Chromecast Can Be Controlled With Your TV Remote

If you use a Chromecast device to throw content from your smartphone onto your TV, I'd wager you have been irritated at some point that it doesn't come with a remote control. The only way to control content on the device is to wake up your smartphone and fiddle with onscreen controls. That is changing with a new update to the Chromecast that adds the ability to pause and play streaming content using a TV remote control.

The feature is possible thanks to Chromecast supporting HDMI-CEC, which is an extension of HDMI protocol that is able to send commands between the TV and any device that is attached to it via an HDMI port. Naturally, you will need a TV that supports that feature.

The pause and play function was added to Chromecast with the 27946 firmware update. Reports indicate that the pause/play functionality works with most apps including YouTube, HBO Go, Allcast, iPlayer, and several other apps. Again, this will depend on if your TV supports HDMI-CEC.

I've seen TVs in the past that only have a single port with HDMI-CEC so you may need to investigate ports on your TV if the pause/play functionality doesn't work for you. Sadly, the pause function reportedly doesn't work with Netflix.

SOURCE: Medium