AppleTV does not support a browser or imbedded browser window so it would never support the features possible with the Session Player.
Mirroring as @rhorn is doing is your solution. Once configured you should be up and training in less than a minute from workout selection on XO to starting EBC on your phone and mirroring the Session Player to AppleTV.
I simply want to do the Recommended Workout (Takin’ Care of Business 120, for example). I don’t want to do a Session (whatever that is).
When I click on Sessions on the PC, I see nothing but a bunch of workouts I have no interest in doing and videos I have no interest in watching.
When I click on Train on the iOS app, there is no option for Sessions anyway. All I can do is select one of the Recommended Workouts then press Play. The selected workout starts playing immediately. There is no way to do anything with Sessions on the iOS app.
When I’m on my phone accessing Xert via Safari, it looks and behaves just like the PC. In other words, Sessions have no option to pick the workout I want to do or watch the video I want to watch. I’ve even tried Scheduling the Workout and it still doesn’t show up under Sessions. Thank goodness because scheduling a workout is the last thing I want to have to worry about!
So if I’m on the phone and go to Xert in my web browser, I can Play Now one of the Recommended Workouts. Then I can go to the Session Player in the Main Menu and the selected workout does show up but it’s already playing. Having to Schedule it to avoid this is really really dumb because I have no idea exactly when I’ll be ready. I suppose I could do all this after I get on the trainer so I am indeed ready.
I still haven’t figured out how to get rid of the Podcast. It would be nice to just be able to close that pane in the display so I could move the goofy meters to the center as in the example above.
Doing any of this on a tiny phone is REALLY difficult. In fact, this whole convoluted process just seems so counter-intuitive. The Xert interfaces are just a total disaster IMO.
This would all be so much easier with a dedicated ATV app or if the iOS app simply supported landscape mode with the addition of a landscape-appropriate display.
PS. I do appreciate your help (you’ve always been patient and helpful). I just feel like I’m fighting an unnecessary battle with Xert when it could be so much better.
The Sessions listed under Recommended Training are recommended workouts. Look at Suitability and compare to the Workouts list. Not necessarily the same workout (sometimes they are) but same strain and XSS goals nonetheless. You are getting recommended training.
Once you select a Session on XO with Play Now it is queued up ready to select on the phone app.
If the app is already running on the phone, swipe down to resync the phone app with XO.
The selected workout (or session) will appear at the top of the list under Training.
Tap then play just like any other workout.
At the same time the Session Player running on a PC/laptop/tablet will display the workout with data sent by the phone app. That device’s screen can be mirrored to AppleTV.
Don’t like BTW videos? You can create your own session templates with any YT video you want to watch. That takes a number of steps to setup but any you do save will also show up under Recommended Training in the future when Suitability is a match.
I suggest you first try running the default entries from the Sessions Library (as shown under Recommended Training) before you consider doing that.
Even if there is a way to get rid of the orange block, moving and re-sizing the speedometer mess and workout graph (the only nice part of the display) doesn’t work in Safari. Even if it did work, it would be REALLY difficult to do quickly and accurately on a tiny phone display.
This also ties up my phone with Xert. When I use the ATV, I am free to use my phone for whatever while I am on the trainer. I can take a call, play a game of Words with Friends, check e-mail, control volume of a podcast, browse the internet, control fans, lighting, check who’s at the door one one of those Ring camera things, etc.
Of course I don’t do much if any of that during more challenging workouts or portions thereof but it is incredibly convenient most of the time. Even if I got all this setup and somehow magically were able to get it up and running within “a minute”, it would be so easy to make a mess of the display by one errant touch trying to do any of the other dozens of things a phone is actually handy for!
A PC can only mirror to an ATV with special apps like Parrot that are completely unreliable. I’m also not going to buy yet another PC, laptop, tablet, iPad or anything else to run Xert because I already have everything I should need and finding a place to put the device and all the cords is a mess. I feel sorry for anyone still using a Windows PC for any of this. Windows is a total nightmare (completely unreliable) compared to an ATV.
Yeah, I have no interest in watching YouTube videos either. Movement and other “distractions” aren’t what make apps like Zwift more engaging - it’s the Social aspect. Yes, having an avatar that responds to your power in real time is part of that experience, but it’s really the Social aspect of riding with others from around the world that makes it worthwhile.
I just want a simple clean display with a workout that I can select and have ready to go in literally (not figuratively) under a minute and still be able to use my phone for all the other things I mentioned. It seems like Xert supporting landscape mode is about the best I can hope for because all this other stuff is mostly just a waste of time and a mess.
Yeah, as I’ve already demonstrated, mirroring the Xert iOS app to ATV is useless without support for Landscape mode. Gives you something like below. Just terrible…
This will all make a lot more sense if you have a 3rd device like @rhorn is using.
He is running Android EBC on his Karoo 2 and the Session Player on his iPhone mirrored to his AppleTV.
Do you have an iPad (has to be edition that supports mirroring) or an old iPhone (no SIM required, just WiFi connection) that can be mirrored to your AppleTV?
With this type of configuration you will only run EBC on your phone.
You’ll visit XO on the iPad (or second phone) to select a session and start the Session Player.
Only the Session Player is mirrored to AppleTV.
While it looks like the video is running immediately the Session Player is actually waiting for EBC to start the workout/session and send data. When that happens the video restarts from the beginning and the power chart begins to show your progress.
A phone is just not a good device for indoor workouts. The display is too small! With a properly designed app, an Apple TV is the best “workout appliance” I’ve ever used. If more people would try ATV, they’d never go back to archaic Windows PCs and all the associated cable mess and tech aggravation.
It is so nice doing workouts indoors with a large display and an ATV. No cables to trip over; no fumbling with keyboards, mice, or remote controls; and no having to configure anything on tiny touch-screens or push-button menus like on bike computers or phones.
Years ago, when I first got a smart trainer, I used a Windows laptop and there’s just no comparison. ATV is a MUCH MUCH better experience. ATV costs less than $150 and who doesn’t have an old TV laying around by now?
Nope. No useful solution with Xert at the moment. Xert needs to add support for Landscape mode or port the iOS app to tvOS (both of which are almost trivial if the iOS app is written properly).
Just to clarify a few things:
As @ridgerider2 mentioned I am using the Iphone purely to run the session player (from a web browser) and then mirroring it over to the Apple TV, the workout itself is running from the Karoo. I didnt need to do anything fancy, just opened the session player in a web browser and off you go.
I too felt a bit unsure of running a session but a “solo” session really is just like a normal workout with a stated start time, which you can set from 5 mins after you think about doing the workout.
One thing to note is that the Session Player seems to work really well on a phone web browser, where as the Remote Player doesnt, which may just be a consequence of it being an older bit of s/w.
With regards to Apple TV, I bought one recently as I got fed up disconnecting my laptop from my work desk, shifting it to the turbo, plugging in etc. I have been using it in the following ways:- Zwift / Fulgaz apps, Wahoo SYSTM (no app so have to mirror from phone, video quality still good), Xert Sessions as described, using Xert IoS app on phone and watching TV.
Our resources are already stretched far too thin on working both hard things that lend a lot of value to a lot of users and a massive list of smaller features each required by a smaller number of users. While we’d love to have an Apple TV app or have landcape mode on the iPhone or have an iPad app or Apple Watch or the same on Android (or and all those users that have demanded we develop a PC app… let’s not leave those behind either!) it’s not on the immediate horizon especially since the majority of users can simply open a browser and play the remote player or sessions player or use the pop-out screens with Zwift or any other piece of software. So many options available as it is.
AppleTV, although inexpensive, does not have a simple web browser on the unit forcing smaller companies like ours to publish yet another iOS application that needs to be designed, coded and supported. Even companies with 20x to 200x the product development resources (like the other companies mentioned in the thread) don’t have everything on all platforms. We do intend to work on all these platforms but for the moment, it’s on the wish-list and we do plan to eventually get there in the future.
We offer unique training value and feel we can help athletes reach levels of fitness that far exceed other platforms. That’s our differentiator. If support for something we don’t have is what you’re after and the unique value we provide isn’t, then our software isn’t for you.
I am new here and I came from a long relationship with TR.
I am beyond confused about this argument, you can literally buy a mini PC that is about or around the same size as a ATV for less than $200 and stick it anywhere.
That mini pc will allow you to run everything (Zwift, TR, Xert, Systm, Peloton, Rouvy etc) and probably let you do it all at the same time if you wanted.
You still have to initiate the Xert workout on your phone but once you start the workout on your phone you don’t have to look at the Xert app at all… you can just use it like a normal phone while Xert runs on the background and you watch the screen from the Mini-PC. The Xert PC IF now has power and workout chart options so you can lego block build anything you want.
A mini PC has (2) cables, one HDMI and one Power… ATV has (2) cables, one HDMI and one Power. I dont see a difference there and you can buy a remote/mini keyboard or whatever you want that connects to it wirelesly. The mini-pc will let you use any type of BT device you want or a USB ant.
I think you are just really upset at PC’s and I get that I guess.
I personally just Cast whatever I want on a 65" tv from my phone to a google TV and let the basic Xert play run in front of me on a iphone 11… I really dont have any issues seeing the big power meter numbers on it and that’s really all I need.
I personally would rather see Xert use resources on things that actually make me faster or help me understand how to get better.
I used to use Schedule but with the last update you can select Play Now instead. That queues up the Session Player with the workout chart displayed and the video rolling, but the workout doesn’t start yet. When you select and start the session on EBC (which can be minutes later) the video restarts from the beginning and the power chart begins to advance. This works better since you aren’t trying to meet or beat the start time.
You really have to try the Apple TV solution to understand. I’m a computer engineer myself so I use PCs a lot and can certainly get one of the mini form factors set up and running in a similar fashion to an ATV setup (even using my phone for a remote as I do with ATV). However, I also have enough experience doing these things to know it’s entirely a waste of my time when ATV has already done the work and creates a trouble-free experience. The hassles involved in web-based and Windows solutions simply aren’t worth it for me. I do understand there are people who actually enjoy that sort of thing. I used to be one of them. Call it lessons learned I guess.
I get it but as a software engineer myself I just don’t understand how your developers could leave out landscape support in the existing iOS app. The amount of “extra” work to support landscape is so trivial that I would have been embarrassed to not add it.
working on xert 2.0 is probably very time consuming and it will hugely benefit everyone the people who need functionality for apple tv are at the moment a minority
I am happy with my setup for Xert workouts.
I start Xert EBC on an IPad.
On ATV I run FulGaz (or Zwift or similar, whatever you have).
EBC is connected to my trainer using BT.
I use a NPE cable device to convert the wattbike ant signal to BT and FulGaz uses that. EBC controls the trainer.
I start a ride on FulGaz, in reactive mode so my watts are driving the ride pace.
Works brilliantly for me. Sometimes I use YouTube videos on the ATV, which has a large screen attached.
Maybe not what you are looking for but good for me.
Yeah there are all kinds of contortions possible, just not what should be the most basic to use ATV, IMO. By far the simplest would be if the Xert EBC iOS app would support Landscape mode which I would then mirror to ATV for the large visible display. Less simple but even better would be a version of Xert for tvOS so it would run native on ATV with no mirroring which allows you to use your phone for things it’s actually good at.
I want to use the SMART workouts this year with Xert (for the first time). If I run the Xert app on my phone, the display is simply too small to be useful, especially as workout intensity increases. I can mirror the display to ATV but the Xert app only supports Portrait mode which uses the middle third of the TV screen. It works but looks terrible. The tiny amount of work involved in getting Landscape mode working in the iOS app really is laughable and should be embarrassing for the developers.
Overall, I still prefer Zwift’s presentation of workouts by far. It’s so easy to see all your current metrics, where you’re at in the current interval, how much is left, and what’s next. Clearly Zwift put a lot of thought into the display. I just can’t say the same for the Xert iOS display. I wish I could, but it’s just objectively not the case. It’s like a kid threw it together in 15 minutes to appease the few perceived Apple product users and never looked at it again. Makes sense for a first version but just seems WAY overdue for an update IMO.
Zwift raised $619 million to invest in their product. Xert obviously has a lot less. Xert isn’t perfect, and I could recommend a few things or changes I’d like to see, but I’m glad it exists, even with all its warts.
I’m not sure why anyone would want to see the Xert app display on a big TV screen.
I just started using an old Fire 8 tablet lying around instead of my Android phone because @urbantwiglet recommended it and it is bigger and easier to read during hard intervals, so thanks for the tip. But wouldn’t a TV be much too big for the information?
I use a second bigger screen while riding Xert workouts for watching episodes of normal shows, nothing bike related just something to watch and listen to while working out. With noise cancelling headphones to get rid of the racket my two fans on full power make keeping me cool. I usually rewatch something entertaining where it does not matter if I look away for a bit or are preoccupied with not falling off my bike, old episodes of Castle at the moment on a Surface tablet.
I can see people wanting to watch bike videos or simulated bike rides like Zwift instead. But staring at the workout and power data on a big TV screen does not seem all that desirable to me.
To each their own of course.
just like any other workout.
if you have a 3rd device like 
