Patent attributes
A source file representing media such as video, photographs or graphics, is uploaded and stored. During a pre-transcoding process, the source file is converted to a predetermined number of different formats, and the converted files are stored. When the source file is requested, the best file format for the requesting device is determined. If the best file format is one of the pre-transcoded formats, a pre-transcoded file is provided to fulfill the request. If the best file format is not one of the pre-transcoded formats, then the source file is transcoded to generate an on-demand transcoded file in the best file format and the on-demand transcoded file is provided to fulfill the request.