Make iPad into HDMI monitor with Lux Orion [Awesome Apps]

You can make your iPad into an external screen for your Mac, a Nintendo Switch, a camera or another device. All you need is the free Lux Orion application and a relatively cheap adapter.

Lux, the maker of the brilliant Halide camera application, made Orion just for fun. But it’s very useful, too.

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Why a camera software developer made a monitor app

Halide adds significantly to the capabilities of iPhone and iPad cameras, making the app very popular. But it’s a big jump from that to an application that lets an iPad become an external monitor for any device that uses HDMI.

Sebastiaan de With, Lux’s chief creative officer, explained the reasoning in a blog post. “In professional cinematography, it’s common to connect an external screen to your camera to get a better view of the action,” he wrote. “Orion not only gives you a bigger screen, but you can even share screenshots with your crew with a couple of taps.”

Then he added, “We also built this for … pure fun. When traveling with a Nintendo Switch, it’s a delight to play games on a bigger screen.”

How to turn iPad into external monitor with Lux Orion

Lux Orion depends on a new feature in iPadOS 17: support for external webcams. You can plug one of these into an iPad and use it as though it were the tablet’s internal front-facing camera.

And with an adapter, the clever developers at Lux turned this ability into something Apple probably didn’t expect. Orion can take the HDMI output from any device and display it on the iPad screen.

Cult of Mac tests with the application ran into no problems. Audio and video are completely synchronized. And the setup is plug-and-play simple.

The developers had fun with Lux Orion’s user interface. The software uses “a visual language that is based on the electronics brochures and VCR interfaces of bygone days that conveys ‘modern’ in a way only the 1980s visual vernacular can,” according to de With.

An HDMI adapter is critical

The adapter necessary to make Lux Orion work is a USB-C HDMI capture card. Fortunately, these are fairly cheap, especially when compared to the cost of an external HDMI display.

We tested Orion with an adapter made by Guermok that Lux recommended. It works beautifully, and costs only $20.99.

Buy it from: Amazon

There are plenty of other options. The developer keeps a list of capture cards that it has confirmed work with its software.

For work or fun

You can add Lux Orion to the list of possible ways to connect your MacBook and iPad. Set up an HDMI cable and adapter between them, run Orion, and the tablet is a second screen for the Mac. And that’s only the beginning of the uses.

Professional photogs can see the advantages of viewing just-taken images on a larger display right off the camera.

When you want to relax, connect a portable DVD player to your iPad. Or even a VHS player, if you still have one of those.

And playing Nintendo Switch games on a larger display has already been mentioned. (The same goes for other consoles.)

Consider the upgrade to Orion Pro

The basic version of Lux Orion is free, but those using a Nintendo Switch might consider Orion Pro. The game console runs at 1080p, which is far less than the resolution of an iPad. That means your games might look fuzzy. Fortunately, the Pro version of Lux’s app includes AI upscaling to 4K.

There’s also a CRT emulation mode in the Pro version for those who want the feel of retro gaming.

Go get it

The basic version of Lux Orion is free. There are no ads or hidden tracking. And this $0 version is all the software you need to turn your iPad into an HDMI monitor.

Download it from: App Store

Lux Orion Pro, available as a$5 in-app purchase, unlocks all the features, including any that get added later.

Your other option is a portable external display with HDMI support. There are some good ones out there, but they cost considerably more than Orion and an HDMI capture card.