Methods and apparatuses for decoding a compressed video stream. In one aspect of the invention, a method to decode a variable length encoded bit stream includes: concurrently processing first data obtained from variable length decoding a first code word in a register while variable length decoding a second code word in the register. In one example, processing the first data includes: looking up an inverse zigzag index; computing an Inverse Direct Cosine Transformation (IDCT) coefficient; storing the IDCT coefficient in a buffer in a transposed inverse zigzag order; and branching conditionally based on a condition encountered in variable length decoding the first code word.