1. A printer for printing time-based media, the printer comprising: a media processing system embedded within the printer for generating an electronic representation of the time-based media; an electronic output system for producing a document on a media from the electronic representation of the time-based media; a housing for supporting an interface for transferring the time-based media between the printer and an external processing system, and for supporting the electronic output system in communication with the media processing system to receive the electronic representation; a resource allocation module embedded within the printer for determining processing allocation for one or more tasks among the printer and the external processing system; and a task policy manager for determining whether the printer will interact with the external processing system as a master processor or as a slave processor to process the one or more tasks, the determination based on a policy stored in association with the one or more tasks.