The limitation is due to TI OMAP 3 SOC, which only has S-video out for second output. The N8 runs a low clocked TI OMAP 2 SOC, and then adds in a Broadcom Mutimedia chip instead of using the SOC gpu, this is because Symbian can run well on low performance processors. A TI OMAP 3 with a Broadcom would have cost more, probably used more battery and other possible problems performance problems in the driver area, which wouldn't effect Symbian By the time the N9 was being designed for production, Meego was killed by Elop, So doing all the work to make a phone with a TI OMAP 4, which does have HDMI, instead of using OMAP 3, which had been used in both the n900 and n950(which would have been released in 2010) didn't make sense. I think most of us would prefer that the n9 uses OMAP 3 to OMAP 2 plus broadcom. I could care less about outputing HD video, as opposed to a high performance CPU. I mean the n800 and n810 were OMAP 2, with I think an Epson GPU, the broadcom is much better GPU, but I would still take a OMAP 3 over OMAP 2 and broadcom for my uses(cpu, not gpu intensive). The best would have been OMAP 4, but this was unlikely once Meego was slated to be killed.