A method for extracting a fingerprint data from video/audio signals, comprising the steps of sending a series of video frame images into a fingerprint extractor; extracting a fingerprint data through the fingerprint extractor; and storing the fingerprint data into a fingerprint database, characterized in that, in the fingerprint extractor, said method further comprises the sub-steps of storing the video frame images in a frame buffer which accepts a new video frame image and discards the oldest video frame image in a first in first out (FIFO) fashion; sampling the video images by a sub-sampler which operates on one video frame image at a time, so that the output of the sub-sampler contains data samples obtained from multiple video frame images while the video image content itself is discarded, and after each video frame image is sampled at the head of the frame buffer, it is discarded after the sampling; making the data samples to go through a divider which divides the data samples into groups of video frames so as to be organized as one fingerprint segment after another one; incorporating optional information by a formatter to the fingerprint segment so as to form the fingerprint data, at the output of the formatter, the video image content is discarded, only the fingerprint data and the associated optional information remain; and transferring the fingerprint data and the associated optional information by a transfer buffer to the fingerprint database. According to the present invention, the method for extracting a fingerprint data from video/audio signals facilitates the automatic identification, archiving and search of video content without the need for human visual inspections.