Aspects of a method and system for processing video data are disclosed and may include detecting, within a single chip in a programmable surveillance video camera, one or more moving objects in a raw video signal generated by the programmable surveillance video camera. One or more characteristics of the detected one or more objects may be extracted within the single chip in the programmable surveillance video camera. The extraction may be based on the raw video signal and may be performed prior to compression of the raw video data. The characteristics of the detected one or more objects may include shape, texture, color, motion presence, motion direction, sequence name, location, links, and/or alarm type. One or more textual representations of at least one of the characteristics of the detected one or more objects may be generated within the single chip in the programmable surveillance video camera.