Seek support facilitates convenient access to portions of a media file a
user wishes to access. Seek support is provided by a usage model based on
prior users' access of a media file or expected user access patterns. The
usage model reflects expected next segments a user will seek when
accessing the media file. A prefetching model derived from the usage
model reduces seeking delay by prefetching one or more expected next
segments identified from the usage model that will result in minimal
seeking distance. Correspondingly, a method of prefetching segments also
facilitates access to the media file. A quantity of segments of a media
file to be prefetched and a current region of a media file being access
are identified. At least one next segment identified by the prefetching
model as an expected next seeking destination from the current region is
identified, and the next segment is prefetched.