In a blog radio interview with a Motorola developer, when asked about how the Droid X’s HDMI-out could be used, the following answer was given by the Moto dev:

"The only time that we are enabling the HDMI driver on the device is when you are in the gallery mode. [...] The HDMI driver is not active any time outside the gallery"

As Android users are aware, gallery is the native photo and recorded video viewing application on Android devices. The mechanism of controlling the HDMI-out on the Droid X remains unknown, but for the time being it appears that, without root, the Droid X’s HDMI out is extremely limited in its usefulness.

This has also apparently been confirmed in a number of reviews of the device, citing the Droid X’s manual that ships with the phone.

There has been considerable outrage over on the XDA forums because of this apparently lacking “feature,” given that HDMI-out had been a major selling point of the device. While an eventual workaround in the form of rooting (and possibly unlocking) will likely provide users more HDMI functionality in the future, many people are uncomfortable tinkering with their devices in a way that may void the warranty; and who can blame them?

Thoughts on Motorola’s slightly deceptive marketing? Give a shout-out below!

Credit: MotoDev on BlogTalkRadio via XDA Forums