Patent ID: 7406655

Claim:
A method implemented by an apparatus for processing multimedia content, the method comprising: receiving an audio-visual content stream; receiving segment information describing a plurality of digest segments in the audio-visual content stream, each digest segment representing a continuous temporal portion of the audio-visual content stream, the segment information being separate from the audio-visual content stream and defining each digest segment by a start time and a segment duration; receiving digest segment group information describing alternative digest segment groups, the digest segment group information being separate from the audio-visual content stream and specifying that each alternative digest segment group includes two or more corresponding digest segments from the plurality of digest segments to represent a single stream of highlights concatenating non-contiguous and time ordered portions from the audio-visual content stream, wherein the digest segment group information specifies a respective highlight duration for each alternative digest segment group based on a sum of the segment durations of the corresponding digest segments in the group; storing, in the apparatus, digest information that includes the segment information and the digest segment group information; receiving user input indicating desired highlights from the audio-visual content stream, wherein the desired highlights have a desired duration; and based on the desired duration of the desired highlights indicated in the user input and based on the digest segment group information, generating a digest stream by concatenating non-contiguous and time ordered portions from the audio-visual content stream, wherein the digest stream corresponds to the single stream of highlights represented by one of the alternative digest segment groups.