How to Cast Peloton to TV

For the longest time I was jealous of people who cast their Peloton to a TV.

This was especially true if they had their TV mounted on the wall above their bike or Tread.

Because it seemed so much easier to see the screen if it showed up on the TV.

I’d never tried screencasting, which is what “cast” is for when you are talking about casting Peloton to a TV.

I mean, I’d connected my laptop to a TV before via an HDMI cable. And that allowed the Peloton app to show up on my TV.

But I wanted to do it wirelessly, which is really what casting is all about.

So we bought a cheap Smart TV. It didn’t work.

How to cast Peloton to a TV

There are a lot of questions about how to screencast a Peloton to your TV.

In addition, there is lots of confusion about why casting a Peloton to a TV doesn’t always work.

In fact, I’ll share what I discovered the first time I tried it and how eventually I got it to work.

Finally, I’ll address the different brands of Smart TVs and if you can use them when screencasting your Peloton. These brands include:

• Roku
• Apple TV
• Fire TV Stick
• Chromecast
• Vizio
• Samsung TV

And I’m going to explain all of that here.

Also, I’m going to answer how to mirror your Peloton to a TV and more.

Looking for info on how to watch TV on Peloton instead? This post can help.

Steps to cast a Peloton to Roku TV

The steps to cast a Peloton to a Roku TV are pretty simple.

Note: I’m doing this from my original bike and to my Roku TV.

I’m assuming that the steps are the same or very similar with the Bike Plus or the Tread. (If I’m wrong about this, please let me know).

You’ll want to turn on the TV to which you will be casting before starting the steps here.

One, start in Settings on your Peloton.

You’ll find Settings in the top right of your tablet. Tap on Settings.

Two, from the dropdown menu look for Cast Screen.

It will likely say Disconnected. Tap Cast Screen.

Three, look in the box that pops up on your Peloton tablet for your Smart TV device.

If it doesn’t show up immediately, you can tap on the refresh symbol on the top right of the box.

Four, tap the device you want to cast to.

Enable TV to cast

The next steps are on the TV. I’ve got a Roku so these are the steps I took.

On the bottom of the Roku TV screen, there was a message.

It said an Android device (aka your Peloton) would like to cast video to your TV.

Then you had four options:

1. Always allow
2. Allow
3. Block
4. Always block

If you choose Allow, you’ll have to go through these steps on the TV every time you want to do a screencast.

However, if you choose Always allow, the TV will know what to do.

Controlling classes on TV from Peloton

Once you’ve allowed the video casting, you’ll eventually see your Peloton screen on the TV.

However, to start your classes and whatnot, you need to go back to the tablet.

You are not controlling the TV screen with the remote at this time. It’s all coming from the Peloton tablet.

Even so, the sound for class is coming directly from the TV.

Your bike or Tread will be silent.

If you want to raise or lower the volume, you will need to use the TV remote.

You have to visit Settings every time you cast

Even though the TV asks if you would like to screencast Always, the Bike does not.

That means that each time you use your Peloton, you’re going to have to go to Settings and follow the steps above to start casting. 

Honestly, that’s crazy. You should be able to set and forget this setting.

But that’s the way it is right now. So, it’s an imperfect science but it works.

How to cast Peloton app to tv

When you want to cast the Peloton app to your TV, there are a few things you need to do first.

One, make sure your phone and the Smart TV are on the same wireless network.

Two, make sure you’ve enabled screen mirroring on the TV.

You’ll enable this from Settings on the TV itself.

Three, download the Home app from the App stores.

You’ll need this to set up HomeKit within Airplay.

Casting the app to your TV

OK, so to get your Peloton app to show up on the TV, you actually have to start the class you want to take.

Then, look underneath the class picture for a series of icons. 

You want the icon that’s a rectangle with a sideways WiFi signal inside it. Tap on it.

When you tap on it, it will bring up the option for AirPlay–or at least it did for me because I use Apple products.

Then, I went through the steps to set up AirPlay and HomeKit.

Airplay on Roku not connecting to iPhone

To be honest, the first time I tried this, it didn’t work.

No matter what I did, I couldn’t get past the install HomeKit screen on my Roku, even after downloading the Home app.

Finally, I did a Restart of my Roku (it’s in settings), turned my phone off and on, and unplugged both the Roku and my Router.

Then, when I turned everything back on and restarted my class on the Peloton app, it finally showed up on my Roku TV.

Home App on iPhone is a must

Before I discovered that I needed the Home app on my iPhone, I couldn’t cast my iPhone to my Roku TV at all.

I visited dozens of websites and blogs that lay out the steps to do this. Some of them said to follow their steps on the phone.

Others explained the same steps but said to do it on the Roku. 

That should have been my first clue that maybe they just cut and pasted instructions from someone else without trying it out themselves.

Because none of the steps worked to pair my iPhone with the Roku.

This even though I have the newest Roku TV and the newest iPhone with the most-up-to-date IOS. 

However, once I figured out the Home App connection–plus restarting all devices–it worked perfectly.

Cast the Peloton website on a computer to Roku

It was much easier to screencast a Mac computer on the Peloton website to my Roku.

All I had to do was Click on the Screen Mirroring icon on the top of my laptop screen.

That’s the two overlapping rectangles.

Immediately, my computer could “see” my Roku TV.

Then, the TV screen changed to show AirPlay.

Finally, it generated a code that my computer screen prompted me to enter.

Once that was done, I could see the Peloton website on my Roku TV and start my classes.

It’s important to note that your computer and your Roku have to be on the same WiFi network for casting or screen mirroring to work.

If they’re on different networks, then they can’t pair.

How to cast Peloton to Fire Stick

To cast a Peloton to a Fire Stick or Fire TV, you’ll follow the same steps as with the Roku TV. That is:

1. Start in Settings. You’ll find Settings in the top right of your tablet.
2. Tap on Settings.
3. From the dropdown menu look for Cast Screen. It will likely say Disconnected. Tap Cast Screen.
4. Look in the box that pops up on your Peloton tablet for your Smart TV device. If it doesn’t show up immediately, you can tap on the refresh symbol on the top right of the box.
5. Tap the device you want to cast to.

With a Fire Stick or FireTV, it may say Miracast rather than the device itself.

This is what you want to select.

Then, if instructions appear on your TV screen, follow them to complete the initialization on the Fire Stick or FireTV.

Look for deals on Fire Stick and FireTV during Amazon Prime Day.

Cast peloton to Apple TV

Unfortunately, Apple TV devices do not seem to support mirror screencasting that other Smart TVs do.

So, if you want to use Peloton on your Apple TV, you’ll need to install the Peloton channel or stream the Peloton app from your iPhone to the Apple TV.

How to cast Peloton to Chromecast

Here’s an option to try with an Apple TV or any other TV that doesn’t seem to support screencasting: get a Chromecast device.

Plug it into your Apple TV or any TV (even old fashioned “dumb” TVs), and then select Chromecast from Settings on your Peloton tablet when you get to cast the screen setting.

Casting Peloton to Samsung TV

Like the Apple TV, the Samsung TV does not seem to be compatible with screencasting directly from Peloton hardware (bike, Bike Plus or Tread).

Therefore, you’ll need a workaround, such as the Chromecast plug in or a Fire TV Stick. Then, follow the steps above to get it to work.

Why a Peloton won’t cast to TV

There are lots of reasons a Peloton won’t screencast to a TV. Here’s what I discovered about why casting wasn’t working for me.

In order for the Peloton to communicate with a Smart TV, both have to be on the same WiFi network.

I know I’ve said this a lot so far.

But really it’s one of the most basic reasons that screencasting doesn’t work.

As you may have read in my article about the Peloton Guide, we have a private VPN in our house.

It requires a username and password for logging in.

That’s no problem for the bike, but it was a problem for The Guide.

This requirement is also a problem for Smart TVs, specifically the Roku.

So, we ended up having to hardwire the Roku with an Ethernet cable in order to get it to work.

Therefore, the Peloton bike was on WiFi and the TV was connected via an Ethernet cable.

In other words, because the Roku wasn’t on WiFi like the bike was, they couldn’t communicate.

And because they couldn’t communicate, screencasting was out of the question.

Eventually, we got a hotspot device for the bike and the new Roku TV.

Had I thought of this solution before returning The Guide, I’m sure it would have worked out.

Cast Peloton to Vizio didn’t work either

I’d mentioned that we bought a Smart TV when I first wanted to cast my Peloton to a TV.

Originally, since the Roku in the living room was showing up on the Bike, I thought I could cast it.

But, as I explained before, the WiFi vs. Ethernet connection was the stumbling block

With the Vizio Smart TV, both the bike and it could be on the WiFi together. So, the first problem was solved.

However, no matter what I did, I could not get my Peloton to “see” the Vizio.

Whenever I went into settings to get casting to start, the bike would continue to pick up the Roku TV in the living room.

I never got it to connect to the Vizio Smart TV that was five feet away from it.

In fact, we couldn’t ever get it to work, so I just gave up on casting all together.

However, during a holiday sale, Target had unbelievable prices on Roku TVs.

So, we bought a 32-inch Roku TV that I could use to cast my Peloton. And guess what? It finally worked. Yeah!

Finally, after writing this article, I’ve realized that the Vizio workaround was getting a Fire Stick or Chromecast.

Also, Roku makes a stick that plugs in, too.

Benefits of casting your Peloton

Of course, one of the benefits of casting your Peloton to a TV is you can look at a screen at a different height.

Also, maybe you have the original bike and haven’t invested in the Pivot so you can turn your screen.

Casting gives you additional options for doing non-bike classes in the same space as your bike.

Also, there are limits to how you can use a Smart TV with the Peloton channel.

That is, you can’t access stacked classes or Peloton programs or anything like that. 

So, by casting your Peloton to a Roku TV during your workout, you will be able to use your bike or Tread screen to broadcast.

Then, you can access those aforementioned options otherwise not available.

Final thoughts on how to cast Peloton to TV

There was a lot of research that went into writing this article.

And here’s the biggest takeaway for me: if you want to cast your Peloton to a TV, get a Roku.

It seems to be the Smart TV brand that works the easiest with Peloton hardware.

I know that we Apple users have had a better time with Peloton software overall.

For example, when Peloton introduced the Peloton app, it was for iPhones only.

Eventually, there was an Android version. 

So maybe it’s the same with Roku TV versus all other kinds of Smart TVs. Right now it works best with Peloton.

However, in the future other brands may be compatible as well. But, like I said, for right now, Roku seems to be the best option for casting your Peloton to a TV.