Needing to record some app demo videos, I had to find a solution to get video output adapter for my Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 offers a couple of different options: Miracast via Wifi and HDMI via SlimPort (USB). For my needs, the SlimPort option made the most sense.

After browsing a few different SlimPort options, I went with SlimPort® SP1002 which seemed to be a popular choice. Having had some time to try the adapter with a number of different output devices, it definitely works as advertised. I was able to successfully connect the Nexus 4 to an old 720P TV as well as newer 1080 monitors and TV's and the picture quality was excellent as expected. External power is not needed to use the adapter but a nice feature of this adapter is that it allows you to plug in a microUSB cable to it so that the Nexus 4 can charge while the adapter is plugged in.

However, one significant downside to be aware of is that by default you will not be able to record anything from the device... whether or not the source material is copy protected or not. By default, the Nexus 4 and/or SlimPort adapter appear to have HDCP enabled at all times which prevents them from working with capture cards. One side effect of the way this (doesn't) work is that you will see no error messages of any kind, just a blank input video from your capture card. I'm investigating a work around but the net result is that if you're planning on using HDMI out with a stock Nexus 4 (and presumably with the Nexus 10 as well as future Nexus devices if not Android devices in general), think again as the direction they are going appears to be broken by design which should make for some interesting challenges for those attempting to do screencasts.

My specific capture card issue aside, the SlimPort HDMI solution works well and I recommend it if all you want to do is watch video and not record it.