A video processing system. In a specific embodiment, the system implements a system for processing macroblocks that includes a first module for processing a macroblock. A controller provides a first macroblock to the first module and provides a second macroblock to the first module, without waiting for the first module to complete processing of the first macroblock, when information is available to the first module to process the second macroblock. The first module may implement a pipelined processor that is adapted to process macroblocks simultaneously. Alternatively, the first module includes a first engine and a second engine, which may run in parallel as parallel engines. In a more specific embodiment, an entire image frame is treated as a single slice and processed by the system via a pipelined engines or parallel engines.