Short version:
I hooked up the 8th gen iPad to the Samsung smart TV, it didn’t work.
I instead hooked up my iPhone 14, it worked fine.
I tried a system update to the iPad, it worked!
The next day, the iPad again didn’t work with the TV but the iPhone still did.
More details:
I feel pretty good about the dongle (new, from Apple, lightning to HDMI) and the cables and the port on the TV, since the iPhone can talk to the TV and I can view the iPhone on the TV.
I tried the system update for no good reason, a rather useless boilerplate post had suggested it from two years ago (it made no sense to me since the 8th g iPad should have been able to talk to a TV since day one). I do not know why the system update worked (it was a very minor one, I keep the system up to date on it). (I don’t know what exact version it is, it’s downstairs, 18-something.)
The next day, when it didn’t work again, I think I fired up the Xfinity app on the iPad before I turned on the TV – we don’t have cable tv (we could we just don’t), so on the odd occasion I borrow my mom’s login to watch Duke basketball (my partner went to Duke and she loves watching). I suspect the Xfinity app may have some location checking and might not like that I am not at my mom’s address, but I don’t see that it should make it so the TV does not see anything from the iPad (the TV says “no input detected” or whatever the message is exactly, yet, if I unplug the dongle from the iPad and stick it into the iPhone, then the iPhone and the TV get on quite well – I have not tried the Xfinity app on the phone, hmm just thought of that).
I am really peeved that the system update worked (because the iPad should not have had a problem before), and I am incredibly peeved that it stopped working the very next day.
I didn’t buy the iPad to stream to TV, I more got it for travel and the gym to put on an exercise bike, works great (so like stream or read at the gym). But it should work! Yes, I am one of those "it should just work!’ people (having been spoiled by Apple over the many years).
I mean, just this is a basic function, an external monitor of sorts. My little phone can do it! (Granted the phone is a few years newer, but still.) I did work, so, it’s not like the TV is too big for the iPad (it’s pretty big so I was worried the somewhat old iPad was like, “no that’s too much resolution, too many pixels,” but it worked fine for a while and I watched a YouTube video and it looked great).
I am really stymied and frustrated by this, but hopefully it’s an easy thing (and then I will feel a bit like an idiot for not figuring it out, but at least I’ll feel like an idiot and have an iPad that can output to the TV).
TYIA for any ideas.