How to connect an iPhone or iPad to a TV in simple steps

If you need to know how to connect your iPhone or iPad to a TV, you are in the right place. Below we explain everything you need to know about how to connect an Apple device to a television or television.

In this way you can reflect or transmit content from the small screen of the iPhone to the big screen of the television.

This procedure is as easy to carry out as useful. Although Apple devices have incredible screens (especially the ultra-large 12.9-inch iPad Pro), it’s often more convenient to play videos and photos on a large screen instead of having to group around an iPhone or iPad.

That is why, we are going to explain how to connect your mobile to a TV.

Contents

Option 1. Lightning Digital Connector Adapter to AV

Probably the easiest way to connect an iPad or iPhone to a TV is through a Lightning Digital AV Adapter from an Apple store.

At your price (€ 59), you will have to add the price of an HDMI cable that you will also need. Apple sells HDMI cables for € 34.95, but Amazon offers much cheaper options: from € 6.49.

This small tool contains an HDMI port that you can connect to a TV, as well as a Lightning output that gives you the option to charge your iPad or iPhone at the same time.

Using a Lightning Digital AV adapter can not be easier:

Connect one end of the HDMI cable to the adapter and the other end to an HDMI output of your television (usually located in the back).
Connect the adapter to the Lightning port of your iPad or iPhone.
Optional: Connect the cable to charge the phone to the Lightning port on your Digital AV Adapter.

Turn on the TV and set it to show the video from HDMI (usually done through the remote control). You will see the main screen of your iPhone or iPad on the TV.

Maybe the quality is pretty bad. Do not worry, this is only like that when it is displayed on the main page. The quality will improve in a matter of seconds.

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Start playing a video on your iPad or iPhone. You can choose a movie from the Video application or choose a series of Netflix, YouTube or any other application to play video.

When you play, you will watch the video on television in high definition. On the iPad or iPhone you will see a screen that says Connected TV.

Now go to the ‘Control Center’, slide to the left and choose ‘Video Output’ to enable specific content from your iPhone to your TV, as we will explain below.

Keep reading to discover more ways to connect an iPhone to a TV.

Air Play

Another way to enjoy the content of your iPhone or iPad on your TV is to use Apple TV and watch streaming videos through AirPlay. (There are models of Apple TV from € 159 to € 219 that you can buy at Apple ).

To do this, connect the Apple TV to your television with an HDMI cable, and then connect the Apple TV to your wireless network.

Choose the appropriate settings for your TV so that the Apple TV menu screen appears on the TV screen.

Also make sure that your smartphone or tablet is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Apple TV.

Play a video (using the Video app, YouTube, Safari, etc.).
Swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up the ‘Control Center’. On an iPad with iOS 11 you will have to continue sliding until recent apps appear and the control center (on the right).
In iOS 11, you have to touch on the ‘Screen Mirroring’ option , then select ‘Apple TV’ . In iOS 10 select ‘AirPlay’, and then ‘Apple TV’. You may have to swipe left to access the second page.
Tap outside the ‘Control Center’ to exit and touch ‘Play’ to continue watching the movie.
Look for the ‘AirPlay’ icon in your applications.

Some applications such as TED Videos have their own AirPlay icon. While playing the video, tap on the AirPlay icon and choose Apple TV to start watching the streaming video .

Option 2. How to mirror

Sometimes you can not stream a video from an application or website on the TV. AirPlay compatibility is not suitable for everything.

In this case, you will be interested in using the mirroring option . In this way you can ‘reflect’ everything that happens on your iPad or iPhone screen on the TV screen. This is another way to connect your iPhone to a TV.

You simply have to scroll up to show the ‘Control Center’, select the option of ‘AirPlay’ and then ‘AppleTV’.

How to watch videos and photos of your iPhone or iPad on your TV

To see photos and videos of your iPhone or iPad on your TV:

Open the ‘Photos’ application and select the ‘Share’ button . Choose the photos you want to see by touching each of them until a blue circle with a white arrow appears.
Now select ‘AirPlay’ from the pop-up menu that will appear and choose ‘Apple TV’. Your photos will be seen on your TV. To change the photo that appears, simply slide to the left or to the right.

How to play a photo slideshow

You can also set your photos to appear automatically as a slide show. For it:

Re-open the ‘Share’ menu , choose the photos you want to see (as in the previous step), but this time touch on ‘Slide show’ .
You can see a menu with different options. Choose ‘Apple TV’ again. Tap on ‘Transitions’ to customize the look of your slide show.
If you want to accompany the presentation with music, slide to the right. Then select the ‘Music’ option and choose the songs you would like to play while advancing the slide show.
To finish you just have to touch on ‘Slide show’ to start playing it on your TV.

To play music stored on your iPhone, choose the song, album or playlist you want to listen to, slide up to show the control center again, select ‘AirPlay’ and then ‘Apple TV’.

Your favorite songs will be played through your TV.

Apple Composite AV cable

If you have an old iPhone or iPad with a 30-pin connector, the Apple Composite AV cable is your best choice. You can buy it at the Apple Store or at Amazon for € 25.34.

If it’s an iPhone 4s or earlier, or one of the first three generations of iPad, it will have a 30-pin connector.

The iPhone 5 and later, the iPad 4 and later, all the mini iPad Air and iPad models and the iPad Mini have Lightning, so if you have one of these Apple items you will not have to worry about the Composite AV cable.

It works similar to the Lightning Digital to AV Connector Adapter, except that you will need to use the composite video input on your TV instead of the HDMI input.

Make sure the videos you want to watch are SD instead of HD.

These are the different ways to connect your iPhone to a TV. And now … enjoy all the content of your iPhone on the comfortable and large screen of your TV!

Also Read: How to play iPhone music in the car