High quality replay of a streaming multimedia video segment on demand is
provided. The multimedia segment may be transmitted as a stream by a
server system and received by a client system over a fixed bandwidth
communications path. The client system receives a base layer of the
stream, decodes the base layer and displays the decoded base layer at a
first quality level. The client system stores at least a portion of the
base layer in a cache. When a request for replay service for the
multimedia segment is received from a user, for high quality replay, the
client system may receive at least one enhancement layer of the stream
corresponding to the stored portion of the base layer. The client system
may then read the stored portion of the base layer from the cache, decode
the stored portion of the base layer and the at least one enhancement
layer, and display the decoded base and enhancement layers at a second
quality level, higher than the first quality level.