Priority-based buffer management

A system, comprising:

• a media buffer that selectively receives and stores media units, each of the media units having at least one frame that includes one or more objects;
• wherein an importance rating is included in each of the media units based on whether an object included in the media unit is a primary, secondary, or static object;
• and
• program instructions for selectively flushing at least some of the units from the buffer based on the importance rating.

A method, comprising:

• receiving a media stream that includes a plurality of media units;
• identifying an importance rating included in the media stream for each of the media units, the importance rating for a media unit being based on whether an object included in the media unit is a primary, secondary, or static object;
• receiving the media frames in a media stream via a packet switched network;
• storing the media frames in a buffer;
• assigning a size limit to the buffer;
• determining that the size limit has been met;
• selectively flushing at least some of the media frames from the buffer based on the importance rating;
• and
• providing at least some of the frames from the buffer to a coder/decoder.