The invention concerns a method (200) and system (100) for recording multiple programs onto a storage medium. The invention includes the steps of: receiving (210) a plurality of multimedia inputs; sampling (212) the multimedia inputs such that the sampled multimedia inputs contain a portion of the plurality of multimedia inputs; combining (214) the sampled multimedia inputs; and encoding (216) the sampled multimedia inputs such that the number of encoding devices required to encode the sampled multimedia inputs is less than the number of the plurality of multimedia inputs. The invention can also include the step of playing back (220) the sampled multimedia inputs. In one arrangement, the playing back step can further include the steps of: decoding (226) at least one of the encoded sampled multimedia inputs to provide a decoded signal; and processing (228) the decoded signal to enable the display of at least one of the multimedia inputs.