Some embodiments of the invention provide a method of decoding an encoded video signal that includes a plurality of successive encoded images. The method initially receives an encoded image of the video signal (Fig. 4 “Start”). It then decodes the encoded image (405). The method next examines the decoded image to determine whether the decoded image satisfies at least one criterion for performing a post-filter operation on the decoded image (410). Only if the decoded image satisfies the criterion, the method performs the post-filter operation on the decoded image (415). The criterion in some embodiments is whether the amount of time for applying the post-filter operation exceeds the remaining amount of time that the method has to process the received image.
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