Abstract: A home system for on-demand media advantageously employs hardware already present in a typical consumer's home to reduce the cost and complexity of an on-demand controller. The controller may use a pre-existing network connection to access media sources on the Internet or other data networks, and may use mass storage available on the consumer's computer or elsewhere in the user's household to store media for streaming to a television or other display device. The controller coordinates operation of these components to provide an on-demand media experience to a user.