[manteiv]

I am upgrading my K110D and these 2 cameras are on my final list for my budget but I am still unclear about the video output:

- Pentax K-x
- Nikon D5000

the K-x does not have an HDMI port but can you connect it to a hi-def TV and play the HD videos via the USB port? does it have a AV components port? for those who has the K-x, can you check please.

the D5000 has the hdmi output

[rawr]

The K-x has component video output, not HDMI, via the mini-USB plug on the side of the camera. This can be used to drive a external hi-def TV and play HD videos straight out of the camera, or for example, drive a small external control monitor when doing video. Pentax has a couple of cables you can use to connect the camera to external AV devices like TV's and external monitors.

FWIW, the D5000 and the K-x seem to share the same 12MP Sony CMOS sensor, so they have a lot in common under the hood. In terms of video capabilities or still image quality, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart.

[manteiv]

The K-x has component video output, not HDMI, via the mini-USB plug on the side of the camera. This can be used to drive a external hi-def TV and play HD videos straight out of the camera, or for example, drive a small external control monitor when doing video. Pentax has a couple of cables you can use to connect the camera to external AV devices like TV's and external monitors.

FWIW, the D5000 and the K-x seem to share the same 12MP Sony CMOS sensor, so they have a lot in common under the hood. In terms of video capabilities or still image quality, you'd be hard pressed to tell them apart.

does the USB/component cable come with the camera? does it output sound as well?

I was reading an article at DPreview site that the AV port will only output video at standard resolution. To play HD video, you must offload to a computer. Can anyone confirm that please?

Edit:
Confirmed: scroll down to item no.4. AV output only in standard resolution.

http://www.pentax.jp/english/news/2009/200918.html

so either I get the D5000 now or wait for Pentax to release the K-x2 with the hdmi port

[pxpaulx]

plugging your camera directly into the TV sounds about as sensible as downloading your images from your camera to your computer via the USB, and not taking out the SD card and plugging it directly into your computer. For instance, how long do you intend to leave videos on your SD card before you eventually transfer them to a computer? from there you could rip a DVD, transfer to USB (if you have a DVD/home theatre with a USB port for media, which many have), use a media extender through windows to an xbox or PS3, or a dedicated media extender. I'm not really knocking this feature, because it can be handy (I find the composite output to be reasonable for occasional one-off viewing myself) but there are alot of other options out there.

[manteiv]

I was thinking of the following work around:

- transfer the HD videos from the K-x to an external hard drive
- plug the hard drive to my PlayStation 3 and play it on my HD tv

anyone knows if the PS3 can play right away the HD video from the K-x

what video format does the K-x generate anyway?

[pxpaulx]

I think it is motion jpeg, don't really know but thought I read that somewhere (it is a more uncompressed file format, definitely not the h264 or whatever it is).

I can give some video a try tonight if I have the time on my ps3 (will try streaming and direct playback through a hard drive)...if you wouldn't mind sending me a PM so that I get an email reminder for later that would help me remember as well!

Edit: the official list of the PS3 supported video formats include:

Motion JPEG (Linear PCM)
Motion JPEG (μ-Law)

official list here...

http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/video/filetypes.html

Hopefully it works, that would be great then you could just plug in a card reader or harddrive!

[pxpaulx]

Some good news!

I managed to network my computer and PS3 after getting home from work this afternoon.

The K-x video files are recognized by the PS3, and playback works just fine - you would therefore be able to play files directly from an SD card, hard drive, usb drive or in my case I transferred the files from my PC to the PS3 through my home network.

The only downside is that the video wouldnt stream directly (was choppy), but this is likely only due to network speed (and the fact that motionJPEG, the video format, is pretty much uncompressed and therefore a large amt of data) - once downloaded, the file played completely normal without any pauses or breaks in video or audio.

It looked pretty good on my 720p projector/92" screen setup!

[manteiv]

thanks pxpaulx for trying this out, that gives me some comfort

therefore I will likely get the K-x over the Nikon d5000,

the K-x is slightly less expensive too

[WerTicus]

and your lenses will work on it already

[pxpaulx]

yeah, no crippled mount with Pentax - I think it is the right choice, and cheaper to boot.

I am actually really glad I did this for you, I'd been meaning to network my PC and PS3 for a long time! being able to watch/transfer video from my Kx on it now is icing on the cake, I was happy to see the file format supported.