How To Turn Off The TV With Chromecast In Seconds

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I had been going on a decluttering spree and wanted to bring down the number of remotes in my home.

I had to find a way to turn the TV off, which had my Chromecast connected to it.

When I went online to look up how to do this, I found out that it was possible, and you’ll need a Google Home for it, which I did.

I went on other user forums as well to see how others in the community implemented this feature.

This guide is a result of that research so that you can turn your TV off with your Chromecast.

To turn your TV off with Chromecast, turn on HDMI-CEC on your TV and connect the Chromecast to your Google Home. You can then use voice commands to turn the TV off.

Ensure your TV comes with the HDMI-CEC feature

HDMI-CEC is a baked-in feature that most TVs with HDMI have that let you control other devices connected through HDMI.

You can control up to 15 devices, but the most impressive part is that it lets the devices connected through HDMI control each other.

This is what we will use to get the Chromecast to turn the TV off.

So the first thing you need to do is to check if your TV supports this feature.

What Each Company labels HDMI-CEC as

HDMI-CEC sounds dry and not marketable enough; at least, that’s what TV manufacturers think.

As a result, they have renamed this feature into something more marketing-friendly.

These trade names might seem familiar if you’ve looked around in your TV’s settings.

Some of the popular brands have renamed HDMI-CEC to:

• Roku: 1-Touch Play
• Samsung: Anynet+
• Sony: BRAVIA Link, BRAVIA Sync, or Control for HDMI.
• LG: SimpLink
• Sharp: Aquos Link
• Panasonic: VIERA Link, HDAVI Control or EZ-Sync.
• AOC: E-link

Ensure you have a working Google Home Speaker

Now you need a Google Home speaker that can control the Chromecast over WiFi.

Make sure that it’s working and can be set up for use.

You can use any Google Home, but I will include the list of devices anyway, to be doubly sure.

• Original Google Home.
• Home Mini
• Home Max
• Home Hub (Nest Hub)
• Home Hub Max (Nest Hub Max).

Install the Google Home App on your Smartphone

To control the Chromecast, you should download the Google Home app from your phone’s app marketplace.

After downloading the app, sign in to the Google account that you are going to use.

Ensure that HDMI-CEC is Activated on your TV

Usually, TVs have HDMI-CEC turned off by default.

Enable it if you haven’t; you can look at the manual for your TV to know how to turn it on.

Either that or you can look in your TV settings menu to find and turn on HDMI-CEC.

It was enabled by default on my Sony TV, and I could access it by pressing the button labeled SYNC MENU on my remote.

Plug your Google Chromecast into your TV

Now it’s time to plug the Google Chromecast into your TV.

Find a free HDMI port and plug the Chromecast in.

I would advise using the HDMI extender that comes with the Chromecast because you will need a lot of space behind the TV.

Connect the power port of the Chromecast into the USB port of a wall adapter.

Don’t use the HDMI ports on the TV itself because if you turn the TV off, the Chromecast will also lose power and turn off, which defeats the purpose of setting this up.

Go through the Setup Procedure for the Google Chromecast

Turn your TV on and change the input to HDMI.

The Chromecast first setup will start, and it will tell you to get the Google Home app.

At this point, you already have the app installed and have already signed into your Google account, so open the app.

Click the + icon on the top left and select Set up device.

Then select Set up new devices and select the Home you need the Chromecast to be added to.

The app will automatically search for devices and will detect the Chromecast.

The TV and the app will show a four-digit code and if they match, hit Yes.

Set which room the TV is in, and finally connect the Chromecast to your Wi-Fi network by giving it your Wi-Fi password.

If your Chromecast doesn’t connect to your Wi-Fi, try restarting the device.

Go through the Setup Procedure for the Google Home Speaker

The last step is to set up the brains of the whole operation, the Google Home device itself.

Plugin the Google Home into a power outlet, and the app will automatically find and connect to it.

If the app does not detect Google Home automatically, set it up as you did with the Chromecast.

Make sure the Wi-Fi network you are connecting the Google Home to and the room you assign it are the same as the Chromecast.

Verify that they are connected on the Google Home App

The main screen of the Google Home app will tell you if both devices have been connected.

It will be labeled [Room Name] TV and [Room Name] speaker.

If they aren’t there, go through the setup process again and check if the assigned rooms are the same.

How to Turn off your TV Using Chromecast?

If everything is set up correctly and both devices show up in the Google Home app, you can try the voice command to turn the TV off.

Simply say “OK Google, TV on” while the TV is off to turn it on, or say “OK Google, TV off” to turn it off.

There are more commands that you can try, like lowering the volume or changing channels.

You can say “Okay Google, mute/unmute TV” to mute or unmute the TV, or say “Okay Google, play/pause/resume/stop on TV” to control the stream playing on the TV as well.

Control Multiple TVs Using Chromecast

To control multiple TVs using a Chromecast, you need to have one Chromecast for each TV.

Set up all the Chromecasts for all the TVs you want to control, and name them differently in the Google Home app.

Once you have done this, you can use voice commands with each Chromecast’s specific name and control them individually.

For example, you can say “OK Google, bedroom TV on” and then say “Okay Google, mute Living Room TV”.

Set Default Media Playback Device on Chromecast

When you ask your Google Home to play any piece of media, you can also make it run on a specific device by default.

To do this:

1. Make sure you connect the phone, Chromecast and Google Home to the same Wi-Fi network.
2. Open Google Home and select Devices.
3. Select your Google Home and tap the three-dot menu
4. Choose Settings.
5. Under Device Info, select Default media playback.
6. Select the Chromecast that you want to play all media on by default.

After setting it up, ask Google Home to play something and see if it plays on the Chromecast you just set.

What Else Can I Do with Chromecast

There are quite a few things you can do with your Chromecast, including integrations with third-party services like IFTTT or streaming services like Netflix or Hulu.

Connect Netflix to Google Home

To connect your Google Home to your Netflix account:

• Tap Settings from the bottom of the screen.
• Tap Video under Services.

• Find Netflix from the list and tap Link.

• Log in to your Netflix account to link it to your Google Home.

Troubleshooting Chromecast

If you cannot get the Chromecast to work with your TV, you can try the following:

1. Update your Chromecast software to the latest version.
2. Update your TV’s firmware. Read your TV’s manual to find out how to do this.
3. Make sure CEC is turned on.
4. Use a different HDMI port for the Chromecast.
5. Power cycle the TV.

Final Thoughts

After setting up the Chromecast, if you get a No devices found error message on Chromecast when you try to connect or cast to the Chromecast, try unplugging the Chromecast and plugging it back into the TV again.

If you aren’t, your Google Home will return a ‘Could Not Communicate with Your Chromecast’ error.

To fix this, factory reset the Chromecast.

You May Also Enjoy Reading

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• How to Cast to Chromecast From Mobile Hotspot: How-To Guide [2021]
• Slow Upload Speed: How to Fix in Seconds [2021]
• How to Connect Non-Smart TV to Wi-Fi in Seconds [2021]

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I turn off narrator on Chromecast?

Go to the Settings screen of your Chromecast and open the Accessibility tab.

Turn off TalkBack to turn off the narrator.

Can Google home turn on my TV without Chromecast?

You can make your Google Home turn on your TV without Chromecast by using a third-party universal remote.

Add the remote to your Google Home system and use voice commands to Google Home to turn your TV off.

Should I turn Chromecast off?

Your Chromecast uses very little power or data when not being used.

So unless you are on a data-limited network, you don’t need to turn it off.

What happens if you unplug Chromecast?

If you unplug just the Chromecast, nothing will happen and you can get back to whatever you were doing with the device before you unplugged it.

If you unplug the power source, however, the Chromecast will turn off.