VidBeam Support

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Support for VidBeam. Question, bug, or an idea? Email sangcaolabs@gmail.com. We usually reply within one to two business days.

How is this different from screen mirroring?

Mirroring sends a picture of your phone’s screen to the TV. Everything on the screen goes with it, the phone has to stay on that screen for as long as you watch, and the picture is a re-encoded copy of a copy.

VidBeam finds the video stream behind the page and hands that stream to the TV, which then fetches it directly. The TV plays the video at its own quality, and your phone is free — lock it, switch tabs, open another page, or close the one you started from.

Why can’t it find the video on this page?

Not every page can be read this way. The common reasons:

  • The video is protected (DRM). Those streams cannot be played outside their own app or browser, and VidBeam does not try to get around that.
  • The page builds the video in a way only a browser can play. Some players assemble video in the page itself rather than pointing at a file.
  • The video has not started loading yet. Press play on the page first, then look again.

The video plays in the page but not on the TV

Work through these in order:

  1. Same Wi-Fi. The iPhone and the TV have to be on the same network. A phone on mobile data cannot reach the TV at all.
  2. Guest networks and “AP isolation”. Some routers stop devices seeing each other. A guest network usually does.
  3. Non-Apple TVs. Samsung, LG, Sony and Vizio sets with AirPlay 2 are less consistent than an Apple TV about streams served over plain HTTP. If one TV refuses a stream another plays, this is usually why.

Can I download a video?

No, and that is deliberate. VidBeam plays video; it has no download, save or export feature of any kind.

Which TVs does it work with?

Two kinds, in the same list: AirPlay (Apple TV and smart TVs with AirPlay 2) and Google Cast (Chromecast, Google TV and TVs with Chromecast built in). Roku and Fire TV are not supported.

What does it store about me?

Bookmarks, history and your settings, all on the phone. There is no account and no server of ours. The free version shows ads from Google, which collect some data to do so; VidBeam Pro removes them. The Privacy Policy lists exactly what leaves your iPhone.

Which iPhones does it run on?

iOS 17 or later. iPhone only.