Video server for video distribution system

A video server for distributing a digitized video content via an asynchronous communication network, comprising:

• a handler for detecting a random access point in the image information corresponding to the digitized video content and storing the image information up to the next random access point as one piece of information in one of a plurality of buffers which store pieces of image information;
• a buffer controller for selecting one of the plurality of buffers to which the one piece of image information is stored and from which the one piece of image information is read;
• a reference time generator for generating a reference time;
• and
• a file reader for reading the one piece of image information from the buffers for transmission via the asynchronous communication network,
• wherein the buffer controller selects, from among the plurality of buffers, the one piece of image information which has not been transmitted and has a time stamp equal to or smaller than a reference time generated by the reference time generator, and indicates the selected one piece of image information to the transmitter;
• wherein said video server further comprises:
• a video content storage for storing video contents, each video content consisting of pieces of image information, and
• a video manager for determining whether or not a requested video content is stored in the video content storage,
• wherein the video manager instructs the handler to read the video content from the video content storage for transmission when the requested video content is stored in the video content storage, and
• wherein the video manager requests a video content provider to send the video content and instructs the handler to receive the video content for transmission when the requested video content is not stored in the video content storage.

An image transmission system for transmitting image information from a transmission side to a reception side via a network, comprising:

• a plurality of logical transmission paths,
• wherein said logical transmission paths are established in accordance with the HTTP protocol between a plurality of transmitters of the transmission side and a plurality of receivers of the reception side,
• wherein the reception side includes a time stamp memory for storing a time stamp of reproduced image information,
• wherein the transmission side transmits pieces of image information to the reception side from the transmitters through said plurality of logical transmission paths, each piece of image information including the time stamp, and
• wherein the reception side receives the pieces of image information and compares the time stamp of the received piece of image information with the time stamp stored in the time stamp memory to reproduce only image information piece having a time stamp more recent than the stored time stamp.