A computing device comprising: a processing system having a secure boundary with a graphics processing unit including a secure decoder module operable via the processing system and including a parser module and a lossy extractor, the decoder module configured to: receive a request from an application running on the processing system for slice header information of a data stream including a plurality of packets, each of which contains respective slice headers and data comprising protected video content to set up the graphics processing unit for the data stream, wherein the graphics processing unit renders the video content; invoke the parser module to: parse each slice header to identify pertinent and non-pertinent portions of the respective slice header, wherein a portion is deemed pertinent if it is sufficient to perform operations corresponding to the request; invoke the lossy extractor to: form a partial header from each slice header by decoding and extracting the identified pertinent portion of each slice header and one or more of the identified non-pertinent portion of each slice header to discard at least some of the non-pertinent data to make the extraction lossy, wherein said formed partial headers are sufficient for the application to perform the set-up of the graphics processing unit for the data stream, while not enabling reconstruction of each full slice header; and generate a response to the request configured to include the partial headers for communication to the application. a processing system having a secure boundary with a graphics processing unit including a secure decoder module operable via the processing system and including a parser module and a lossy extractor, the decoder module configured to: receive a request from an application running on the processing system for slice header information of a data stream including a plurality of packets, each of which contains respective slice headers and data comprising protected video content to set up the graphics processing unit for the data stream, wherein the graphics processing unit renders the video content; invoke the parser module to: parse each slice header to identify pertinent and non-pertinent portions of the respective slice header, wherein a portion is deemed pertinent if it is sufficient to perform operations corresponding to the request; invoke the lossy extractor to: form a partial header from each slice header by decoding and extracting the identified pertinent portion of each slice header and one or more of the identified non-pertinent portion of each slice header to discard at least some of the non-pertinent data to make the extraction lossy, wherein said formed partial headers are sufficient for the application to perform the set-up of the graphics processing unit for the data stream, while not enabling reconstruction of each full slice header; and generate a response to the request configured to include the partial headers for communication to the application. receive a request from an application running on the processing system for slice header information of a data stream including a plurality of packets, each of which contains respective slice headers and data comprising protected video content to set up the graphics processing unit for the data stream, wherein the graphics processing unit renders the video content; invoke the parser module to: parse each slice header to identify pertinent and non-pertinent portions of the respective slice header, wherein a portion is deemed pertinent if it is sufficient to perform operations corresponding to the request; invoke the lossy extractor to: form a partial header from each slice header by decoding and extracting the identified pertinent portion of each slice header and one or more of the identified non-pertinent portion of each slice header to discard at least some of the non-pertinent data to make the extraction lossy, wherein said formed partial headers are sufficient for the application to perform the set-up of the graphics processing unit for the data stream, while not enabling reconstruction of each full slice header; and generate a response to the request configured to include the partial headers for communication to the application. parse each slice header to identify pertinent and non-pertinent portions of the respective slice header, wherein a portion is deemed pertinent if it is sufficient to perform operations corresponding to the request; invoke the lossy extractor to: form a partial header from each slice header by decoding and extracting the identified pertinent portion of each slice header and one or more of the identified non-pertinent portion of each slice header to discard at least some of the non-pertinent data to make the extraction lossy, wherein said formed partial headers are sufficient for the application to perform the set-up of the graphics processing unit for the data stream, while not enabling reconstruction of each full slice header; and generate a response to the request configured to include the partial headers for communication to the application. form a partial header from each slice header by decoding and extracting the identified pertinent portion of each slice header and one or more of the identified non-pertinent portion of each slice header to discard at least some of the non-pertinent data to make the extraction lossy, wherein said formed partial headers are sufficient for the application to perform the set-up of the graphics processing unit for the data stream, while not enabling reconstruction of each full slice header; and generate a response to the request configured to include the partial headers for communication to the application.