We have never been more empowered at the workplace or in school until the birth of smart devices. With the offering of a variety of applications, they have become an indispensable part of many people’s lives.
From calling loved ones, checking emails, connecting with friends on social networking sites, updating them with photos, getting organized with things-to-do-today, preparing for grocery shopping, engaging with some fun games, and also connecting your iPhone to a smart TV.
In this article, we will be discussing how to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV in a seamless way because the iPhone and iPad are great media players, but sometimes you want to see your video on a big screen.
The easiest way to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV is to use a cable like Apple’s Digital AV Adapter that connects your Apple device to the HDMI port on your TV. You will also need a standard HDMI cable (any type will do). So just buy the cheapest you can find.
There are two models of digital AV adapters for iOS devices. Make sure you choose the correct version. Both cost $ 49 but serve very different purposes. The Lightning Digital AV adapter (see illustration) connects your iPhone, iPad, or iPod to an HDMI television, monitor, or projector. The Lightning to VGA adapter does the same but instead connects to VGA-compatible devices.
Connect your iPhone or iPad and your TV set with the cable and switch the TV input to the connection with the cable. Also, plug the USB end of your Lightning cable into the adapter and the other end into a power outlet. He needs juice to play. Your TV becomes a duplicate of the connected device’s screen in HD 1080p.
Now you can play your iTunes videos, Netflix movies, or whatever you want on your TV. Many third-party Lightning-to-HDMI cables are available for sale on Amazon.
Look for “Lightning to HDMI” for an example. They’re from companies you’ve never heard of, with names like Mostop, Innens, Ticino, and RayCue, to name a few. This Lightning-to-HDMI cable costs less than $ 20.
One big caveat with these third-party cables: if you want to watch video streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, HBO, or on-demand videos from providers like Comcast Xfinity and DirecTV, most of the time cables between them won’t work. They don’t have HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection), which prevents hackers from capturing high-resolution digital content for their own use. HBO Now has a good introduction to HDCP support.
Connect with a DLNA App
If you have an Internet-enabled TV, it likely supports DLNA, a generic form of media streaming available on products from many manufacturers. You can stream unprotected music and video files with the right app. In other words, the files that you saved in iTunes and copied to your iPhone; Due to DRM (Digital Rights Management) restrictions, it will not work with music and videos purchased from the iTunes Store.
However, you can not only stream media from iPhone. The right app will look at media stored on other devices like your PC and act as an intermediary, for example, to set up streaming from PC to TV.
Devices that you can stream include not only televisions but also game consoles and PCs. You don’t have to convert videos or install special codecs for this to work.
Arkuda Digital’s MCPlayer HD is available from Amazon. A free lite version limits playback to five videos per folder.
If your TV doesn’t show up in the app, you may need to enable the DLNA function. Go to the internet connection menu on the TV and look for an option to stream from a PC or home server. It’s DLNA.
Sunshine is another option. Apple users can install any version of the app on any device, so you can easily share non-DRM media between them. It also helps you stream media to the TV (but it is not mirrored so there are no video streaming apps.
Maybe you don’t want an annoying cable between your iPhone and TV. The easiest way to connect wirelessly is to use Apple’s Airplay feature, which allows you to mirror your iPhone or iPad over Apple TV or televisions that support Airplay 2.
Once you’ve set up an Apple TV, make sure it’s connected to the same home Wi-Fi network as your iPhone or iPad. Swipe up from the bottom of your iPhone or iPad screen to launch Control Center, tap Airplay Mirroring, then select your Apple TV. Your Apple TV mirrors everything on your device’s screen. (You can also just use Airplay to stream media from iPhone to TV, such as music or videos you bought from iTunes.
Apple has finally opened its streaming platform and announced that some smart TVs will support Airplay 2 streaming.
Vendors who want to support this include LG (2019 models), Samsung (2018 and
2019 models), and Sony (2019 models), and Vizio (2017, 2018, and 2019 models).
While you probably won’t buy a new TV just to stream a few YouTube videos, keep
this in mind when shopping for your next big screen.
A warning about this method: in very congested Wi-Fi environments, the Airplay video can be interrupted or stutter. In this case, use a cable. But it should be fine for most homes.
There are darker and more hacked ways to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV. For example, you can purchase an Android TV stick, plug it into the back of your TV, install the Kodi Media Server app (formerly known as XBMC), and use the stick to play music and unprotected videos from the -in apps on your Device with the Airplay button.
Screen mirroring or protected video streaming is not supported.
Based on their rating, this approach is generally a nightmare. Sticks are slow, buggy, and unreliable, and Kodi’s support tends to break. This is definitely a way to save money on an Apple TV (and the stick can run any Android app on your TV, which is cool).
Google Chromecast or Chromecast Ultra. Each is a simple, inexpensive dongle that easily plugs into a TV’s HDMI port. The Ultra supports 4K and Ethernet connections. Your iPhone screen cannot be mirrored to the TV screen in a Chromecast. However, for video streaming, there is an option to browse media streaming apps supported by Chromecast using your iPhone. Your iPhone becomes a remote control for Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and others (but not for Apple or Amazon Chromecast).
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