For people who are new to the Chrome galaxy, Chromecast is a simple yet powerful device that lets its users stream different audio/visual content right from their TV-screens or audio systems. Typically, you would require a smartphone or computer to control the content as the device does not come with its remote controller, unlike Apple TV or other such products.
Considering this, it could be quite an issue if your phone has run out of battery and you want to skip through the video or lower the volume. If this ever happens, you are likely to turn on your computer or charge your phone to perform a simple operation.
Using your TV remote for Chromecast
What most people aren’t aware of is the fact that you can use your TV remote to control your Chromecast device. Although Google suggests that a regular TV remote cannot eradicate the requirement of using a smartphone or PC, it can surely be pretty helpful if you want to perform minor operations, like changing the channel or pausing a video. If we’ve got you interested, let’s see how you can configure your own remote for Chromecast.
What do I need?
To do this procedure, there aren’t many requirements. With that being said, this entire makeshift depends on the HDMI-CEC technology that you can find in a considerable percentage of modern TVs. Not only that, but this technology also enables your Chromecast device to perform automatic input-switching when the casting is initiated. Even if you own a modern TV, it doesn’t mean that the HDMI-CEC feature will be turned on by default, and thus, you will have to activate it manually.
If you still can’t find this option, the chances are that the makers of your TV have given it another name, such as BRAVIA Sync, VIERA Link, Aquos Link, or any such name. However, if you own an older TV, it likely won’t have this feature, but you can still check. Just make sure that the TV also comes with the “Deck Control” feature as it is also needed for this procedure.
Now that we know about what is needed let’s get to the actual procedure and see how you can control your Chromecast device through your TV remote.
How to take control?
Once you have made sure that your TV comes with the HDMI-CEC technology, the next step is to enable this feature, and you’ll be good to go. Yes, it is just that simple, and you can now start using your TV remote controller to perform pause, unpause, return, exit, and other such operations on your Chromecast device.
Without further ado, it’s about time that we get to the testing phase. Take your smartphone or whatever device you’re using to control your Chromecast to the other room and grab hold of your TV remote. After pointing your remote to your TV, you can now start pressing buttons to see if anything changes. By pressing the Pause button on your remote, your video or audio should stop playing, while the Play button should resume it.
Samsung HDMI-CEC setting
How this works is that you send signals to your TV through your remote, and then the TV notifies the Chromecast device about the operation to be performed through the HDMI port. Also, if you ever notice that your remote has suddenly stopped working, the reason could be that the app you’re using doesn’t support this feature. With that being said, the chances of encountering this issue are not that high as many popular apps on the Chrome platform come with this feature, including YouTube, HBO Go, WatchESPN, Google Play Music, and TuneIn Radio.
What is not supported?
As we mentioned earlier, the TV remote cannot fully replace your smartphone/PC when it comes to controlling the Chromecast device. This is because the TV remote supports limited operations, and thus, you won’t be able to stop, rewind, or even fast-forward your media by just using a remote. However, in the future, it seems highly likely that Chromecast will start supporting these operations via the TV remote.
For now, you’ll only be able to perform basic operations such as play/pause through your remote, but the question is that what else is needed even? No doubt adding support for more operations would be a great move, but, for the most part, people only need to perform those operations that are already supported by the device. Accordingly, using the HDMI-CEC feature of your TV to control your Chromecast device through the remote could come in quite handy.
If you’re looking for more ways to take control of your Chromecast device, we should mention that having Google Assistant and Google Home Speakers could be helpful. You can utter voice commands to perform several operations, which include adjusting the volume, pausing the content, and much more.
Conclusion
Although your TV remote is no substitute for your smartphone/PC when it comes to controlling your Chromecast device, there can be times when you have left your phone on charge in another room and are just too tired to leave your bed. At that instant, it’ll feel like a blessing to be able to pause/resume your video by using a TV remote. Accordingly, we hope that our article was able to help you set up your Chromecast remote. If not, make sure to comment down below the problem you’re experiencing so that other Chromecast users could come to the rescue.
