System and method for indexing between trick play and normal play video streams in a video delivery system

A system and method for indexing between video streams in an interactive video delivery system. The interactive video delivery system includes at least one media server which stores video streams having different presentation rates. In one embodiment the system stores a normal play stream and one or more corresponding trick play streams. The trick play video streams are fast forward and/or fast reverse video streams. The system generates index tables or look-up tables between the normal play and trick play video streams which enable indexing between the streams, and uses these look-up tables to switch back and forth between the streams. In creating the index tables, the system first analyzes the normal play stream and creates a normal play time standard based on presentation timestamps from the normal play stream. The system then creates an index table or look-up table for each of the normal play and trick play video streams using the normal play time standard. Each index table includes an array of two-tuples, wherein the two-tuples are the normal play time standard and an index or offset into the respective stream. The index tables enable indexing between the streams. During video delivery, the system uses the respective index tables to switch back and forth between the normal play and trick play video streams.