Neo V HDMI output does not work

[jaakl]

I have a HDMI display device which does not support HDCP. It is a HDMI video recorder (BlackMagic), so it makes sense that it does not support HDCP encrypted info. It works fine with all the other LG and Samsung Android devices with HDMI output, but now I connect Xperia Neo V to it and it tells "screen is turned of or does not support HDCP". I purchased the device specifically to be able to record screen casts of the mobile apps I have developed.

Question: can I disable HDCP signal encryption? I've connected the Neo V with TV and I can see that the image quality is quite poor there (definetely worse than 720p as it should be), so I see no real point in HDCP protection. I did not see any specification or reference in manuals that the device is compatible with HDCP HDMI only.

[Johan]

There is no official settings that you can adjust for this in the phone. To manage this I think that you will have to at least have root access or use another ROM which gives you the option to adjust this.

I do not suggest that you gain root access or unlock your boot loader if you're not an experienced developer.

[jaakl]

I'm developer and I have unlocked (and relocked) Android devices successfully before, so I considered also custom ROM-s. But there are many ways how this can fail also, especially:

a) random custom ROM has no HDMI support at all, as HDMI is non-common, maybe even non-standard/vendor-specific extension: At least in 3 devices where it works the UI is totally different.

b) I assume HDCP is normally implemented in hardware, so even if custom ROM works with HDMI then signal would still be automatically encrypted.

Of course I could be wrong on these assumptions.

My current solution was to return the phone to the shop and I was lucky that they took it and refunded.