Patent ID: 7730047

Claim:
A method of generating metadata relating to media content comprising: receiving the media content from a recording device and storing the media content in a media content queue of a computer said media content queue comprising a first in first out memory; decoding the media content in the media content queue via a processor of the computer; selecting a first one of a plurality of analysis objects to analyze media content; analyzing the decoded media content with the first selected analysis object to generate first metadata relating to said media content, wherein said analyzing is managed by an extensible analysis object having an application programming interface interfacing with the plurality of analysis objects, and wherein the plurality of analysis objects are plug-ins analyzing the media content via the application programming interface of the extensible analysis object, wherein each of the plurality of plug-ins adds analysis functionality to the extensible analysis object; analyzing the media content with a second one of the plurality of analysis objects to generate second metadata, wherein the first metadata and the second metadata are provided to the extensible analysis object for storing in a metadata queue of the computer; storing the first and second metadata in the metadata queue of the computer; encoding the decoded media content from the media content queue via the processor of the computer; generating a table of contents corresponding to the metadata stored in the metadata queue; storing the first and second metadata stored in the metadata queue, the table of contents, and the encoded media content as a media file on a computer readable storage medium associated with the computer.