Long live Chromecast, this small device which, over the years, has gained independence from the mobile phone thanks to the version with Google TV. I had the original version, which is still all the rage – in fact there are those who prefer it – on the kitchen TV, but the latest one surpasses it by including a complete operating system.
It serves different purposes, although its main role is to turn any TV without advanced features into a smart TV. Also to view PC screen on TV. However, my criticism is not about its usefulness: but rather about its performance., which I noticed decreased significantly a few days after installing all the apps. So I decided to offload the work to him: his hardware is not as efficient as that of the cell phone, so it is better to devote it to what is necessary.
Disable animations
As is the case on our Android phones, the system animations They manage to spruce it up and make everything flow more visually. However, on fairly powerful hardware like the Chromecast with Google TV, this is an unnecessary workload.
Moreover, in the end, what we are looking for is to see the latest fashion series or photos from our vacations. I don’t mind if the transitions are made in jumps, because at least I eliminate the small jolts generated by the graphics load which generate Google TV animations. We do it like this:
- Open your TV settings. Then go to “System” then “Information”.
- You must activate developer mode. Simply browse to “Operating System Compilation” and press the middle button on the controller until these options are enabled.
- We return to “System”, where we need to modify the options:
“Window Animation Scale”, “Transition-Animation Scale” and “Animation Duration Scale”. - It is recommended to lower them to 0.5X to improve performance or disable them completely.
Uninstall unnecessary apps
I repeat again: it is advisable to uninstall applications that accumulate little by little. These can generate Background processes which will slow down the Chromecast. That’s why, from time to time, I go to “Settings” > “Applications” and delete all those that I haven’t used for a long time or that I consider unnecessary.
Maintain a single user account
There are a few of us at home, so when we bought the Chromecast we created different users…big mistake. The more data you have to manage, the more accounts, the more recommendations… in short, more tasks for the processor from the Google dongle. It may not be a change that will give you much more speed, but it will relieve the hardware of its responsibilities.
I only want apps on the home screen
I find it very useful Default Google TV interface, because it offers personalized recommendations to move more efficiently from one content to another. However, this requires constantly recharging them, as well as continuing to play where we left off. Fortunately, the most recent Chromecast has an apps-only mode, which will draw a sort of simplified interface: as the name suggests, only the icons of installed apps will appear.
To activate this mode, you must go to “Settings” > “Accounts and connection”. Once there we will touch our profile and activate the “Apps mode only” switch.
A less demanding lock screen
Something similar happens with the locked screen: When we block the Chromecast we will see an infinite carousel of images, all things considered, very beautiful. These are loaded from the Internet, so a background process is maintained, also so that they change from time to time. In my goal of minimizing the impact of the system, I removed this function which really didn’t bring me much.
This is how I do it:
- Enter your device settings, then “System”.
- Inside, click “Ambient Mode”. In this section I leave the “Art gallery” option.
- Then I remove all the substrings, as well as the weather information.
Stop sending usage statistics
Telemetry is present in all smart devices. The big companies that make them need user statistics to improve both the software and the devices themselves for the future, however, this means that our Chromecast – in this case – collect and send this data. It is a transparent process, it happens without us realizing it. So something better will work if we remove them.
Bonus track: a reboot from time to time suits you well
The old reboot trick works for mobile phones, also for this type of device. Restarting means starting from scratch: processes, cache, applications… When I notice that my Chromecast is slower than usual, a reboot fixes it.
To do this on Google TV we will go to “Settings”, “System”, “Restart”. In a few seconds everything will be back, solving the issues of stuck apps and which are usually one of the reasons why the Chromecast starts to seem slow.
Cover image | Stable Diffusion XL with edition
In Xataka Android | My Smart TV was slow and I was looking for a solution: 5 reasons why I chose Chromecast instead of Fire TV
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