Audiovisual system which uses metadata to allow user-initiated jumps from point to point within multiple audiovisual streams

An audiovisual system which receives audiovisual data and which stores for later playback at least a portion of the audiovisual data, the stored portion of the audiovisual data comprising a plurality of stored programs, each stored program comprising a plurality of program locations, each program location representing a starting point of a program segment of one of the plurality of stored programs, the audiovisual system connectable to a user display which provides to a user information regarding the program segments of the stored portion of the audiovisual data, the audiovisual system comprising:

• a storage device to store the portion of the audiovisual data and to play back the stored portion of the audiovisual data;
• a grid generator to configure for the user display the information regarding the program segments of the stored portion of the audiovisual data, the information derived from metadata corresponding to the program segments of the stored portion of the audiovisual data, the information provided to the user via the user display in grid format with a plurality of grid elements arranged as a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns, the plurality of grid elements representing a first plurality of respective program segments of a first stored program and a second plurality of respective program segments of a second stored program, each grid element independently selectable in response to a user input;
• and
• a program selector to select a grid element that represents a selected program segment of the stored portion of the audiovisual data in response to the user input, the selected program segment selected based on the information derived from the metadata, whereby the audiovisual system selectively plays back selected program segments of the stored portion of the audiovisual data, thereby enabling a user to jump to and play back selected program segments of the plurality of programs.

A method of playing back selected portions of stored audiovisual data stored on a storage device, the method comprising:

• providing stored audiovisual data corresponding to a plurality of programs, each program comprising a plurality of program locations, each program location representing a starting point of a program segment of one of the plurality of programs;
• creating metadata in response to a control input for marking the program segments, the metadata comprising information regarding the program segments of the stored audiovisual data;
• displaying to a user the information regarding the program segments of the stored audiovisual data in a mosaic representation, wherein the mosaic representation comprises a plurality of cells representing a first plurality of respective stored program segments of a first stored program and a second plurality of respective stored program segments of a second stored program, the plurality of cells comprising images extracted from the respective stored program segments;
• receiving a user input indicating a selected program segment of one of the plurality of programs, the selected program segment selected based on the information of the metadata;
• and
• playing back the selected program segment of the stored audiovisual data, thereby jumping to and playing back selected program segments of the plurality of programs based on the metadata.