The Droid Bionic has an HDMI output port, and a Motorola rep explained that it will mirror games and stored videos on a big screen, but not play video from apps like Netflix, Hulu or Blockbuster.

Motorola Droid Bionic and Cliq 2: Hands On | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

ah come on... I really hope these guys are wrong. What does a guy have to do ta get sling box to work threw hdmi out...

The issue here is processing power.

To stream the HD signal to your phone is one thing...but to render it on the fly and then simultaneously mirror to a screen while still downloading and parsing the streaming file for the phone, requires a tremendous amount of processing power and we just are not there yet.

That being said...I would not doubt if someone designs a program that can achieve this on the next gen of phones...but the end quality of the picture and the playback will likely be severely compromised.

To give you a real world comparison ... when I build the PC components for my auto-stereoscopic 3D HDTVs (no annoying glasses) that receives and converts the video stream to the proper output for that particular screen (based on screen dimensions and the distance of the viewer to the screen). We typically need 3GHz+ processor and at least 4Gigs of RAM.

I am sure when the Quad Cores come out and SSD tech starts making its way into our phones...you will see this become a reality.

Too bad we can't just send it to the other screen instead of mirroring it. It would probably take less processing power.

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk

Good tip....This could be a deal breaker for me. If my next purchase has to last me 2 years, the ability to pump netflix or hulu into an HDMI out (maybe watch my show on the hotel room tv recorded on my slingbox) is a something I will wait for.

Of course, easy to say when my NE2 is 8 months away and my contract isn't up for another 12 months.

The other issue I forgot to mention is the GPU. With PCs needing a separate and powerful GPU to truly put out an accurate 1080HD signal also requires a fairly sizable amount of crunching ability. So we need to add that part to the puzzle too.

hmmm

I don't think we are that far off. If they could just put out a 720p picture that would befine. Thre Real Hdmi app was able to display hd video out of their current droids. Not sure if they were able to use slingbox. With the new dualcores coming out it's close. If a motorola cable box can take the signal and output it to my hd tv in 720p/1080i, it's just a matter of time before the droids can. I'm not sure rendering is needed but more decoding. I know the ps3 can do this now with netflix. It uses vc-1 files with mp4 compression. The max file size is, 6mps. The slingbox uses mp4 just like the droid phones. What variartion I'm not sure. I work with final cut pro all the time so I know how much of a pain the ass rendering can be. I hope your wrong but your probably right.

I need to find if anyone was able to stream even SD video from their slingbox to a tv with realhdmi....

Well it looks like real hdmi can do it. It was put back on the market as I'm sure a lot of you know. Only works for the droid x, but hopefully we can get a version for the new droids bionic, exct... and then we can be on to something. As for only being able to display on one screen... I guess you can't have anything...

Good thing the new droids or some of them anyways are using nivida chips. They got that GPU thing down pretty good.

@Blackcharger06

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. With your background with video editing...you probably know what I mean when I say that there is HD...then there is Real HD. And I am not referring to a technology...but actual quality.

Unfortunately...there is a lot of misinformation out there and people think just because they have a 1080p screen with 50,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 360Mhz that it must be better than everything out before, and side by side will always win. But this is not true..A top of the line 3 year old Pioneer Elite Plasma Screen (with only 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio and only 120MHz and it will still beat just about every LCD/LED sold at Best Buy today.

Then there is the signal and the data file size. A full blown feature movie in on BluRay takes anywhere form 15 to 50 Gigs of space. To get that same quality on a video output to your tv while you stream via your phone...you will need to stream that same amount of data, and then process it for the display. And it is going to get worse. Right now I believe a 3D BluRay movie needs between 45 and 250 gigs.

Having said all that...you will see why just because Moto claims a phone can put out 720pHD or 1080pHD out via HDMI...that I call BS.

We are in the process of building a network of 3DHD tvs that will be installed in retail locations and other venues around the country. And even when we have our dedicated NOC...we still will need to push the data to a central server at each location that then passes the data to each other unit at that location. Just too much data to pass through live. And this will be a technology and network built to actually do what we are discussing. With the knowledge of how difficult this is when it is our core business and we designed our tech and network around it...there is no way the mobile world can do it competitively.

Again...that does not mean they will not find an acceptable (to the avg consumer) work around by compromising the video and data quality.

I get what your saying. I didn't mean to send a blu ray quality file of 50-35mps threw your phone. I don't own a 3d tv so no worries there. I just want that 6mps mp4 file that slingbox is sending to my phone to display an exceptable picture to a 19 inch lcd tv. I do multi camera sporting events for a public access station and being able to catch "the game" during the breaks would be a cool feature. Also with verizon fios we are able to watch the feeds of neighboring towns so in effect we could for example cover a sporting event for the boys, and then check in to see how the girls are doing... Asking for the picture to look just as good as a blu ray player on a pioneer ellite tv is a little much

good luck with the 3dhd with out the glasses. I just can see my friends and I going to a bar and wearing goggles to see the tv. Maybe to make the girls look better

You all are boiling it down to hardware and it was my understanding that it has to do with digital rights or lack thereof. Similar to the reason we have to get hulu plus on any device other than a real computer or stream netflix from the ipad out to a tv. I believe engadget did an article on it some months ago. I think there is a jailbreak hack around it. This is why Netflix hasn't brought an app to android yet because they are concerned about people finding a way to copy the content since android at the moment has a lack of DRM security.

Makes total sense...I think what you are asking is probably going to be a reality by the end of the year.

What I am not sure of is how it would look for all the people who are so excited to hook their droids up to there 1080p HDTVs to play games and watch streaming movies/tv/sports expecting the picture to be like it is when watching their Cable or BluRay. But with things moving as fast as they are these days...it will happen sooner or later.

Streaming is pretty intensive for the phone, but if you have a file on the memory card you should be able to get a pretty decent picture. I know I get some pretty high quality rips with rip bot off of blu rays. It's not true blu ray but after watching sd all these years a compromise between the two will work for me for now...

That's all I care about. Honestly, I don't get the obsession over streaming. In fact, I hate the fact it's so difficult to get any sort of digital copy legally period, because if I'm on the train or an airplane that's when I would watch something on my D1 or a computer.

But with internet speeds what they are, you can d/l something pretty quickly. With LTE you'd be able to d/l an hour long program pretty quickly.

streaming...

If you want to watch a movie on the train or on an airplane you can rent them at the station/airport, or you can download them threw aps on the phone. The obsession with streaming is wanting to watch things live on tv. I have no intrest in watching a football game 2 days after it happened. Most of the time I am in a remote location while at work and I hear of sporting events second hand, or with updates of what hapend an hour ago. Getting an update every 30 seconds on yahoo or whatever just isn't the same as watching an event live.

Not sure what the problem would be.
I can perfectly steam to HDMI, as long as the internal playback engine is used (Gallery).

I just tried it on my DX using one of my streaming trailers, tapped the HDMI icon and voila on tv while streaming.

Games take up more resources, so why wouldn't video work?

I am also wondering why the streaming would not work from say hulu or netflix through the HDMI? I can record on the DX 720p video, and play it back through the tv. Doesn't seem to choke the phone at all. Granted, it's far more compressed than bluray... but there is no benefit to watching bluray on a phone or tablet anyway. Being able to watch a 1080p rip of bluray in a more compressed format should be possible via the HDMI tho. With dual-core processors, much faster gpu, more ram, I can't see why it wouldn't be possible.

cmon people it is a phone not a high def cable box streaming family vids in hdmi or things stored on sdcard would be perfect. but trying to stream netflix or hulu to a tv is getting out of hand. i mean in the point of going to a motel how many tv's in a motel actually have a high def plug? in the car how many portables have a hdmi plug? just be happy with the portability you are asking for way to much.

Agree Jason. The only reason at all I can think of trying to stream a movie over HDMI out is exactly as you said..if you went say on vacation and the TV was LCD with HDMI input, but didn't want to pay the $20 a minute to watch a movie hotels charge you . But even then.. you're on vacation.. go out! lol. I think the bonus of HDMI out is to do what you said.. watch videos you shot, or copied, to share with others when you're not at home. I can't imagine buying a device like this to be my main video output device for movies, streaming netflix etc. You can buy $50 dvd players with netflix built in, most consoles now have it, and almost all tvs and blurays are now coming with it. If you got an old tv..its a moot point.

To be fair, when I got my wife the Droid X instead of Droid 2, it was specifically the HDMI out that sold me on it (well..the screen size too). I've used it once, only to see it work. It's not that big a deal to me, just a nice to have if/when needed.

probably not many motels, but a lot of decent hotels )) have LCD tv's that should have HDMI ports (although I'm sure they're cheaper models, have never looked to see what can be hooked up)

My main reason is I want to stream a slingbox to my hotel tv, although I'd usually have my computer so it would be a non-issue I suppose. The caveat being you sometimes pay thru the nose for hotel internet and that's where the smartphone comes into play.

motel/hotel tomato/tomato still means same thing and i spend a good portion in them. and unless you are in vip rooms you get an old tubestyle tv lol. as far as internet tether your phone to laptop wont have to use pricey inet

and just because it is lcd it dont mean it is hdmi hdmi is what 2 years old not everyone is gonna replace their tv's as soon as new tech is released that would defeat their purpose

is hulu and netflix even fully hd? i got netflix and it isnt fully hdmi certain vids are tho