Serving Media Articles with Altered Playback Speed

A method of altering apparent media playback speed on a server, comprising:

• receiving at a server from a client a request for media content specifying an altered playback speed, wherein the content comprises one selected from a group consisting of a video stream, an audio stream, a text stream, and a metadata stream and the request comprises at least one content identifier and instructions corresponding to the at least one content identifier, the instructions further comprising a content transformation instruction;
• altering the number of frames of the media content according to the altered playback speed, wherein altering the number of frames of the media content further comprises calculating alterations to the number of frames of the requested media content to conform to the altered playback speed to produce the altered media content;
• and
• serving to the client at least a portion of the altered media content from the server to the client, wherein the portion of the altered media content is capable of being served prior to the remainder of the altered media content being available for serving.

A computer program product for altering apparent media playback speed on a server, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer-readable medium;
• and
• computer program code, coded on the medium, for:
• receiving at a server a request for media content specifying an altered playback speed, wherein the media content comprises video content;
• altering the number of frames of the media content according to the altered playback speed by removing frames from the media content;
• and
• serving at least a portion of the altered media content from the server to the client.

A system for altering apparent media playback speed on a server, the system comprising:

• means for receiving at a server a request for media content specifying an altered playback speed, wherein the media content comprises video content;
• means for altering the number of frames of the media content according to the altered playback speed by removing frames from the media content;
• and
• means for serving at least a portion of the altered media content from the server to the client.

A computer program product for receiving media with an altered apparent media playback speed, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer-readable medium;
• and
• computer program code, coded on the medium, for:
• transmitting to a server from a client a request for media content for playback at an altered playback speed, wherein the media content comprises video content;
• and
• receiving at the client at least a portion of the requested media content from the server, wherein the number of frames of the media content has been altered according to the altered playback speed by the server removing frames from the media content.

A computer program product for receiving media with an altered apparent media playback speed, the computer program product comprising:

• a computer-readable medium;
• and
• computer program code, coded on the medium, for:
• transmitting to a server from a client a request for media content for playback at an altered playback speed and a reading rate for a host domain associated with the client;
• and
• receiving at the client at least a portion of the requested media content from the server, wherein the number of frames of the media content has been altered according to the altered playback speed by the server inserting duplicate frames into the media content without overlapping the duplicate frames.