1 Rename Your Roku Players
The ability to cast video and photos from your phone is a great feature. The ability to send YouTube videos from your computer or phone to your TV is even better, but if you are like me and own multiple Rokus sometimes it can be confusing to remember what serial number is the living room Roku and what is the bedroom Roku.
There is good news! If you head over to your My Account page on Roku’s website, you can rename your Roku boxes. That way you can easily figure out what Roku is in your living room and what one is in your bedroom without having to go find a serial number.
2 Roku Apps
Roku has a super powerful and helpful app for Android, iOS, and Fire OS devices. This app will let you cast photos and videos from your phone or tablet to your TV. And you can use your mobile device as a remote for your Roku if you ever lose your remote.
The Roku app also solves one of the most common complaints about all streaming players: The onscreen keyboards are slow and painful to use. With the Roku app your mobile device can be used as a keyboard for usernames and passwords.
3 Captions
Ever miss what was said on the TV? Is the sound low so you don’t wake someone up or is it just hard to understand what was said? Roku now lets you enable captions for instant replay. Just hit the Replay button and for the few seconds of the replay, your Roku will enable closed captions. (Settings > Captions > click “Instant Replay.”)
What if you want to know what is being said when the sound is muted? The game or show is on and the phone rings. So you hit mute but still want to know what is being said. Now with Roku TVs you can enable mute captions so anytime your TV is muted the captions will automatically turn on.
4 Turn Off Talking Menus
Go to Settings, Accessibility, and then Audio Guide. The various configurations available to you are as follows:
Audio Guide On/Off
You can just select to turn Audio Guide On or Off, or on any screen, you can turn the Audio Guide On or Off by pressing four times.
5 Cast Netflix or YouTube
Searching Netflix or YouTube on your TV is not nearly as fast or as easy as searching on your computer or phone. Now Roku will let you search for the show or video you want on your phone and cast it to your TV. All you need to do is hit the Cast button on the Netflix or YouTube app and select your Roku player. (Note: You must be on the same Wi-Fi network for this to work.)
Do you have a pro tip for Roku players? Post it in the comments and let everyone know about it.
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