In a recording medium on which is recorded a multiplexed stream including a plurality of first packets (V_main) constituting a first I-picture in a first video stream and a plurality of second packets (V_sub) constituting a second I-picture in a second video stream, information for identifying the first I-picture and information for identifying the second I-picture are recorded on the medium. A recording medium can thereby be obtained that enables the rapid detection, from a small amount of information, of a particular picture included in a stream such as a TS in which multiple content streams are multiplexed.

A media-content augmentation system includes a database with a multiplicity of media files and associated metadata. Each media file is mapped to at least one contextual theme defined by beginning and end timings. A processing system couples to the database; and an input couples to the processing system. The input is in the form of temporally-varying events data. The processing system resolves the input into one or more categorized contextual themes, correlates the themes with metadata associated with selected media files relevant to the themes, and then splices or fades together selected media files to reflect the events as the input varies with time, thus generating as an output, a media product in which transitions between media are aligned with the temporally-varying events. The database may contain sections of digital media files. A method aligns sections in digital media files with temporally-varying events data to compose a media product.

Systems and methods for switching between multiple video sources output to output a video stream via a single physical output are disclosed. An example method can include decoding a first encoded video file and populating a memory with corresponding first decoded video data. The process can include decoding a second encoded video file and populating the memory with corresponding second decoded video data at a particular location of the memory. The process can include causing a video player to read from the memory so as to output a video stream, via the single physical output, corresponding to the first decoded video data, and then causing the video player to switch to read from the particular location of the memory such that the video stream switches to corresponding to the second decoded video data.

In a recording medium on which is recorded a multiplexed stream including a plurality of first packets (V_main) constituting a first I-picture in a first video stream and a plurality of second packets (V_sub) constituting a second I-picture in a second video stream, information for identifying the first I-picture and information for identifying the second I-picture are recorded on the medium. A recording medium can thereby be obtained that enables the rapid detection, from a small amount of information, of a particular picture included in a stream such as a TS in which multiple content streams are multiplexed.

A magnetic tape head module read element array includes servo readers and read elements configured in accordance with a tape standard. Each read element includes a plurality of read sensors. A microprocessor receives the generation of the tape technology standard and identifies, based on the generation, a combination of read sensors in each read element. Data signals from each read sensor in each combination are buffered. The microprocessor performs error detection and error correction operations on the buffered signal data for each combination of read sensors to generate verified track data in accordance with the generation of tape.

An embodiments of a contextual sound apparatus may include a sound identifier to identify a sound, a context identifier to identify a context, and an action identifier communicatively coupled to the sound identifier and the context identifier to identify an action based on the identified sound and the identified context. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

A media device and methods that identify playback states reachable from a current content playback state and identify a reachable state that is likely to occur, are disclosed. A memory associated with the media device may receive frames that enable a smooth transition between the playback state and the reachable state. The media device may receive frames that correspond to points in the content that are separated by an amount of time that is proportional to the playback rate of the likely state. The frames may be frames corresponding to an image that may be played back at the playback rate of the likely state.

A method for reading and writing frame images having variable frame rates and a system therefor are provided. The system provides a video processing system that includes a write end and a read end for accessing a single buffer block. In the method performed in the video processing system, when the read end starts to read an image frame, the read end is controlled to not read data from the buffer block until the data written by the write end to the buffer block reaches a progress threshold; and when it is determined that a portion of the data in the buffer block not yet read by the read end will be overwritten by the data written by the write end, the writing process is terminated until the read end finishes reading the data in the portion in the buffer block.

A device and method process graphics to be overlayed over video for three-dimensional display. The video includes a series of video frames updated at a video rate, including main video frames and additional video frames. A first buffer buffers a first part of the overlay information to be overlayed over the main video frames. A second buffer buffers a second part of the overlay information to be overlayed over the additional video frames. For each video frame, the first part of the overlay information or the second part of the overlay information is copied to a frame-accurate area copier. The first part of the overlay information or the second part of the overlay information is output according to whether a current video frame is a main video frame or an additional video frame. The first part of the overlay information and the second part of the overlay information are updated at an overlay rate. The overlay rate is different than the video rate.

A device is disclosed. The device includes a plurality of ports to receive a plurality of audio streams, an audio content control unit configured to modify playback length of an audio content of at least one of the plurality of audio streams according to an input time interval, an audio decoder and a memory buffer coupled to the audio decoder and the audio content control unit. The memory buffer is used by the audio content control unit to buffer at least one of the plurality of audio streams.