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DIY teleprompter flipped screen

waydabber edited this page Jan 13, 2024 · 4 revisions

With BetterDisplay you can use a streamed virtual screen to flip your display. This is especially useful for DIY teleprompter setups. You can use an iPad (Sidecar) as a teleprompter with this as well.

Note

The article reflects app version v2.0.9

Warning

Some of the features described in this entry require a Pro license.

Setting up a virtual screen stream for Sidecar teleprompter

  1. If you want to use an iPad as a teleprompter, connect your iPad as secondary Sidecar Display to your Mac (more info: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210380). Please make sure of the following:
  • You are not mirroring a display to your iPad but Sidecar is configured with the "Use As Separate Display" option in Control Center.
  • Both Sideabar and Touchbar are set to "Hide"
  • Your iPad is not locked in portrait orientation (to prevent the Sidecar app rotation bug kicking in - the Sidecar app which meant to work only in landscape mode sometimes turns portrait cropping the screen).
  1. Under BetterDisplay's Settings > Displays > Overview click Create New Virtual Screen…
Screenshot 2023-12-21 at 16 52 43
  1. Under New Virtual Screen Configuration choose Match aspect ratio and associate to a display
  2. Under Display to match choose the Sidecar Display or an other display you want to use a teleprompter output.
  3. Enable Associate the virtual screen with this display and Configure full screen stream to this display
Screenshot 2023-12-21 at 16 53 59
  1. Click Create Virtual Screen. After the operation a streamed image of a newly created virtual screen called Virtual - Sidecar Display should appear on your Sidecar display.
  2. In the app menu, under the created virtual screen's Stream Virtual Screen menu, use the Flip controls to flip the display's content so the content is displayed appropriately on your teleprompter setup.

Video tutorial

Check out this great YouTube video by Self-Employment Sidekick:

Use Your iPad as a Teleprompter with BetterDisplay 2.0

Troubleshooting

  • If you encounter performance issues with your iPad teleprompter, make sure you are using a wired connection (highly recommended) or appropriately fast Wi-Fi connection for virtual screen streaming.
  • You might find that the mouse is not flipped or cannot interact with the content on the Sidecar display. The reason for this is when you stream the contents of a virtual screen to an other display, both displays remain in the display layout. This means you can move the mouse to the real (stream target) display as well as the virtual screen. If you move it to the real (stream target) display, the mouse will not be flipped and will hover over the streamed content only, not interacting with it. You need to move the mouse to the virtual screen (stream source) in order to interact with the content on the virtual screen. The simplest solution is to rearrange the displays in the display layout in a way that the virtual screen will be located next to the primary screen while the real display should be put farthest or located to a corner in the layout so the mouse does not wander over easily.