Multimedia stream processing system

An apparatus for the simultaneous storage and retrieval of multimedia information, comprising:

• a tuner in a multimedia recording device that receives a digital stream;
• a buffering subsystem in the multimedia recording device that, in response to a user selecting the digital stream to view live, as the digital stream is being received by the tuner, places a portion of the digital stream into a buffer;
• at least one storage device;
• a distribution subsystem that simultaneously:
• 1) sends the portion of the digital stream in the buffer to a processing subsystem in the multimedia recording device that processes the digital stream for display and 2) sends the same portion of the digital stream in the buffer to a storage subsystem that writes the digital stream onto the at least one storage device.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for the simultaneous storage and retrieval of multimedia information, which instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

• receiving a digital stream at a multimedia recording device via a tuner;
• in response to a user selecting the digital stream to view live, as the digital stream is being received by the tuner, placing a portion of the digital stream into a buffer;
• simultaneously:
• 1) sending the portion of the digital stream in the buffer for processing by the multimedia recording device for display and 2) storing the same portion of the digital stream in the buffer in at least one storage device.