Abstract: A system and method for generating trick play video streams, such as fast forward and fast reverse video streams, from an MPEG compressed normal play bitstream. The system receives a compressed normal play bitstream and filters the bitstream by extracting and saving only portions of the bitstream. The system preferably extracts I-frames and sequence headers, including all weighting matrices, from the MPEG bitstream and stores this information in a new file. The system then assembles or collates the filtered data into the proper order to generate a single assembled bitstream. The system also ensures that the weighting matrixes properly correspond to the respective I-frames. This produces a bitstream comprised of a plurality of sequence headers and I-frames. This assembled bitstream is MPEG-2 decoded to produce a new video sequence which comprises only one out of every X pictures of the original, uncompressed normal play bitstream.