8 Google TV Tweaks to Instantly Boost Speed and Performance

Mobile use for entertainment has increased significantly in recent years, and for the first time, traditional TV use has dropped by 50%, and the number of households in the US with cable connections has also decreased by 44% compared to 2011.

However, some households still prefer TV as a main entertainment device despite the increase in mobile use. I still prefer TV for all my entertainment. It is because it has a larger display and more experience compared to the small screen, and also, movies are better enjoyed on the big screen with better sound, along with my friends.

This is the reason I bought a 55-inch Sony for my home and entertainment, and have been using it for six months. I have opted for the Google TV. Since I live in India. I use a mix of local and global OTT platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and Prime Video, and Google TV supports all of them out of the box.

However, despite being a market leader in the TV OS and the most preferred OS for the majority of TV brands, Google TV is still often slow, buggy, and cluttered compared to others like Roku or Apple TV.

So, finally, I have decided to improve my experience and boost speed by testing and disabling different settings. Third-party apps and more. Here are the 7 settings that helped me to enhance my experience on Google TV.

8 Google TV Tweaks You Should Change Right Now

Scale Down Animations for Faster Navigation

If you are okay with not having smoother animations, you can disable the animation scales to 0.5x or completely turn off the animations for a faster Google TV experience.

To scale down the animations, you need to first enable Developer Options.

How to turn on developer options on Google TV:

• Go to settings on your Google TV, and then about
• Find the option that says Build number or Google TV OS Build entry.
  
• Tap on it 7 times continuously using your remote until you see a message that says “You are now a developer”.
• Now, go back to the About settings, and you will see the new Developer options setting.
  

How to scale down animations on Google TV

• Open developer options and scroll down to the animation section.
• Here you will see three animation scale settings: Windows animation scale, Transition animation Scale, and Animator duration scale, and set all animation scales to off. 

Limit the Background Processes

Google TV offers plenty of services; there are plenty of background processes that can run in parallel, which might reduce the performance of your TV. Since the majority of Google TVs have underpowered hardware, this can lead to slow performance and a laggy experience. To reduce this, you can completely disable all unnecessary background processes from the settings.

• Once you have enabled the developer options on your Google TV. Open settings and go to developer options.
• Now, scroll down and find the option that says Background process limit, and set it to No background process. 

This will also disable the majority of the background apps so that you don’t need them when you immediately start using the TV. You can disable them by stopping them at launch.

Uninstall/Remove Bloatware from your Google TV

Having multiple apps can slow down your Google TV. To increase its performance, you can remove unwanted apps on your TV.

There are plenty of methods you can use to delete the bloatware on your Google TV. Here are the two popular methods that work. First, if you have installed apps from the Play Store, you can go to Settings> Apps> See all apps and uninstall those apps.

Here are two ways you can uninstall pre-installed apps on your TV. To uninstall pre-installed apps, you should first enable developer options on your Google TV.

You can also uninstall system apps using ADB. This is an advanced method and requires some technical knowledge and effort to completely remove the bloatware from your TV. You can also connect your Google TV wirelessly and disable the pre-installed app on your smartphone. To do this, follow the steps below.

• First, install the ADB app on your Windows. You can download it from adbappcontrol.com website. It allows you to remove the Google TV bloatware. Next, download the Android SDK platform tool. You can use Google Sites and extract and download it for your device.
• Now, you need your TV’s IP address to make this work. You can go to Settings > Network > Wi-Fi network, and you have to ensure that both your PC and TV are on the same Wi-Fi network. Now, note the IP address.
• Next, you need to set up the ADB control on your PC. Open the ADB control app on your Windows PC.
• Next, enter the IP address of your TV in the top right corner to connect to your TV. It will automatically find and uninstall bloatware on your Google TV and leave the default.
• It will remove all the apps. Also, if you want more control, you can manually select the apps you want to disable. The apps you want to remove are highlighted at the top and bottom.
• Choose disable, click on apply, and then yes in the confirmation.

How to Uninstall apps using ADB TV: App Manager (Without PC)

If you don’t have access to the PC or any external device, you can use the ADB TV app on your TV to quickly uninstall bloatware on your Google TV.

• Install the ADB TV app on your Google TV. You can visit the Play Store and search for the ADB TV app.
• Open the app and follow the on-screen instructions to give all permissions.
• Enable Developer Options on your TV. Go to Settings > About > TV OS Build and tap it 7 times until you see the message “You are now a developer. “ If you have already enabled it, skip this step.
• Next, turn on USB Debugging. Visit developer options and turn on USB Debugging.
• Now you need to connect the app to your device. In ADB TV, select Connect, and a pop-up will appear. Check on the allowance.
• Now, ADB TV will load all installed applications, including hidden system apps.
• Next, browse through the list of apps. If you find bloatware apps like Apple TV, YouTube, and all, you can disable the app or Uninstall it completely.
• Click apply. Ensure you don’t accidentally remove the system apps.

Turn Off  Recommendations

Google TV launcher has improved over the years. However, it’s still cluttered, slow, and filled with ads and recommendations that many users don’t find useful.

For a better experience, you can simply disable the recommendations on the Google TV home screen for a clutter-free experience. You can easily turn off the Google TV recommendations from the settings.

• Open Settings on your Google TV.
• Next, scroll down and select Accounts & Sign-In.
• Now, choose your active Google account listed under the Accounts & Sign-In section.
• Then, scroll down until you find the option called Apps Only Mode.
• Next, turn on the Apps Only Mode by toggling the switch.

Use a Custom Launcher for Ad-Free UI

There are a few third-party launcher options that are better and also offer a better user interface and are faster compared to the Google TV default launcher.

After testing. We found Lean Launcher is the best. It offers a simple grid layout with app titles. However, it doesn’t come with any recommendations, as added TV has, and the best part.

It is significantly faster than the default Google launcher with snappier animations, and another popular launcher that we like is Projectivity Launcher. It also offers a clean and ad-free home screen interface, with no recommendations, no autoplay trials, and is lightweight and faster to use.

You can install and replace the default Google TV launcher with these and get more features and a better experience.

Change the Default Video Player on Your Google TV

Videos are the heart of TVs, and it is very important to have a very good video player to get the best experience while playing videos. Most Google TVs come with a basic video player powered by ExoPlayer, developed by Google.

Compared to third-party video players, the default Google TV video player lacks features such as customization, high-quality codec support, and advanced playback controls.

Sometimes, it doesn’t even support all video formats and lacks key features such as basic playback speed control, especially when watching content from external sources, which often leads to buffering issues and errors while playing.

Fortunately, Google TV allows you to set third-party apps as the default video player on your Google TV, which is often a better choice compared to the default video player.

There are plenty of video player apps available for Google TV. We already have a list of our favorites, which you can view here. On top of our list is always VLC, an open-source and better alternative to the default video player on Google TV.

From format support to subtitle control and playback control, VLC offers better support and more features compared to the default video player on your Google TV. We have a detailed breakdown of different video players in the guide to save you time.

VLC player supports almost all formats, including MKV, MP4, AVI, FLAC, DSA, etc., so you can connect and play any video you want on your Google TV. It also supports advanced audio like Dolby DTS and more.

It also supports file management, which lets you organize all your videos in one place. It offers better playback controls, including speed and gesture support, and is optimized to even play high-quality video like 4K, offering the best performance without struggling.

However, one thing I have noticed is that the VLC player struggles with some TV hardware in the beginning. However, over time, if you limit other resource usage, the player often becomes the best at offering great features.

Download VLC Media Player for Google TV

Set Up Parental Controls

Since TVs are often shared devices in a home where children can watch and access the content easily, including installing apps and channels, and also access streaming apps on TV.

Since the majority of the time, parents are not available, children can access this content, which can negatively impact their lives and expose them to misleading content.

This is where you can set parental controls on your Android TV and restrict content that can be harmful from existing for your children.

As a part of preventing children from accessing inappropriate content, Google has introduced Parental Controls for Android TV and profiles in 2021.

Parental Controls require a TV OS 9 or higher, and you need to be signed in to a Google account on your TV and also Google Family Link. You can use the Android TV Parental Controls.

How to Turn on Parental Controls on your Google TV

• First, go to the Settings menu on your Google TV
• Next, scroll down and choose Device Preferences or Device Settings, depending on your TV model.
• Now, select Parental Controls from the list. If it asks for a PIN, enter the PIN. If you are accessing the parental controls for the first time, you need to set a PIN for the parental controls. You can enter the PIN and confirm the PIN.  Remember this PIN to access parental controls in the future.
• Next, turn on the parental controls. You can also further configure settings using other options.

If you often want to access the child’s TV, you can create a separate profile and offer a more personalized experience to your child by setting up a kids’ profile on your Google TV

• Click on your profile picture on your Google TV, or you can go to Settings and then Account.
• To create a new kid profile, scroll down and choose Add a Kid under the ‘Who’s watching’ section. If you have already added your child’s profile to the Family Link app, it will appear here.
• Next, click on Get Started to set up a new child profile. You can either link an existing Google account
• Then, select the apps you want your child to access. You can check and uncheck from the list of installed apps on your Google TV.
• Next, go through the setup wizard and set up all the content filters and viewing restrictions. You can restrict content by age rating for both movies and TV shows.
• After that, go to Settings > Accounts & Sign-in, and select your child’s profile.

When your children watch TV, you change the profile to a kid’s profile or set it as the default if they have their own TV in their bedroom. You can also watch and monitor the content using the Family Link app. You can connect your kids’ accounts to the Family Link app on your device.

Customize the Home Screen To Show Only Preferred Apps

Whether you are using the default Google TV launcher or any third-party Google TV launcher, you can remove any unnecessary app recommendations and only show preferred apps on your Google TV.

Fortunately, both third-party launchers and also built-in Google TV launcher allow you to set or hide default apps on the home screen for a distraction-free experience.

FAQs on Google TV Settings

1. How do I remove or change the default live TV tab on Google TV’s home screen?

No, currently, there is no way to change the default Live TV tab on the Google TV home screen. However, if you want a different experience, you can install any third-party Google TV launcher and customize your home screen.

2. How can I block ads entirely on Google TV without rooting the device?

You can install any third-party launchers like Projectivy Launcher to completely remove recommendations and ads from the Google TV home screen. However, currently, there is no way to disable ads inside the streaming apps or any app.

3. What is the safest way to root a Google TV for advanced customizations, and what are the risks?

While rooting Google TV gives deeper control and high-level customization options, however, rooting your device has some dangers, especially since it is a TV unit that we don’t update often. First, it voids the warranty, meaning that in the future, any software or hardware issues related to it should be paid for, or some services also don’t offer support directly since it was a rooted device. There are also security risks, and it might even make your TV brick, some OTT apps also don’t work by default on rooted devices. However, there is a way you can still root your device. I highly recommend you watch this video if you still want to go, but before that, note all the issues that you may face while using your Google TV.

4. Is it safe to disable system apps using ADB without rooting the TV?

It is generally safe to disable system apps using ADB without rooting your Android device. It doesn’t require any root, which means you won’t have all the risks associated with rooting Google TV, and it can be easily reversible, meaning that most visible apps can be enabled with simple ADB, and also it doesn’t impact any OTA update. In fact, the apps removed from the ADB can come back in the new system update. You are just temporarily removing them on your Google TV locally for a specific update.

5. Can I undo these changes later if I want to restore the default Google TV experience?

Yes, you can always undo these changes later. If you want to return to the default Google TV experience, all the steps I have recommended here are easily reversible. You can follow the same-step process or enable or disable the video based on the initial steps that I have recommended.

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