Patent ID: 7792806

Claim:
A method for determining the capabilities of a media system, the method comprising: processing a multimedia stream in the media system at a first rate, the multimedia system comprising a plurality of functional objects including a media source, a transform, and a media sink, the first rate corresponding to a first mode in a set of modes including a reverse skip mode, a reverse key frame mode, a reverse full mode, a forward full mode, a forward key frame mode, or a forward skip mode; while the multimedia stream is being processed at the first rate, receiving a request to process the multimedia stream at a second rate, the second rate corresponding to a second mode in the set of modes that is different than the first mode; querying each functional objects in the media system to determine a functional limit of each functional objects for a maximum playback rate of the multimedia stream in the second mode; and determining whether the multimedia system supports playback of the multimedia stream at the second rate by comparing the second rate to the maximum playback rate returned by each functional object such that if the second rate is below the maximum playback rate returned by each functional object, the multimedia system commences playback of the multimedia stream at the second rate, whereas if the second rate exceeds the maximum playback rate returned by each functional object, the multimedia system continues playback of the multimedia stream at the first rate.