I posted before that I really like the Zwift experience after several winters of looking at the back of the garage door. Of course, now that I have it, I want to make it even better
I currently have the latest Apple TV and an 15yr old LCD TV. I have a Tacx Neo. My internet is a wireless system with a dish on the side of the house. True high speed internet is not available here.
I would like the best total experience, both Zwift graphics and trainerroad power stability/accuracy. I am unsure what my weakest link is and how to best improve
Will connecting the trainer via Wi-Fi or Ethernet give me any improvements over Bluetooth? Can I just connect an Ethernet cable (after buying the Tacx adapter) directly to the tv? Or do I need a router?
How can I determine what the weak link in my setup is? The older tv? Apple TV? Internet speed?
Should I think about a gaming PC?
I am going to be purchasing a Zwift ride bike frame for a second home. The controls require another Bluetooth connection. This means three (trainer, HR strap, Zwift controls) Bluetooth connections. Potentially I would want an additional one if I were to use a power meter. The Apple TV only supports two (a third is dedicated to the remote)
Not all TR questions but I have seen a lot of posts that seem to come from people with a lot of computer technical knowledge. Thanks for any advice
I used an ATV for a short time, and switched to an Apple Mac Mini. It doesnāt have the low connection count that the ATV has. Itās also faster and easier to work with.
My opinion is to hard wire/direct connect everything that you can to avoid connection issues, although using Zwift Companion requires wifi to connect to the Mini running the Zwift app.
If you have issues with Bluetooth connectivity, bypassing it would be a great idea, if possible. Iād run everything hard wired, if I could, but you have to do what is supported. And given that the Mini is connected to both wired and wifi, I donāt know if itās using the wired port for the connection to the Zwift servers, and using wifi for companion, or wifi for both. I would assume the later (Iāll have to test that question).
So if you have a fast internet connection, hard wired connections are always faster (bigger pipe). Does that make sense? If you can avoid Bluetooth, it should be a more reliable connection, and on the ATV, will free up a Bluetooth connection for something else.
At a minimum, you need a mouse. Good thing itās any mouse, wired or not, even PC mice work. Personally I use a track pad because it doesnāt move off the table onto the floor or get swamped in sweat and keyboard for logging in but almost any keyboard will work too. I canāt remember who said it (DCRainmaker or GPLama) but āItās made for Zwiftā, which seems to be true, althought people have said the same about the ATV also. But I tried notebooks, PCs, and even a new(er) ATV, and have used the Mini for years now.
For ābestā graphics you will be well served by a gaming PC. I started on Apple TV and really enjoy the better textures, detail and smoothness now that I have switched, but you have to figure out whether it is worth the money. If you are replacing everything and want to spend the money, a mid spec gaming PC with a good video card and fast single threaded performance is what you want. Use a wireless mini keyboard with a track pad to control the PC, or you can get the zwift controllers. If you really want to go all out, you can look for variable refresh rate systems that avoid the occasional jitters from busy environments. Itās a bit of a rabbit hole to match the right TV to the right video card for compatibility though for vrr. To be clear, all of that is just deluxe level stuff for visual immersion, I donāt think any of it will really affect training quality.
For wired vs wireless, I would agree with the other commenter that wired is more reliable. Wired between the trainer and the PC will reduce power dropouts and lag, wired between the PC and the Internet will reduce network problems in the zwift world. You can easily ride on zwift with a bad Internet connection if you are not racing or in a group, but power dropouts will ruin any ride. So itās up to you whether to focus on one or both. If you only care about power dropouts you can plug a patch cable directly from your trainer to your PC and have the PC on WiFi for the network. Kickr devices with Ethernet have instructions for this.
Not sure about hard wiring options, but Iāve had crappy results with bluetooth for power. If you are racing or doing fast group rides, even very short power dropouts can be a death sentence. In my experience, bluetooth is more prone to short interruptions/interference. If you are just motoring around solo, dropouts arenāt a big deal and I find that bluetooth dropouts are usually not more than a few seconds.
I use Ant+ with a dongle and USB extension from my laptop to get the dongle very close to my power meter and I have zero dropouts with this approach. I donāt know if the zwift bike or other trainers support ANT+ these days, but Iād go with that standard if doing wireless. Hard wiring sounds ideal if itās an option, but I rely on my PM for power data, so not an option for me.
As far as internet, you donāt need a connection with a lot of bandwidth, but you do need a connection without significant latency.
Dish on side of house. If it has a latency of over 75 ms then thatās an issue. Starlink usually is around 60ms . ATT and Dish have latency average about 160ms . Causing dropouts. Not good for gaming or streaming.
Worth looking into.
Thanks to all for your time replying. My experience with ATV and my internet has been good as far as the trainer and game working correctly. ATV seems a good budget option but it is ābudget ā. Seems the next step up is Mac mini and the next step from there is a dedicated gaming PC
Since I donāt know anything about gaming oriented computers can someone post a link to a suitable one or provide a price range?
Iāve got an M2 Mac Mini and have all the graphics I can handle. I use a 32" Samsung TV, and itās damned amazing, and I didnāt have to sell a kidney to get it. AND macOS is very resilient and easy to use. Iād recommend a Mac Mini to anyone. They just work. I have three around here aside from the Zwift Machine. The other 2 are servers that are connected with terabyte drive arrays and they work exceedingly well as headless servers too. The idea that someone has to buy a āgaming PCā for Zwift is kind of crazy IMO. And for those that have, congratulations. I get an amazing graphical experience on my Mini.
And you can save some money on a dedicated Zwift machine if you buy from Appleās refurbished store. Most of the Apple systems I have are Apple refurbished systems. Get the same warranty, Applecare coverage, no worries at all. They donāt treat people that buy them any worse (or better) than people that buy off the shelf.
And now Apple has the M4 Mini! Not sure if the sell refurbed M2 minis anymore though. Yeah, thereās a few M2ās refurbished for sale, and a bunch of M4ās too.
Well you donāt need an expensive video card. You donāt need a huge multicore processor, you donāt even need a cruise ship full of memory. I mean, unless you want to waste your money on something likely overpriced and over powered.
Personally, Iād look into picking up a used Mac Mini with an M1 or M2 chip and try that first. M1s are going for under $200 now and M2s are around $250.
āBudgetā gaming PCs arenāt easy with the high cost of video cards these day. A new budget GeForce is like $250 these days. You have to make it your hobby to buy and sell used parts and then make them all work but itās time consuming. I used to do this but gave up and just have an xbox now for gaming. Buy a new Xbox every 5-6+ years, rinse repeat. Itās way cheaper than GeForce video card upgrades.
I have a 2014 Mac Mini under my TV. We stream everything through it. I havenāt upgraded it because it still plays smooth but as soon as it needs an upgrade, iāll get one of those M1/2 Mac Minis.
As others have said, your dish based internet is probably your biggest bottleneck. Are you experiencing any network problems?
Hereās a great overview of the graphics situation with a bunch of options:
The author of that article also runs a Facebook group called zpcmr that is very helpful for understanding PC options especially if you are interested in getting max graphics on a budget (using older/cheaper/used hardware for example).
Apparently M4 chips will now run ultra profile, which I didnāt know. Earlier mac options will run lower profile (worse textures / shadows / resolution).
Again, Iām absolutely not saying you have to run ultra profile to have a good setup, just wanted to provide the info in case it is helpful.
And the first time I saw it in āultraā, I was blown away. I think my M2 is running at that profile. I get amazing shadows, headlight glow, even taillight glow! The roads look realistic, moon glow, and everything. Quite an improvement, and if the M4 is actually better, well if I can I might pop for one.
I mean, unless you want to waste your money on something likely overpriced and over powered. 