Help with HD video digital encoding/compression

[ironring1]

Hi, all. I need to learn about encoding high definition video digital encoding and compression for a project that I am working on. Ultimately, I need to read a 1080p (for now 25 frames/second, but eventually would like to get up to 50 or 60 fps) video signal from a camera, digitize it and compress it so that I can send the signal up a transmission line. I might be able to get a digital signal straight from the camera (SDI, I think), so I might be able to omit the digitizing step, but I still will need to compress the signal before sending it along the transmission line. From what I understand, this means that I will need to use something like MPEG-2 TS compression or H.264, but I have never worked with those directly. I am somewhat space-restricted, so it looks like off-the-shelf hardware is out of the question, and I think that I will need to employ a custom microcontroller/DSP on my PCB. I want to start down the right path (or close to it) the first time around! Any advice on how to proceed or where to go to find the right technical resources would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
-IronRing1

[k-ww]

I would look at the spec sheets for existing video compression chips - they often have good descriptions of how their algorithms work. Some of the analog devices chips have very good technical descriptions of their internal operations.