A method for dynamic voltage/frequency scaling, DVFS, for video processing, the method comprising: parsing, at a decoder, a bitstream associated with a video to determine embedded information associated with a complexity of a first portion of the video, wherein the embedded information comprise a number of non-zero macroblocks, a number of intra-coded macroblocks, a number of half-pel interpolations, and a number of alpha point de-blocking instances; estimating, at the decoder, the complexity of the first portion of the video using the number of non-zero macroblocks, the number of intra-coded macroblocks, the number of half-pel interpolations, and the number of alpha point de-blocking instances; determining, at the decoder, a voltage and frequency to be used for decoding the first portion of the video based on the estimated complexity; and decoding, at the decoder, the first portion of the video at the determined voltage and frequency, wherein the complexity is estimated according to the following equation: C = k init n MB + k bit n bit + k nz n nz + k intra n intra + k half n half + k α n α where C is the estimated complexity, n MB is a number of total macroblocks in the first portion of the video, n bit is a number of bits in the first portion of the video, n nz is the number of non-zero macroblocks in the first portion of the video, n intra is the number of intra coded macroblocks in the first portion of the video, n half is the number of half-pel interpolations in the first portion of the video, n α is the number of alpha-point deblocking instances in the first portion of the video, and constants k init, k bit, k nz, k intra, k half, and k α are unit complexity constants for performing macroblock initialization, one bit parsing, non-zero block transform and quantization, intra block prediction, inter-block half-pel interpolation, and deblock alpha points filtering, respectively. parsing, at a decoder, a bitstream associated with a video to determine embedded information associated with a complexity of a first portion of the video, wherein the embedded information comprise a number of non-zero macroblocks, a number of intra-coded macroblocks, a number of half-pel interpolations, and a number of alpha point de-blocking instances; estimating, at the decoder, the complexity of the first portion of the video using the number of non-zero macroblocks, the number of intra-coded macroblocks, the number of half-pel interpolations, and the number of alpha point de-blocking instances; determining, at the decoder, a voltage and frequency to be used for decoding the first portion of the video based on the estimated complexity; and decoding, at the decoder, the first portion of the video at the determined voltage and frequency, wherein the complexity is estimated according to the following equation: C = k init n MB + k bit n bit + k nz n nz + k intra n intra + k half n half + k α n α where C is the estimated complexity, n MB is a number of total macroblocks in the first portion of the video, n bit is a number of bits in the first portion of the video, n nz is the number of non-zero macroblocks in the first portion of the video, n intra is the number of intra coded macroblocks in the first portion of the video, n half is the number of half-pel interpolations in the first portion of the video, n α is the number of alpha-point deblocking instances in the first portion of the video, and constants k init, k bit, k nz, k intra, k half, and k α are unit complexity constants for performing macroblock initialization, one bit parsing, non-zero block transform and quantization, intra block prediction, inter-block half-pel interpolation, and deblock alpha points filtering, respectively.