a system , apparatus and method for interactively controlling the rate of real - time video playback and audio track playback is disclosed . a preferred embodiment of the apparatus is an interactive exercise video system which utilizes a bicycle , a bicycle wheel speed detector , an interface unit connected to the wheel speed detector and to a conventional game controller connected to a conventional video game cd player , which is in turn connected to a tv . a prerecorded video cd is played in the player in which the display rate of video images is altered via software embedded on the cd such that the speed of the video is changed by the level of activity on the exercise device . the variation of the video frame rate is accomplished by modifying the duration time stamp on each video frame which is used by the player control program so as to change the sequential time at which each frame is called for display by the conventional video player . the variation of video display rate is independent of the pitch of the audio play rate . to maintain synchronization of the audio with the video without changing the pitch of the audio , portions of the audio are looped back , i . e . replayed .