1. A video decoding system for receiving a digital bitstream and for decoding the digital bitstream, the system comprising: a video decoder for decoding the digital bitstream to generate a plurality of pictures, each picture being associated with a flag for indicating whether or not the picture is to be reduced in size to picture data prior to being stored; means for converting one or more pictures to picture data; memory comprising a plurality of buffers, the picture being stored in a buffer as the picture data when the associated flag is armed, and the picture being stored in two or more buffers without size reduction when the associated flag is unarmed; and recovery means for recovering the pictures from the picture data and for providing the pictures to the video decoder for use during decoding of the digital bitstream.