User interface, system and method for controlling a video stream

A server center having a memory for storing program code and a processor for processing the program code to generate a graphical user interface accessed by a client, the server center comprising:

• a plurality of servers that generate a plurality of video thumbnails arranged in a pattern, wherein at least one of the video thumbnails resulted from simultaneous scaling down of a video by a shared hardware compression during compression of the video by the shared hardware compression, wherein at least one of the video thumbnails renders linear media and at least one of the video thumbnails renders non-linear media, wherein the linear media includes a compressed version of a real-time video of a particular movie, television series, or other type of linear video content, wherein the non-linear media includes a compressed version of a game video of an interactive video game, and wherein the game video is dynamically generated by a game server;
• and
• a menu displayed above or adjacent to the video thumbnails, the menu comprising a plurality of selectable options for filtering the video thumbnails, at least one of the options comprising a video category.

A computer-implemented method, performed by a server center, to generate a graphical user interface accessed by a client, comprising:

• arranging a plurality of video thumbnails, wherein at least one of the video thumbnails resulted from simultaneous scaling down of a video by a shared hardware compression during compression of the video by the shared hardware compression, wherein at least one of the video thumbnails renders linear media and at least one of the video thumbnails renders non-linear media, wherein the linear media includes a compressed version of a real-time video of a particular movie, television series, or other type of linear video content, wherein the non-linear media includes a compressed version of a game video of an interactive video game, and wherein the game video is dynamically generated by a game server;
• and
• highlighting a currently-selected video thumbnail by a selection graphic, the thumbnails moving within the graphical user interface in relation to the selection graphic in response to user input from an input device.

A computer-implemented method, performed by a server center, to generate a graphical user interface displayed by a client device, comprising:

• arranging a plurality of video thumbnails, wherein at least one of the video thumbnails resulted from simultaneous scaling down of a video by a shared hardware compression during compression of the video by the shared hardware compression, wherein at least one of the video thumbnails renders linear media and at least one of the video thumbnails renders non-linear media, wherein the linear media includes a compressed version of a real-time video of a particular movie, television series, or other type of linear video content, wherein the non-linear media includes a compressed version of a game video of an interactive video game, and wherein the game video is dynamically generated by a game server;
• and
• displaying a menu above or adjacent to the video thumbnails, the menu comprising a plurality of selectable options for filtering the video thumbnails, at least one of the options comprising a video category.