1. A method of processing received encoded multimedia data, the method comprising: determining a number of bits available in a first buffer of encoded multimedia data from a received bitstream; if reading a fixed length codeword, reading processor-aligned data from the bitstream into the first buffer, wherein the fixed length codeword comprises the determined available bits and bits associated with a portion of the processor-aligned data; and if reading a variable length codeword, reading processor-unaligned data from the bitstream into the first buffer, wherein the variable length codeword comprises at least some of the available bits.