Systems, methods, and computer program products are described to determine and present proper decoding information to ensure correct decoding in digital video recording applications, and in other applications. For example, decoding and display of certain video units in a compressed bitstream may require the correct header information corresponding to the video unit to be also presented to a decoder along with the video unit. Since, however, the location of the corresponding header information in the compressed bitstream may not be adjacent to the video unit, the described header locating systems, methods, and computer program products may be used not only to index the header information in a bitstream, but also to determine when and what header information needs to be presented to the decoder.