Abstract: The invention allows a personal video recorder to store and selectively play a broadcast program whose scenes are tagged with content codes. The personal video recorder utilizes user preferences, derived from user inputs. When a program is broadcast and stored on hard disks in compressed form, simultaneously an associated file is generated and stored. This file characterizes individual scenes in accordance with the respective tagged codes, derived from VBI data, code blocks in a digital transmission, etc. The file includes data from which the starting and ending points of individual scenes can be determined, with the ending point of a scene being conveniently determined by the broadcast receipt of the start of the next scene with a new tagged code. The system consults user preferences and the previously generated file during play of a stored program to determine scenes to be skipped and the starting point of any scene that is to follow a scene that is to be skipped.