1. A system for printing time-based media data, the system comprising: a user interface for receiving user input, the user input specifying a multimedia function to perform on the time-based media and specifying a distribution of processing power for carrying out the specified multimedia function, wherein carrying out the specified multimedia function includes selecting a range of the time-based media; a printer, communicatively coupled to the user interface, the printer adapted to perform a first amount of processing satisfying the distribution of processing power indicated by the received user input, and to output an instruction to perform a second amount of processing satisfying the distribution of processing power indicated by the received user input; and a processing device adapted to receive the instruction from the printer and perform the second amount of processing in response to the instruction from the printer.