The invention relates to a device and to a method for processing data packets of a data stream, in which the received data packets are processed in real-time by a first unit and only data packets that are received error-free are processed by a second unit. Data packets that are faulty or not received are requested repeatedly and routed to the second unit upon error-free receipt. A data sink initially receives only the data packets processed by the first unit. Once the second unit and first unit are processing identical data packets nearly simultaneously, only the data packets processed by the second unit are routed to the data sink. The invention can be used advantageously in video coding, for example with a video-on-demand service or image analysis within the framework of a surveillance system.