An imaging system and method includes a detector framing node (DFN) being programmable to receive image data from a panel detector, and to store the image data for later transfer of the image data by way of a direct memory access (DMA) transfer. The imaging system and method also includes a DFN control unit configured to control operation of the DFN and to output at least one DMA instruction to the DFN, the at least one DMA instruction corresponding to a dummy DMA instruction that disables a start of a DMA transfer corresponding to execution of the at least one DMA instruction. The imaging system and method further includes an auxiliary image interface being programmable to detect the dummy DMA instruction, to issue a DMA request to the DFN in accordance with the dummy DMA instruction, and to convert data received from the DFN into a different format, to output to a host unit that is capable of processing the data received in the different format.