Note that you’ll want to carefully study whether or not your Mac has a Thunderbolt or Mini Display Port. Note that depending on how old your Mac is, you’ll want to check out this post to validate if it carries with it audio by default. I just use these 3m (9ft) long HDMI cables from Amazon Basics. You can get all sorts of lengths of HDMI cables, as well as adapters if you have older/other plug types. Some also just simply have an HDMI port already, in which case you’re good to go. Wired: In this scenario you’ll pickup an HDMI adapter that will connect via the Mini Display port, or USB-C adapter (newer Macs). When it comes to this you’ve got fairly similar options as the iOS devices, including both a wireless and wired option. For things like generic HDMI cables though, there’s zero reason to not just buy something like the Amazon Basics or similar products.) From a Mac: Generally speaking just check out the number of reviews on Amazon for a non-Apple connector to validate it’s not a bad knock-off, but rather a good knock-off. (A brief note on Apple accessories: You’ll want to be semi-careful of purchasing non-Apple branded connectors, simply because sometimes they do wonky things. – Apple 30-pin to HDMI Connector – $26 (used for older Apple devices with 30-pin port) – Apple Lightning to HDMI Connector – $45 (used for newer Apple devices with Lightning port)
– Apple TV (3rd Gen) – $69 (no reason to buy 4th gen for simple Airplay usage)
Here’s the full instructions as well.įinally, note that you can use Chromecast to mirror some apps from your iOS device to a Chromecast display adapter, however I’m not aware of any trainer apps that support it at this time on iOS.Īccessories and parts of note in this section: One minor note is that you’ll need to obviously be on the same network for this to work (i.e. If you’re going via the wireless method with Apple TV, then you’ll need to tell the iPad/iPhone to mirror, just simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen and you’ll see the ‘Airplay’ option. In this case your iPhone/iPad display is typically mirrored onto your TV, however some apps can also show a separate screen so you can have basically two different things shown – one on your iPad and the other on the big screen TV (called Dual Screen). The Apple TV is a small box (just $69 these days) that allows all sorts of other streaming goodness (i.e. Wireless: If you want to go sans-wires you can do so with Apple Airplay and an Apple TV. If you plug-in via the wired adapter, it’ll automatically show on the screen, so there’s pretty much nothing to do – it just happens magically. I just use these 3m (9ft) long HDMI cables from Amazon Basics to connect to my TV. Wired: In this case you’ll pickup an HDMI adapter that will connect via either the Lightning or 30-pin port on your iOS device. When it comes to broadcasting from your iOS handheld device (either iPad or iPhone), it’s all handled exactly the same way. Feel free to list alternatives in the comments below, but I just wanted to give some perspective on how I selected what I did. This is especially true on Android, Mac, and Windows platforms. The ease of those solutions though will heavily vary on one’s geek-factor. As is often the case in technology, there are numerous ways you can get from point A to point B. But I’m trying to balance that massive lift of creating new screenshots, wordy sections, etc… vs other new product reviews at the moment.įinally, note that for this post I’m primarily focusing on the easiest and most mainstream options (except where non-obvious solutions are cheap and easy).
Most haven’t actually changed that appreciably since then, though I am working to update it. As for the apps themselves, check out my guide from last year. I suspect that many here might find that things are quite a bit easier (or cheaper) than they expected to get from that small screen up to the big-screen TV. From there, you need only decide whether you want a wired or wireless solution. Virtually every trainer app out there today falls into one of these platforms.
This is your end to end guide on how to do exactly that. All of which leaves everyone trying to figure out how exactly to get these apps from the small screens they’re usually running on– to something a wee bit more appropriately sized for the many hours we’ll sit on the trainers this winter staring at them. Not to mention numerous form factors such as tablets, phones, and desktops.
With the explosion of new trainer apps over the last few years, many of us are running apps on numerous platforms – from iOS to Android to Windows.