A transmitting device for communicating via a multimedia communication link includes link layer circuitry to receive video data and to compress the video data into compressed video data. The transmitting device also includes a compression information circuit that generates video compression control information describing compression of the video data. The transmitting device further includes an interface that transmits signals corresponding to the compressed video data via one or more multimedia channels of the multimedia communication link and to transmit signals corresponding to the video compression control information via the multimedia communication link.