Techniques are disclosed herein for controlling playback of digital media. In one aspect, while playback of the media content is progressing as normal a snapshot such as a thumbnail is displayed to show the user a representation of the media content that is associated with a seek location. In another aspect, the functionality of a transport key is temporarily modified. The temporary modification allows the user to seek to a desired location very accurately and may result in fewer input keys being selected. Moreover, because the modification is temporary a great deal of flexibility is provided.