Guides

How to cast IPTV from iPhone to a TV

Use what your TV speaks: AirPlay for Apple TV and AirPlay TVs, Google Cast for Chromecast and Google TV, or DLNA, which many LG, Samsung and Sony TVs answer. The iPhone and the TV need to be on the same Wi-Fi, and your player app has to support the one you pick.

Which kind of TV do you have?

• AirPlay: Apple TV, and many recent smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony and others with AirPlay built in. Look for AirPlay in the TV's settings. iPhone speaks AirPlay itself.
• Google Cast: Chromecast, Google TV and Android TV sets, and TVs labelled Chromecast built-in. iPhone has no system-wide Cast button, so the app you're watching in has to support it.
• DLNA: an older home-network standard, sometimes called a media renderer or UPnP, that many smart TVs still answer, including plenty of LG, Samsung and Sony models. The app has to support this one too.

Many TVs speak more than one. Any of them will do; if one misbehaves, try another.

Screen Mirroring or casting?

Screen Mirroring, in Control Center, copies your whole iPhone screen to an AirPlay TV. It works with any app, but the phone has to stay on that app, and everything on the screen, notifications included, shows up on the TV.

Casting hands the video itself to the TV. The TV shows it full screen at the stream's own quality, and the phone becomes a remote. When your app supports it, it's the better choice.

Casting from Vela

1. Put the iPhone and the TV on the same Wi-Fi network. Avoid a guest network: those often keep devices from seeing each other.
2. Start playing a channel, film or episode.
3. Tap the TV button at the top of the player (Play On) and pick your TV. Apple TV and AirPlay TVs, Google Cast TVs and DLNA TVs all appear in the list.
4. The first time, iOS asks whether Vela may find devices on your local network. Allow it: that's how Vela finds TVs, and nothing about your network leaves the iPhone.

While the TV plays, the phone is the remote: pause, seek, change channel, set the TV's volume, or bring the picture back to the phone. Casting is in every Vela plan; it isn't part of Vela Pro.

“Keep Vela open while casting this title”

Usually a Google Cast or DLNA TV is given the stream's address and fetches it from your provider itself, and the card says “The TV is fetching the stream itself.” Some streams can't be fetched that way, for instance when the provider only answers the device that first asked, or when the TV can't follow the way the stream is served. Then Vela passes the stream on through your iPhone, and the card says so: “Google Cast, through this iPhone. Keep Vela open while casting this title.”

In that case, leave Vela open until you're done. iOS suspends an app soon after you leave it, and the TV would lose the picture, so Vela keeps the screen awake while it passes the stream on. Nothing is converted or stored on the way.

Two more things worth knowing:

• A TV that fetches the stream itself is given its address, and IPTV addresses often carry your login. Vela says so in the TV list. When the iPhone passes the stream on, the TV never sees the address.
• Some formats can't go to every kind of TV. Vela greys those TVs out in the list and says why.

If it doesn't work

• “No other TVs found on this Wi-Fi.” Check that both are on the same network from the same router. Some routers keep their 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks, or all wireless devices, apart from each other; the setting is often called client or AP isolation.
• Local network access is off. If you said no to the prompt, turn Vela on in Settings > Privacy & Security > Local Network.
• A VPN is on. Some VPNs on the iPhone hide the local network from apps. Turn it off while you cast.
• “The TV did not answer. Check it is on and on the same Wi-Fi.” Wake the TV fully. Some TVs stop answering in deep standby, and some need AirPlay or casting switched on in their settings.
• “The TV says it cannot play this kind of stream.” Try another kind of TV if you have one, such as AirPlay through an Apple TV.
• “The TV refused this stream.” Many subscriptions allow one or two connections at once, and a TV fetching the stream counts as one. Stop other devices, wait a few seconds and try again. Vela already asks again a few times before giving up, because some providers count the phone's connection for a moment after it stops.

More on refusals and connection limits in IPTV not working on iPhone, and how to get started in setting up an IPTV player on iPhone.

Vela includes no channels or content. Use it only with a subscription or playlist you're entitled to use.