Possibly not; coming back after a few years out and it seems everyone is on Zwift.
I pulled out my Computrainer for the first time in 2-3 years ready to dust off the old Ergvideos and get some fitness back. As a legacy user (the DVDs) I had about 20 videos to choose from. Unfortunately I was getting some strange error message loading the program and had to run the CT in plain (and manual) erg mode.
I figured perhaps a Windows update over the last 2-3 years may have made it incompatible so went to the website to see if there was a newer version. To my dismay I saw a message indicating the streaming service the company piggy backs off did an update the broke the playing of videos in the software. Now I don’t know if this was my particular issue but the developers message inferred that nothing would work and that come May, the entire website will disappear for good.
I can’t remember how the program ran originally, before v6, but thought that I could run it in standalone rather than connect to the server. Unfortunately I can’t roll it back to the original either as the developer needed to unlock codes and they were pretty clear last time that they were all in on the subscription service and would not support legacy users beyond the current authorisation.
I will miss my Ergvideos. Lots of memories riding those videos and enjoying the automation that allowed limitless customisation of rides, chopping bits out of the full video etc.
Thank you Paul for being one of the first to build on Racermate’s original offerings. There was a lot of vision there. It’s unfortunate the business model did not see sufficient growth to keep it going.
Paul was both a genius, and an insufferable jerk. He literally deep-sixed a 10-year lead to hop into bed with one coach syndicate, at the expense of all others, and then basically failed to innovate as time slipped away.
I hope he found happiness; he made others happy, but his gruffness and haughtiness cost him in the end.
A year or two ago, the automatic sync of Trainingpeaks workouts of the day stopped working, I emailed and advised of this and asked if it would be fixed. His response was, he would only fix the issue if I would pay for it. So not surprised with such an attitude.
A few years ago after a long hiatus, I pulled out the Computrainer and my erg videos. I had problems connecting, like you, and found out that Computrainer had gone out of business. I hopped onto Zwift with a new smart trainer and have been there since. I miss the old times and Erg Videos riding with the boys up the climbs and TT intervals.
try Perfpro, Drew has a fix so that the Computrainer works via ANT+ also Perfpro will run the Computrainer
option B is that trainer road legacy might still work with Computrainer via direct USB.
However PerfPro ant bridge will allow the Computrainer to communicate with pretty much any program out there via ant+. I have not tried this recently I mothballed my Computrainer a while back due to the fear of no spare parts.
I did see perfpro mentioned in previous searches and sounds like best bet. Would be good to copy the power profile from the vids to then try and recreate on another platform so it matches the vids, but ChatGPT struggled to read the little image shown on website.
Why mothball the CT though, if it breaks it breaks?
Wish I’d stayed on v3.0; don’t think you needed to log into server after dvds were unlocked.
I had to replace the multi pin cable and well things were not getting easier to make it work reliably since most platforms are better using bluetooth so in the end I got a great deal on a new trainer and jumped ship. I only wish when the guys behind Wahoo approached Cmputrainer to set it up with ANT+ they had understood where the future was and that they could still be around… They were married to their system and did not evolve.
Ah yes I have experienced a few issues with the DIN cable - results in no resistance and won’t spin down - but read somewhere to spray with wd40 and that seemed to work.
I thought you meant mothballed to save it for later (worried you couldn’t use it later) rather than replaced. Now makes sense.