1. An adaptive transcoder, comprising: a shared memory containing a channel instance configured to provide instructions and memory for translating a plurality of incoming data packets from a first format to a second format; and a data processing element configured to provide the data processing for translating the plurality of incoming data packets from the first format to the second format, wherein the channel instance includes: a decoder FIFO buffer configured to store the plurality of incoming data packets, and to provide FIFO data indicating how many packets are contained in the FIFO buffer and FIFO data indicators of the status of the FIFO Buffer; a decoder instance configured to control a decoding process from the first format to generate a plurality of image raw data based on the plurality of incoming data packets; and an encoder instance configured to control an encoding process to generate a plurality of outgoing packets in the second format based on the image raw data; wherein the data processing element includes: a plurality of processing cores, each configured to perform the decoding process based on the decoder instance, or the encoding process based on the encoder instance; and a core controller is configured to assign the decoder an instance one of the plurality of processing cores; wherein the FIFO data indicators include: a warning indicator indicating whether the FIFO buffer has reached a first threshold of stored packets; an alert indicator indicating whether the FIFO buffer has reached a second threshold of stored packets, the second threshold being greater than the first threshold; and a critical alert indicator indicating whether the FIFO buffer has reached a third threshold of stored packets, the third threshold being greater than the second threshold.