Patent ID: 7640560

Claim:
A system, comprising: a first station for: receiving a broadcast programming signal; generating, concurrently with receiving the broadcast programming signal, a plurality of first time stamps according to a first time reference; indexing a plurality of locations in the broadcast programming signal using the plurality of first time stamps; storing, in a memory buffer, the broadcast programming signal and the plurality of first time stamps; receiving, from a second station, a plurality of marking signals, each of the marking signals comprising: one or more of a plurality of second time stamps, the plurality of second time stamps being generated according to a second time reference and referencing the plurality of locations in the broadcast programming signal, the one or more of the plurality of second time stamps identifying one of a plurality of segments in the broadcast programming signal; and information on the one of the plurality of the segments in the broadcast programming signal; receiving a selection of one of the marking signals; synchronizing the one or more of the plurality of second time stamps in the one of the marking signals to one or more of the plurality of first time stamps based on a difference between the first time reference and the second time reference; determining the segment in the broadcast programming signal identified by the one or more of the plurality of second time stamps in the one of the marking signals by comparing the synchronized second time stamps with the plurality of the first time stamps; and processing the segment in the broadcast programming signal based on the information in the one of the marking signals; and the second station that is different than the first station for: receiving the broadcast programming signal; generating the plurality of marking signals; and transmitting the plurality of marking signals to the first station.