AirPlay Slideshow from Plex -- The Complete Guide

Showing photos on a TV is one of those things that sounds simple until you actually try to do it with Plex. The official Plex app has a basic slideshow feature, but getting those photos onto a large screen via AirPlay involves compromise. You can mirror your screen (and accept the limitations that come with it) or you can use a purpose-built app that treats the TV as a true external display. This guide covers both approaches so you can choose what works best for your setup.

What the Native Plex Slideshow Offers

The Plex app on iOS includes a slideshow mode that plays through photos within a single album. It is functional but limited in several important ways:

• Album-bound. The slideshow only plays photos from the album you are currently viewing. There is no way to create a slideshow that spans your entire library or crosses album boundaries.
• On-device only. The slideshow plays on your iPhone or iPad screen. Plex does not natively output the slideshow to an external display via AirPlay.
• No controls during playback. Playback controls are minimal. You can pause and resume, but there is no way to skip ahead, jump to a specific photo, or adjust the display duration per slide without exiting and re-entering the slideshow.
• No shuffle across albums. You cannot shuffle photos from multiple albums into a single slideshow for a "random memories" experience.

Method 1: Screen Mirroring

The most straightforward way to get Plex photos onto a TV is iOS screen mirroring. Open Control Center, tap Screen Mirroring, select your Apple TV or AirPlay-compatible TV, and then browse or run a slideshow in the Plex app. Whatever appears on your phone screen appears on the TV.

Advantages

• Works with any app, including Plex.
• No additional software required.
• Immediate and familiar.

Disadvantages

• Your phone screen is duplicated on the TV. This means the TV shows everything on your phone: the app chrome, navigation bars, status bar, and any notifications that appear. It is not a clean, full-screen photo experience.
• Resolution is limited. Screen mirroring sends your phone's screen resolution (typically 1170x2532 for a standard iPhone) scaled to fit a 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 TV. The result is a photo surrounded by black bars, or slightly upscaled, and never as sharp as the original image.
• Your phone is locked into the app. You cannot use your phone for anything else while mirroring. Switching apps or checking a message interrupts the slideshow on the TV.
• Battery drain. Continuous screen mirroring consumes significant battery because the phone is actively encoding and transmitting video.

Method 2: AirPlay Extended Display

Extended display mode treats your TV as a second, independent screen rather than a mirror of your phone. The TV shows full-screen content -- in this case, a photo -- while your phone shows a different interface, like playback controls. This is the ideal approach for photo slideshows because the TV gets a clean, distraction-free photo display while your phone remains functional as a controller.

The native Plex app does not support extended display mode for photos. This is where Phlix comes in.

Phlix: True Dual-Screen AirPlay Slideshow

Phlix uses AirPlay 2 extended display mode to deliver a genuine dual-screen slideshow experience. When you start an AirPlay slideshow in Phlix, two things happen simultaneously:

On the TV: The photo fills the entire screen in full resolution, with no app chrome, no status bars, and no notifications. The TV shows nothing but the image, edge to edge. Photos are rendered at the TV's native resolution for maximum sharpness.

On your iPhone: The Phlix interface shows the current photo, a strip of upcoming photos in the queue, and slideshow controls. You can pause, skip forward, skip back, adjust the display interval, and browse ahead in the timeline without interrupting what is showing on the TV. Your phone is a dedicated remote control for the slideshow, not a mirror of it.

Why This Matters

The difference between mirroring and extended display is the difference between "photos on a TV" and "a photo experience on a TV." With mirroring, your audience sees the Plex app interface. With Phlix's extended display, they see only photos -- the way a dedicated digital photo frame would present them, but pulling from your entire Plex library.

This makes Phlix ideal for family gatherings, dinner parties, holiday visits, or any occasion where you want photos playing in the background without requiring someone to babysit an app. Start the slideshow, set your phone down, and let it run.

Quality Settings

Photo quality on the TV depends on two factors: the source image resolution and the AirPlay output resolution.

Source Resolution

Phlix fetches the original full-resolution image from your Plex server for display on the TV. A 24-megapixel photo from a modern camera (6000x4000 pixels) will look spectacular on a 4K TV. Phone photos at 12 megapixels (4032x3024) also display beautifully. Even older photos at lower resolutions look better on a TV than on a phone screen because the viewing distance compensates for the lower pixel density.

AirPlay Output

AirPlay 2 supports output up to 4K (3840x2160) on compatible Apple TV hardware. If your Apple TV is connected to a 4K TV, Phlix outputs at 4K resolution. For 1080p Apple TVs or AirPlay-compatible smart TVs, the output scales accordingly. In all cases, the photo is displayed at the highest quality the hardware chain supports.

Compatible Hardware

AirPlay slideshows from Phlix work with the following hardware:

• Apple TV 4K (any generation): Full 4K output. Best experience.
• Apple TV HD: 1080p output. Still excellent for photos.
• AirPlay 2-compatible smart TVs: Samsung (2018+), LG (2019+), Sony (2019+), Vizio (2018+). Resolution depends on the TV's AirPlay implementation.
• Mac as AirPlay receiver: macOS Monterey and later can receive AirPlay. Useful for displaying slideshows on a monitor or projector.

iPhone requirement: Any iPhone running iOS 17 or later. Phlix uses the standard AirPlay frameworks, so no special hardware features beyond AirPlay support are needed.

Practical Tips for Great Slideshows

• Pre-load the slideshow queue. Before starting, scroll through the photos you want to show in Phlix. This triggers thumbnail caching, which makes transitions between photos faster.
• Use a wired network for the Plex server. Full-resolution photos can be several megabytes each. A wired connection to the server ensures each photo loads quickly enough for smooth transitions.
• Keep your iPhone plugged in. AirPlay extended display uses more battery than normal usage. Plugging in ensures the slideshow can run indefinitely.
• Curate with favorites. Mark your best photos as favorites in Phlix, then start a slideshow from the favorites view to show a curated highlight reel rather than every photo in your library.

An AirPlay photo slideshow transforms your TV from an idle screen into a window into your family's memories. With the right setup, it runs itself -- just start it and let the photos play.

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