Forward and backward reproduction of a signal from stream data

A data stream contains segments with reproducible signal data that has been encoded with a variable length encoding scheme. Each segment also contains first and second information about the length of the signal data in the segment, stored at predetermined relative positions with respect to the start and end of the signal data in the particular segment. During replay access locations are computed for accessing a next succeeding or preceding segment adjacent to a particular segment when a forward and backward direction of replay are selected respectively. The access location is computed from the first information from the particular segment or the second information from the adjacent segment that precedes the particular segment, dependent on whether the forward or backward direction is selected respectively.