Patent ID: 8660999

Claim:
A method of encoding media content and metadata of the media content, the method comprising: generating a scale indicator by a scale indicator generator, which indicates a value of a data area of the metadata, the value of the data area corresponding to a range and interval from among different possible ranges and intervals; and determining, by a data area determiner, data areas in the metadata based on the generated scale indicator; aligning the media content, by a first media content processor, according to the value of the data area, when information indicated in the data area is location information about the media content; and encoding the media content and metadata, by the first media content processor, according to the aligned media content and the scale indicator, wherein the metadata includes a field of the scale indicator and a field of the data area, and wherein each of the field of the scale indicator and the field of the data area has a variable length, and a sum of the length of the field of the scale indicator and the length the field of the data area remains fixed within the length of the metadata.