configured decode.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, instruct the one or more processors to perform steps comprising:

• in response to receiving a specified type of tag in a web page by a browser at a first device, performing:
• the browser executing, at the first device, a browser plug-in that is used to obtain from a site a URL that refers to content that is stored at the site, the URL being obfuscated so that only the browser plug-in is allowed to obtain the URL from the site;
• the browser plug-in, as executed by the browser, performing a transaction that obtains, from the site, the URL that refers to the content that is stored at the site, the URL being obtained after the browser plug-in executes a transaction with the site;
• downloading, to the first device, the content to which the URL refers;
• transcoding, at the first device, the content to which the URL refers from a first encoding format which a multimedia device is not configured to decode to a second encoding format which the multimedia device is configured decode.