Management of presentation time in a digital media presentation system with variable rate presentation capability

A method for associating time related properties with Temporal Sequence Presentation Data elements in a digital rendering system having a Variable Rate Presentation capability, the method comprising steps of:

• receiving a rate of presentation, and updating a Current Presentation Rate parameter;
• organizing the Temporal Sequence Presentation Data elements into buffers;
• presenting the buffers for presentation rate modification and rendering;
• determining a number of unmodified data elements in each buffer and an Unmodified Rendition Period of each data element, and retaining, as a property of each buffer, an Unmodified Cumulative Rendition Period for the buffer;
• determining and retaining as a property of the buffer, a Data Time;
• presentation rate modifying the data elements in the buffer and storing them in a modified buffer;
• determining and retaining, as a property of a modified buffer, a number of modified data elements in the modified buffer and a Modified Rendition Period of each data element in the modified buffer;
• determining and retaining, as a property of the modified buffer, a Modified Cumulative Rendition Period for the modified buffer;
• determining and retaining, as a property of the modified buffer, a Modified Presentation Time of the modified buffer;
• and
• determining and retaining, as a property of the modified buffer, a Cumulative Modified Data Element Count associated with a first data element in the modified buffer.