Zwift coming to AppleOS/ TV

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

So I bought an Apple tv4 in a pre-emptive strike, it won't be too long before zwift makes it's way over(and it's actually been leaked on facebook)

Initial thoughts are great graphics and smooth gameplay, I've been hooning around in a racing game driving a pearlescent Ford Focus RS via tilting the remote and it looks good!

I got a 32gb version (it has to be a tv4 as the others don't have a hard drive) which like this. Have a cradle for it to stick it all to the back of my tv out of the way..

I paid £85+postage for this brand new, so has potential to be a cheap way into smart training!

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Excuse the phone pic of my tv screen but you get the idea. I'm not an apple fan but I could be turned

 

[Milkfloat]

Just so I understand, you don't use Airplay from your iPhone / iPad you directly load Zwift on the Apple TV? I assume it has a pretty good processor and Bluetooth smart?

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

No air-play, it will be a tvos native app.. It has to be an Apple tv4 though, the others don't have a hard drive (comes in 32gb or 64gb)

Spec wise don't quote me on this but I believe it's a 1.4ghz dual core with 2gb ram. Supports bluetooth 4.0 out of the box

 

[Harv]

Nice. I might pick up a turbo trainer.

Anyone recommend a Bluetooth one that's not too expensive.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Tacx Flow smart or Vortex smart are the two at the sharp end of the cheap scale

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Ive been using this for a few days now (and since yesterday with a game controller) to put some games through the wringer. Where possible I ran everything as high as it could go.

It's had snow rain hail gravel tarmac Japan Iceland barrel rolling cars fences sniper rifles and an awful lot of paint swapping in a couple of racing based games(blood is realistic enough too). Not that far removed from Zwift now I think about it.

Won't be anywhere close to my gaming rig in performance but as a small tidy system solely bought for 1 app, I can't see it doing a bad job of it.. Also got a mount for it to hide it out of the way.

 

[uclown2002]

I'd be very interested on how this handles zwift, as I find it a pain lugging laptop around.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

I'd be very interested on how this handles zwift, as I find it a pain lugging laptop around.

Pretty much the same, my gaming rig is currently on a stool behind my paincave which isn't ideal and my laptop runs zwift but not brilliant visually, both bulky setups too

There's a short video posted on Zwift Riders facebook of a tv4 running Zwift already. I can't share it from a private group

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Chinese bluetooth keyboard made life easier. No more swiping siri remote when searching/entering passwords etc.

Also - Steelseries Nimbus controller. I may well end up buying a second tv4

 

[GGJ]

Pardon my ignorance but what would the advantage of this set-up be over an iPad connected to the TV?

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Pardon my ignorance but what would the advantage of this set-up be over an iPad connected to the TV?

Cost, no charging, no airplaying anything, no ipad/iphone required,doubles up for use for iplayers and netflix etc. I also use mine for youtube quite a lot since it's plugged into a dumb TV

[QUOTE 4710711, member: 259"]How else do you connect it to the TV unless it's via an airplay enabled device or something with HDMI? There's no HDMI on an iPad.[/QUOTE]
Lightning to HDMI? The point here isn't to airplay another i-device through the tv4 box, but the tv4 box actually being able to run Zwift now (***thanks to an app size limit being lifted) at close to if not better graphics output than an ipad/ipod and in 16:9 aspect ratio with no black bars

I see this as a compact and cost effective option, my gaming pc costing many hundreds is currently only being used for zwift - while it looks great at 1440p the setup itself is overkill

 

[GGJ]

I have two ways I can connect the iPad to the TV, either through the Apple lightning to HDMI adapter or mirror it through the Minix android. Yes the iPad does have a border round it but if I use the iPhone there is no border although the graphics of the iPhone are not quite as crisp (but still very watchable). There again if I'm hammering it on the rivet I don't notice much of the graphics as the sweat is be running into my eyeballs... so it's not a major problem...

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

I have two ways I can connect the iPad to the TV, either through the Apple lightning to HDMI adapter or mirror it through the Minix android. Yes the iPad does have a border round it but if I use the iPhone there is no border although the graphics of the iPhone are not quite as crisp (but still very watchable). There again if I'm hammering it on the rivet I don't notice much of the graphics as the sweat is be running into my eyeballs... so it's not a major problem...

I think you're missing the point a bit. Apple tv4 will be the cheapest and arguably the most compact solution for getting into zwift as a newbie (or someone looking for a smaller setup) "Paincaves" are increasingly starting to look like kitchens, conservatories and living rooms and seemingly requiring more wires and chargers on top of all the other devices. It's a different argument if you already have a device capable of running the app, but that's not what this is about really.

If I was a newbie to zwift and looking for a setup to get through the winter with, I probably wouldn't be looking at an iphone, ipad or a new laptop/pc all on the basis of cost, the size of the device and charging/power requirements is then a consideration.

 

[bobinski]

64 gig refurbs in the Apple Store for £150. May take a punt.