If you have always missed watching your photos and videos or playing your favorite iOS games on big screen, you must be put out of your misery now. Yes, there’s a solution and all you need to know is how to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV and you’ll be good to go. Well, if you’re looking to hook up your Apple device to your TV, there are several options available for both streaming and mirroring your device to big screen. And, despite the reasonable screens of Apple devices, it is sometimes better to have the videos and photos played on big TV screen. So, let’s get on with the options available to connect your iPhone/iPad to TV.
Jump To Section:
- How To Connect Your iPhone Or iPad To Your TV With Lightning Digital AV Adapter
- How To Connect Your iPhone/iPad To TV With VGA Adapter
- How To Connect iPhone/iPad To TV Using AirPlay?
- How To Connect iPhone/iPad To TV Through Mirroring?
- How To Connect Your iPhone Or iPad To Your TV Through Composite AV Cable From Apple
- How To Connect iPhone/iPad Wirelessly Without Apple TV Through Chromecast
How To Connect Your iPhone Or iPad To Your TV With Lightning Digital AV Adapter
The simplest of all options available is probably buying Lightning Digital AV adapter and connect your iPhone/iPad to TV using it. It’s available at Apple Store and can be bought anytime from anywhere. However, the option may not be the cheapest of all as you’ll be spending somewhere around $60-$70 as you won’t just be buying the AV adapter but also the HDMI cable. A cheaper alternative, however, would be to buy HDMI cable separately from Amazon rather than Apple.
The little box comes with HDMI port which can be used for plugging in your TV, output Lightning connector to plug into the iPhone/iPad and an input Lightning port that allows you to charge the iPad/iPhone simultaneously.
- Plug the HDMI cable in HDMI port of the adapter from one end while the other end should be plugged into the HDMI port at back side of the TV that has to be connected
- Next, connect adapter to Lightning port present on the iPhone/iPad you’re connecting
- As an optional step, you can connect the charger cable for your iPhone/iPad to Lightning port of Lightning AV Adapter.
Now you can turn your TV on and make sure that it is set to show you video input coming from HDMI socket. Generally the remote is used for picking from several HMI inputs your TV is getting. And, once you have chosen the right HDMI input, the Home Screen of your iPhone/iPad will show on your TV. You may have a boxed shape with low quality appearing on the TV screen but that shouldn’t be a concern as that’s only for Home Screen. As you’ll browser further, things will definitely improve.
Next, you can start playing your videos on iPhone/iPad. You can either go for movie file available in your device’s Videos app or you can also choose to play some clip on BBC iPlayer, Netflix, YouTube, etc. Home Screen of your device will then vanish from TV and your video will start playing in its full definition. As far as your iPhone/iPad is concern, the screen on either of the devices will show a message saying TV Connected.
Next, you can bring up Control Centre, swipe to the left and then select Video Output for enabling particular content from the iPhone that you want to send to the TV. It’s pretty much the same as you do with AirPlay TV.
How To Connect Your iPhone/iPad To TV With VGA Adapter
If you choose to use the Lightning-to-VGA adapter from Apple, you can easily hook up your iPhone/iPad to a TV that features VGA input, monitor of your computer system, a projector or any other display which offers support for VGA.
That’s a great option for monitors. You can find many of the newer monitor models that offer support for several display sources. In fact, you can even switch displays by choosing to use your monitor or your iPad as display anytime.
If you want to watch through your TV, HDMI adapter would be the best solution. However, if you want to use your computer monitor or projector as display, your first choice should be to use VGA adapter. The steps for connecting the two with iPhone/iPad are the same as described above.
How To Connect iPhone/iPad To TV Using AirPlay?
Another option you have for viewing your iPhone/iPad content on TV is through Apple TV on which you can stream your videos through AirPlay.
- Play your desired video on iPhone/iPad. (It could be through YouTube, Safari, Videos App, etc.)
- Swipe upwards from bottom of your device’s screen for revealing Control Centre. (You may be required to swipe upwards a couple of times)
- Swipe left for going to second page where you can choose Apple TV
- Now, tap outside Control Centre for removing it and then tap Play for continuing watching your movie
- Search the icon of AirPlay in apps
Some apps like TED Videos and BBC iPlayer have an AirPlay icon built into them. So, when you play your video, you can tap on AirPlay icon after which you can select Apple TV and start streaming the video.
How To Connect iPhone/iPad To TV Through Mirroring?
Sometimes, as it happens, you are unable to stream videos from the web or an app on TV. AirPlay support is determined by the developers and it may not be there because the developer chose otherwise. For instance, you can’t stream your ITV Player with AirPlay option because it’s not supported.
If that’s the problem you are facing, you can simply work it around through Mirroring. When you go for the mirroring alternative, it is possible for you to streaming the entire screen of your iOS device – including Home screen as well as everything that appears on it – on your TV. You can do so by:
- Swiping up and revealing Control Centre
- Choosing the AirPlay option for bringing up AirPlay menu
- Selecting the Apple TV option
In order to view your videos and photos from iPhone/iPad on TV, do the following:
- Launch Photos app
- Select Share button
- Select photos that you have to show on display simply by tapping on them until you can see blue-colored circle having white arrow
- Select AirPlay in pop-up menu which shows up
- Select Apple TV
The selected photos will now show up on the TV individually. For moving between your photos, just swipe right or left as you like. It is also possible, however, to set the photos to show up in slideshow automatically. For that, follow the steps below:
- Launch Photos app
- Select Share button
- Select photos that you have to show on display simply by tapping on them until you can see blue-colored circle having white arrow
- Tap Slideshow
- In Slideshow options menu select Apple TV
- Tap Transitions for customizing your slideshow and choose appropriate Transition options
- If you want to play some music with the slideshow, you can swipe Slider button that appears towards right side and see if it becomes green.
- Select the desired Music option and go with the tunes that you want to play as the slideshow progresses
- Tap Slideshow now so that the slideshow starts on the connected TV
If you want to play some music from your iPhone on TV, do the following:
- Select the track, playlist or album that you want to play
- Swipe up for revealing Control Centre
- Select AirPlay
- Select the Apple TV option
Your favorite music will now play through TV. Enjoy listening!
How To Connect Your iPhone Or iPad To Your TV Through Composite AV Cable From Apple
In case you have an older iPhone/iPad model that features 30-pin connector – if it’s iPhone 4s or an earlier mode, or an iPad from first 3 generations then it will have this type of connector; iPhone 5 and later models, iPad 4 and later models, all iPad Air models and the iPad Minis and iPad Pros come with Lightning instead – then Composite AV Cable from Apple would be your best bet.
It works just the same way as your Lightning Digital AV Adapter and the only difference is that you will have to use composite video input option on TV rather than the HDMI port. Besides, you also have to ensure that the videos that you want to watch on your TV are in SD instead of HD.
How To Connect iPhone/iPad Wirelessly Without Apple TV Through Chromecast
In case, if you do not want to use Apple TV in the process and still want to use your iPhone/iPad on TV without having to involve too many wires, you can use the Chromecast option from Google as your alternative. It’s relatively easy to set up and requires you to configure Chromecast on your iPad and hook it into the Wi-Fi network you use normally. As soon as things are set up, the screen of your iPad can be casted to your TV. However, this option will only work if the app you’re using offers support for Chromecast.
Believe it or not, it’s a major limiting factor in comparison to using Apple TV: Support for Chromecast must be there in the app as compared to AirPlay option of Apple TV that works fine with just about any app you can name.
You may be wondering that why you should be using Chromecast then? Well, probably it does one thing better i.e. Chromecast is quite cheaper alternative to Apple TV. Besides, it works with iOS devices as well as Android devices alike and if you also have some Android smartphone but you use Apple’s tablet then Chromecast gives you the option to connect both your devices to TV. Furthermore, for Android devices, Chromecast offers Display Mirroring feature same as Apple TV too.
So, if you didn’t know how to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV then you’ve probably got your answers now. You have all the varied options to try and you can go with one that suits you best. It is, however, advised that you go with the most viable and practical solution for your specific situation and not just pick one at random. Just connect your iPhone/iPad to your TV now and get back to us through comments section below if you have any problems whatsoever along the way.
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