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Can you attach an iPad pro to a monitor via Lightning?

TomOSeven

TomOSeven

Suspended
Original poster
Jul 4, 2017
571
699
Hi all,

I've seen a bunch of lightning to HDMI adapters on Amazon but the reviews seem fake across the board.

My situation:

I have an iPad Pro 10.5 and I use it to watch Udemy content and some Netflix. I also have a 27" monitor that I would love to use as an external monitor. But of course the 10.5 iPad Pro doesn't have USB-C, so I'd need an adapter. However, the monitor doesn't have speakers, so I would still have to use the iPad's internal speakers for the audio side.

Can that be done?

Thanks lads!
 
The official Apple HDMI adapter works excellently in my experience. I am confident the VGA one would be just as good.

I’ve investigated the sound aspects of this. Once you plus your iOS device into an HDMI adapter you can no longer send the sound to the in-built speakers. You can, however, send it to another output. So, if you had a Bluetooth sound bar underneath your monitor you could send the audio there.
 
Last edited:
there is app allows you to use your ipad as secondary screen, but the new iPadOS will has the same function built-in
 
danmart said:
The official Apple HDMI adapter works excellently in my experience. I am confident the VGA one would be just as good.

I’ve investigated the sound aspects of this. Once you plus your iOS device into an HDMI adapter you can no longer send the sound to the in-built speakers. You can, however, send it to another output. So, if you had a Bluetooth sound bar underneath your monitor you could send the audio there.
Click to expand...

re: the sound output to Bluetooth - I connected my 2018 12.9 Pro to a monitor using HDMI and the new USB-C dongle from Apple. The monitor has no sound capability so I gave Bluetooth headphones a try and couldn't get any sound from the iPad through them. Other than pairing, am I missing something in the setup to get sound through them in this configuration? The monitor does have an audio out port and I can get sound from there to wired headphones but I was interested in the Bluetooth connection possibility.
 
TomOSeven said:
Hi all,

I've seen a bunch of lightning to HDMI adapters on Amazon but the reviews seem fake across the board.

My situation:

I have an iPad Pro 10.5 and I use it to watch Udemy content and some Netflix. I also have a 27" monitor that I would love to use as an external monitor. But of course the 10.5 iPad Pro doesn't have USB-C, so I'd need an adapter. However, the monitor doesn't have speakers, so I would still have to use the iPad's internal speakers for the audio side.

Can that be done?

Thanks lads!
Click to expand...
The Apple Lightning to HDMI adapter will work but picture quality suffers from compression artifacts and I believe the adapter doesn’t output true 1080p video.
https://panic.com/blog/the-lightning-digital-av-adapter-surprise
 
sparksd said:
I believe that the Apple adapter has been updated and this has been corrected.
Click to expand...
I can’t find any indication that there’s ever been a change to this adapter. Lightning cannot natively output HDMI video so there’s always going to be processing of the signal.
Edit: there are two different part numbers for these adapters, but no details of any changes, so who knows what’s different.
 
chrfr said:
I can’t find any indication that there’s ever been a change to this adapter. Lightning cannot natively output HDMI video so there’s always going to be processing of the signal.
Edit: there are two different part numbers for these adapters, but no details of any changes, so who knows what’s different.
Click to expand...

I was thinking about the wrong dongle getting updated - the card reader dongle was updated.
 
sparksd said:
Other than pairing, am I missing something in the setup to get sound through them in this configuration?
Click to expand...
Did you select the head phones as the audio output option? I just connected my AirPods to my iPhone so that audio was directed there, plugged in the Apple HDMI dongle and it all worked - visuals to screen, audio to AirPods.
 
danmart said:
Did you select the head phones as the audio output option? I just connected my AirPods to my iPhone so that audio was directed there, plugged in the Apple HDMI dongle and it all worked - visuals to screen, audio to AirPods.
Click to expand...

Using the iPad (2018 12.9 Pro, 12.4.1), I connect the headphones via Bluetooth and check that they receive audio. I plug in the Apple HDMI dongle and audio automatically switches to the HDMI device.
 
I was using a Lightning connector on my iPhone as the OP was asking about Lightning.

I’ve checked with my 2018 Pro and this adapter. Playing video content, initially both picture and audio were sent to the TV via HDMI. I selected my AirPods as the audio target using the AirPlay control and it worked fine. So, in this case I had to select the audio target last.
 
sparksd said:
Using the iPad (2018 12.9 Pro, 12.4.1), I connect the headphones via Bluetooth and check that they receive audio. I plug in the Apple HDMI dongle and audio automatically switches to the HDMI device.
Click to expand...

OK, I found the audio output switch in the Music box in the Control Center pull-down. There I could choose either HDMI or my Bluetooth headphones. As I was using video out via HDMI, I didn't think to look at the Music menu.
 
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