The present invention relates to a method for synchronizing packet-based digital data streams. Key idea of the inventive method is to perform a state machine process (S3) with respect to received primary digital data streams (D1-1, D1-2) based on derived time stamp structure data (TSD), thereby synchronization state data (SSD) are generated which are representative for the synchronization state of the received primary digital data streams (D1-1, D1-2).