Patent ID: 7676480

Claim:
A method for automatically handling metadata, the method comprising: retrieving from a first storage medium first data having a first format, the first data comprising first metadata, wherein the first format is Material Exchange Format (MXF) and the first metadata are header metadata of an MXF file retrieving from a different second storage medium second data having a different second format, the second data comprising second metadata, wherein the second format is a multilayer format providing storage position for storing linking information pointing to the first metadata; detecting that the retrieved second data has been modified; extracting link information from the retrieved second data; modifying the first metadata referenced by the extracted link information; detecting that the retrieved first data has been modified; extracting link information from the retrieved first data; updating the second metadata referenced by the extracted link information from the first data, wherein the updated second metadata includes modifying a descriptive message and an essence linking message; determining which of the first data or the second data has been modified later; if the first data has been modified later, then retrieving link information from the first metadata, wherein the retrieved link information is a reference to the second data and points to an identifier element in the multilayer format, and updating the second data referenced by the retrieved link information with the modified first metadata; and if the second data have been modified later, then retrieving link information that is a reference to the first data, and updating the first data referenced by the retrieved link information that is a reference to the first data, wherein the link information of the second data comprise first link information being a reference to the first data and second link information being a reference to the first metadata within the first data.