Encoding guard band data for transmission via a communications interface utilizing transition-minimized differential signaling (TMDS) coding

The present disclosure is related to a hardware component for communications over a multimedia communication interface. In one embodiment, a hardware component includes a disparity circuit that stores a disparity value. The disparity value indicates the disparity between the number of "1"s and the number of "0"s previously transmitted by the hardware component. The hardware component also includes circuitry for receiving multimedia data to be scrambled, encoded and transmitted by the hardware component. In one embodiment, the multimedia data includes video data and data island data. In one embodiment, the hardware component generates transition minimized intermediate codes based on values in the guard band data included within the video data and data island data. The hardware component generates encoded guard band codes that are transition minimized as well as direct current balanced. The hardware component transmits the encoded guard band codes over a differential pair of the multimedia communication device.