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Capture Card needs an iPad with a USB‑C port; an iPhone can watch an iPad’s Capture Card in Director, but can’t connect a card itself. Connect a UVC capture card that iPadOS recognizes, allow Camera access, and open Capture Card: the picture appears by itself. Check the cable, the adapter, the card’s power, and that the source is sending a signal that isn’t copy-protected (HDCP). A plain HDMI-to-USB‑C cable is not a capture card.

Put both devices on the same local network. Start Mirage Broadcast from a source’s Outputs (Camera › Camera Settings › Outputs, Capture Card, or Microphone), or start Screen Share. On the receiving iPhone or iPad, open Director, pick the source from what is broadcasting nearby, and enter its six-digit code the first time. On a Mac, choose it under Devices in Mirage for Mac. Up to four devices can watch a broadcast at once (two for Screen Share).

Allow Local Network access for Mirage on both devices (Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network). Guest Wi-Fi, router client isolation, firewalls, and VPNs can block local connections even when both devices show the same Wi-Fi name; a personal hotspot works. Check the other device is still broadcasting, then Scan Again. See Devices can’t see each other.

Open Screen Share, choose any extra outputs (NDI, Browser), and start Screen Share; confirm the system broadcast, then switch to the app you want to show. Stop it from the system’s screen recording indicator or with Stop Screen Share in Mirage. Settings › Screen Share › Frame Rate sets 60 or 30 fps. Some apps protect their content, and it can’t be shared.

The shared app’s sound, in every output: Mirage Broadcast, NDI, and Browser. Screen Share never opens the microphone. Camera sends its microphone, and Microphone sends its microphone with a small picture of the device’s name and level.

Open the source’s Outputs › Browser and start it (Camera, Capture Card, Microphone, and Screen Share all have it; for Screen Share, turn it on before you start). Open the http:// address it shows in a browser on another device on the same network, without changing it to https://, and keep Mirage open. Every browser stream carries its source’s sound; if the browser starts it muted, click or tap the page. Browser has no pairing code: use it on a network you trust.

OBS Studio 31.1.1 or later needs the DistroAV plugin (another site) and the NDI Runtime 6.3 or later: what DistroAV 6.2.2, the current release on November 9, 2026, requires. Restart OBS after installing them. On the device, open the source’s Outputs › NDI and start it (Settings › Broadcasting › Start NDI Automatically starts it with every source). In OBS, add an NDI Source and choose the Mirage source by its name. If it isn’t listed, check Local Network access on the device, and on Windows allow OBS through the firewall on a Private network. See How to use your iPhone as a camera in OBS.

On iPhone and iPad, Camera and Microphone save to Files › On My iPhone (or iPad) › Mirage, or a folder you choose in Camera Settings: Camera as .mov (H.264, HEVC, or ProRes), with an optional copy in Photos, and Microphone as .m4a. Capture Card always saves to Files › On My iPad › Mirage, as a .mov with the card’s sound (HEVC, or H.264 where the iPad can’t encode HEVC at the card’s size). Capture Card screenshots go to Photos with your permission. On a Mac, each take is a folder in Movies › Mirage, or the folder you choose in Settings › General.

Yes. Camera works with Xbox, PlayStation, and MFi controllers connected to the device: open Camera Settings › Game Controller to see and remap the buttons. The triggers zoom and the right stick pans. Mirage for Mac takes a controller too (Settings › Controller).

No. False color, zebras, focus peaking, and LUTs are on the iPad’s screen only. Recordings, broadcasts, and screenshots use the clean feed.

No account, and no internet for the devices to work together: they connect directly on your local network. The internet is used when you stream from Mirage for Mac to a service, play the tutorial videos in How to Use, download a speech model the first time captions use a language, or open links such as the App Store or this website.

Install Mirage Capture on both and put them on the same network. On the iPhone or iPad, turn on Mirage Broadcast in a source’s Outputs (Camera › Camera Settings › Outputs, Capture Card, or Microphone), or start Screen Share. In Mirage for Mac it appears under Devices: choose it and enter the six-digit code the device shows. With Remember this device, it reconnects by itself next time, with no code. The Mac watches several devices at once.

Turn on Virtual Camera in Mirage for Mac. The first time, macOS asks you to allow it in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › Camera Extensions. Then choose “Mirage Camera” as the camera in Zoom, Google Meet, FaceTime, OBS, or any other app. It shows what you turned Virtual Camera on for, one camera or a whole group, at 1920 × 1080 or 1280 × 720 and 30 or 60 fps, as the app asks. Mirage Camera is video only; your app keeps using your microphone.

Your Mac’s cameras and screen are in the sidebar beside your devices. Drag one source onto another to make a group, and Mirage arranges it: cameras float in bubbles over a shared screen or a capture card, and cameras on their own sit side by side. Drag a bubble to another corner, or one picture onto another to swap them. Advanced lets you place every layer by hand. Sources that aren’t connected are left out until they are.

Each take gets its own folder in Movies › Mirage, with a file for every camera, screen, and microphone, all starting together so they line up in an editor, and a timeline for Final Cut Pro (FCPXML) and an OpenTimelineIO (.otio) timeline, the open format DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro 26 or later import. A group’s Recording card chooses whether a take also saves the arranged picture as one file, a 1080 × 1920 vertical version, and recordings on each device. Record is in the bar over the picture. To have those devices’ full-quality recordings downloaded into the same folder, turn on Settings › Studio › Download device recordings afterwards (it starts off), and allow Download Recordings on each device (Settings › Mac Access). Change the folder in Settings › General.

Turn on Settings › Captions, then Show captions in the Captions card of the group or source that should have them (one picture at a time). Speech recognition runs on the Mac. Captions appear in Mirage Camera, the Output window, and the stream, and each take of that picture gets a Captions.srt file; no recorded file has captions drawn in. See How to add captions to a video call or stream.

Only if the iPhone or iPad allows it, in Settings › Mac Access on that device. While its Camera is sending to the Mac, the Mac can zoom and move the framing, focus, set exposure and white balance, switch lenses, turn on the torch, record on the device, and lock its screen. Downloading its recordings is off until you allow it. When something is off, the Mac can ask, and the device shows Allow or Don’t Allow.

Check both are on the same network and the device is broadcasting. Allow Mirage under System Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network on the Mac, and under Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network on the iPhone or iPad. Guest Wi-Fi, client isolation, and VPNs can block local connections. If the Mac says to update Mirage, both need Mirage 3.0 or later. Devices can’t see each other has the full checklist.