In accordance with the teachings described herein, systems and methods are provided for scanning a search area of reference pixel data to identify a reference macroblock of pixels with a closest pixel fit to a current macroblock of pixels. An example system may include a local memory array (e.g., a shift register), a processing block and a scan sequencer. The local memory array may include a plurality of rows and columns, with N extra rows or columns in addition to a number of rows or columns necessary to store N reference macroblocks of pixels The processing block may be used to compare reference macroblocks of pixels with the current macroblock of pixels to identify the reference macroblock of pixels with the closest pixel fit to the current macroblock of pixels. The scan sequencer may be used to load reference pixel data into the local memory array and present reference macroblocks of pixels from the local memory array to the processing block according to a scan pattern.