Gadgetory

the Google chromecast is a great way to stream your favorite movies TV shows and music to your television and while it may not seem feature-packed out of the box : cast has a lot of hidden features that are just beneath the surface here are five tips and tricks you can try with your chromecast believe it or not you can use your chromecast to turn on your TV that is if your TV supports CEC while most manufacturers call CEC something different it's a common feature on most modern televisions just enable this feature then make sure the chromecast is plugged into a power adapter and not a USB port on the TV then whenever you try to cast something and the TV is off chromecast will first turn on the TV before starting to stream when not in use as an added benefit chromecast will display various images on your television to help prevent image burnin in the Google home at under backdrop settings you can select how fast these images update and also what sources are displayed you can also enable weather and news headlines as well as your own photos from Google photos Facebook and Flickr using a phone to control what's playing on your television isn't always convenient however if your television remote has play impulse controls you can use those instead to control the chromecast without having to reach for your phone as a plus if you have Google home you can actually use it to control your TV using your voice just say ok Google stop the TV after the initial setup of a chromecast you don't really need to tweak the settings or mess with the hardware however if something goes awry you may need to perform a factory data reset that can be done in one of two ways either press the button along the edge of the chromecast and hold it for approximately 25 seconds or in the Google home F go to devices have the action overflow button for that specific device and select settings in the next menu hit the action overflow button one more time and select factory reset finally you can play mobile games with your chromecast to find compatible titles open the Google home app and look for games under the discover tab once you install and open a game compatible with chromecast tap the cast icon to begin streaming it to your television you can then use your phone as the controller and for multiplayer games you can use Android or iOS games together long as the game is available on both platforms more tips on chromecast and other smart home devices be sure to go to see Netcom forward slash how to