2. The method of claim 1 , wherein converting the multimedia data signal comprises: identifying an event in the multimedia data signal; and selectively converting the multimedia data signal based on the event.
1. A method of storing and searching multimedia data, the method comprising: receiving a multimedia data signal having content that progresses based on a timing; converting the multimedia data signal into a searchable format; identifying a set of features in the searchable format and outputting the set of features as content index data; determining a set of confidence values for the set of features in the searchable format that estimates the accuracy of the set of features in the searchable format as a function of the timing of the multimedia data signal and outputting the confidence values as confidence index data; linking the content index data and the confidence index data with the multimedia data signal as a function of the timing of the multimedia data signal; storing the content index data and the confidence index data into a database that is indexed based on the set of features and the confidence values; receiving, from a requestor, a query that specifies a set of temporal parameters and content parameters; parsing the query into a set of sub-queries; selecting respective search engines for each of the sub-queries, wherein the set of the sub-queries comprises at least two sub-queries, wherein the at least two sub-queries are transmitted to at least two different search engines based on confidence index data among the stored confidence index data which corresponds to the specified set of at least the content parameters; receiving, in response to the transmitted at least two sub-queries, results from the at least two different search engines; and transmitting the received results to the requestor, wherein the converting the multimedia data signal into the searchable format comprises: receiving at least one of the set of confidence values for a previous portion of the multimedia data signal; and adjusting the conversion of a current portion of the multimedia data signal based on the received at least one set of confidence values, wherein the adjusting the conversion of the current portion of the multimedia data signal comprises: comparing the at least one set of confidence values to a threshold; and adjusting the conversion of the current portion of the multimedia data signal based on the comparison of the at least one set of confidence values to the threshold.