Of significance to the present invention is a technique disclosed in a U.S. patent application entitled DETECTING SCENE CHANGES ON ENCODED VIDEO SEQUENCES, being filed concurrently herewith in names of Farshid Arman, Arding Hsu, and Ming-Yee Chiu and to a U.S. patent application entitled REPRESENTING CONTENTS OF SINGLE VIDEO SHOT USING RFRAMES and being filed concurrently herewith in the names of