An apparatus for content indexing uses processing parameters that become available while processing multimedia content. One embodiment of this processing includes compression. A video processor receives multimedia content and generates processed multimedia content. A system for content analysis receives processing parameters from the video processor, where the processing parameters are separate from the processed multimedia content and are generated as a result of processing the multimedia content. The system for content analysis generates content descriptors representative for the multimedia content, responsively to the processing parameters generated during or while processing, e.g., encoding or decoding, the multimedia content.