While it's possible to stream most content to Apple Vision Pro directly over the internet, having the ability to use Apple Vision Pro as an HDMI display can still be useful.
Since Apple Vision Pro does not support connecting to an HDMI input directly or using an HDMI capture card, we have to be a little creative to make this work. NDI provides the ability to stream HDMI content over a local network with really low latency, and it works great with Apple Vision Pro.
This page shows the setup I’m using.
- HDMI NDI Encoder
- Personally, I recommend the Kiloview N40, as it supports streaming up to 4K60 while being fan-less, and can use USB-C as a power input.
- Kiloview N60 comes with more features, but it’s larger and has a fan.
- Vxio app
- I made this one, you can also use other NDI monitor apps as well.
- Separately, Finn made Castaway that makes it possible to use a USB Capture Card + Mac/iPad instead of an NDI encoder. It's a more cost effective option for most people I imagine.
- To ensure high video quality, an NDI stream typically consumes significantly more bandwidth than a typical H.264/H.265 stream. Before purchasing the encoder, make sure your network can support data transfers at that speed.
- For 4K60 stream, the bandwidth required is typically around 250~300mbps. If you're having issue to stream smoothly, try go to the encoder's settings page and reduce the streaming quality.
- You can test this with some free software NDI encoders.
- Since this setup requires encode and decode the video content, it is not latency free. From my experience, I typically see 3~4 frames (~50ms, same as moonlight based on my measurement) of delay from the content source.
Setting up an NDI encoder is pretty straightforward. Just connect the device to your local network via Ethernet, supply power, and connect the HDMI input to the encoder.
If the visionOS shows the Local Network permission dialog, and after granting the permission the app still shows searching, you may need to force close the app, and reopen it.
After that, you should be able to see the encoder show up as a source in the Vxio app. Select the source, and you'll get your HDMI display 🎉
Depending on the NDI encoder, the default audio queue size might be too small for some devices. In that situation, try increasing the audio queue size so that the audio no longer experiences abrupt stops between samples.
If your Wi-Fi channel is congested, you can try force N40 to use UDP instead of Multi-TCP. In my experience, UDP performs a lot better in those network condition. You can do so from the N40's configuration UI, select NDI Connection -> Multi-TCP Disallowed.
I was able to make this setup portable by getting one of those mini router (GL.iNet Beryl AX) with a LAN port.
#AppleVisionPro #visionOS
I have been using Vxio app with Kiloview N60 + AVP M5 + my home receiver with bunch of stuff: PS 5 Pro, Xbox Series X, Apple TV, 4K Blu ray player, Nintendo Switch 2.
All works, surprisingly you can watch 4K Blu Rays, play games all in 4K 60fps and HDR flawlessly.
I decided to choose NDI HB codec to setup N60's stream with a 10bit Colour Depth, Auto Colour format. On Vxio you need to set "PQ ST2084 P3 D65" to process HDR image correctly. You need 300-400 Mbps Wifi speed to keep up, but you can choose lower quality with less bandwidth if image stutters. AVP is capable of 700 Mbps so is not an issue on that side.
I have tried NDI HX codec with H.265 and 10bit which works in app as well. It uses less bandwidth around 20-30Mbs but the image stutters a bit, need to drop sometimes quality to Low to make it smooth. I think is a limit on M5 processing as this is a heavy codec. I tried NDI viewer on Mac and works fine so looks like AVP issue.
H.264 codec with 10bit doesn't work in the app, it displays green image.
NDI HX3 doesn’t work for me, there are some encoding artifacts.
With consoles you need to update EDID with HDR support. The default EDID makes console not able to detect it as HDR display.
The one HDR4k_60.bin mentioned above is good enough for PS 5 but does not work for Xbox as this is too generic EDID. I have compared it with Kiloview's original one and modify N60's in a way that should trigger HDR for all PS 5/Xbox/Switch/4K Blu ray player into HDR mode.
Here is a link if anyone wants to use it: https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/048eyeG1qL1h7HFuMNwdcGLPQ#N60-HDR
You can plug a HDFury Arcane2 between receiver's output and Kiloview input. I use it to convert Dolby Vision to HDR 10, which HDR 10 and HLG are only supported by N60.
In that case you might want to use EDID which makes display Dolby Vision compatible so you can use this one:
https://www.icloud.com/iclouddrive/002CZKzaUUBsIY7ZGCq2R5r7Q#N60-DV
Lag added to the system is around 100ms from NDI documentation, but for me is not noticeably when I compare it with OLED TV side by side, you can play fast paced games.
Other than that is such a pressure to watch and play on a gigantic screen. The AVP screens are truly remarkable, unlike anything. Perfect blacks, no crashed shadow details, no moire, great sharpness from left to right, top to bottom, HDR.