Method and apparatus to improve video processing in a computer system or the like

A video conferencing system comprising:

• a graphics subsystem including a display;
• a bus;
• a processor subsystem coupled to said bus;
• a video subsystem coupled directly to said graphics subsystem by a first communication path and coupled to said bus by a second communication path, said video subsystem adapted to generated first and second fields of at least one frame of video data, said video subsystem adapted to transmit said first field of video data to said graphics subsystem for display via said first communication path and said second field of video data to said processor subsystem via said bus;
• and
• a modem coupled to said bus and adapted to receive compressed video data from said processor subsystem, said modem adapted to transmit said compressed video data to a remote user.

A method of processing video data comprising:

• generating a first field of at least one frame of video image data in a video subsystem;
• transmitting said first field of video image data directly from said video subsystem to a graphics subsystem via a first communication path;
• generating a second field of said at least one frame of video image data in a video subsystem;
• and
• transmitting said second field of video image data to a bus coupled to said video subsystem via a second communcation path.