110 includes video input module 300 and video processing module 350 video input module 300 includes receiver 302 processor 304 and buffer 306 receiver 362 receives a live video signal and forwards the live video signal to processor 304 processor 304 converts the received video signal into a video signal having a common video data format the formatted video signal is then forwarded to buffer 306 for transfer to video processing module 350 in alternate embodiments of the invention video input module 300 may include an ancillary data extractor for removing ancillary data from a live video signal video processing module 350 includes input multiplexer 352 pipeline 354 and output multiplexer 356 as discussed above in regard to the embodiments shown in fig2 video processing module 350 pre processes the formatted video signal and or a stored video signal and routes the pre processed video signal to for example a buffer not shown accessible to video graphics workstation 100 video processing module 350 may have two pre processing pipelines in addition the pre processed video signal may be forwarded to video graphics processor 130 video output system 140 and or storage medium 120 the common video data format may be an organized bit stream as noted above a frame is a single complete image an image in turn is composed of a raster of picture elements referred to as.