It is shocking and bizarre Sony's Alpha cameras cannot output 25p over HDMI.

When the camera is in PAL mode and the internal recording is set to 1080p25 the HDMI is always either 1080p50 or 1080i50.

However if the camera is in 24p more then 1080p24 is possibe!

This, as far as I (and my of my peers and colleageus) am concerned is totally nonsensical.

I'd love to have a really meaningful response (not some sort of vague Customer Service "oh that's just the way it is") from Sony as to exactly why this is the case. Is it some sort of strange hardware limitation? Could it be fixed with a firmware update? Will new forthcoming Alpha cameras also have this hinderance? Why do Sony not feel this is important?

Surely it goes without saying that the HDMI output is commonly used not just for monitoring, but also for recording to external recorders. As such, one needs to be able to record the same base frame rate as the internal recording (and even if only recording externally, 25p needs to be supported as it's one of the main international standards!).

1080p selected as the HDMI output.

25p internal selected (HD 1080p25).

But, as reported by a Sony LMD-A170 (for example) the signal is actually 1080p50!