If it has a screen, you may want to take a screenshot at some point. it’s possible on mobiles, in the pc, on smart watches with Wear OS and also on TV. Today we tell you how can you take a screenshot on Android TV.
Android TV is the version of Android optimized for televisions, TV Boxes and similar devices. Not all devices with Android TV are the same, so the way you take screenshots may vary. To ensure success, we tell you three ways to take screenshots on Android TV.
The easy option: with the remote
Before installing applications, activating development modes and USB debugging, it is worth it test if universal screen capture mode on Android works also on your device with Android TV: press two keys at the same time.
To do this, press at the same time the power button and the volume down button on the remote control, and wait to see if the animation and sound indicating that a screenshot has been taken is displayed. Sometimes these buttons are quite far apart, so the position is not very ergonomic.
If this method works, congratulations, you do not need to install anything or do any incidents to take screenshots, although you will still need an application to be able to send the captures to another device such as a PC or mobile.
The captures you take with this method are saved in the Pictures / Screenshots folder and you can recover them with any application to send files from TV, as Send Files to TV, File Commander or Easy Join Go TV.
The reliable option: with Button Mapper
Button Mapper is an application for Android TV with which you can assign actions to remote control buttons. Its customization potential is enormous, although the most important thing is that one of those actions can be precisely to take a screenshot.
You can download it directly from Google Play on TV and the first time you open it, you should activate it as an accessibility service. To do this, you need to go to the Android settings, in the accessibility section and activate the box with the name of the application.
Then it’s time to remap the buttons. The application allows you to change the actions of the start button and those of volume for free, being able to configure a different action when doing a double or long press. This way, you can keep the volume button working as usual for volume, but take screenshots with a long press.
After choosing the button you want to customize – you can also configure others, in Add Buttons-, you must choose what type of keystroke you want to configure and, finally, the action. This is where you must choose Screenshot, for that button to take screenshots.
From there, each time you press the button you have remapped, the screenshot will be taken and it will be saved internally. You should again use an application like like Send Files to TV, File Commander or Easy Join Go TV for send the screenshots to your mobile.
The universal but complicated option: by ADB
If none of this has worked for you, you can always try taking an old-fashioned screenshot, connecting to TV through ADB. The process, as far as possible, is not very different from connect to mobile using ADB.
You will need to activate developer options on TV, just like on mobile: go to settings, go to information and press several times on Build number until a message indicates that they have been activated. Take advantage of the fact that you are in the information screen to enter the section State and write down the IP address of the TV.
Go back and you will see that now you have a new section with the options for developers. Here you should enable USB Debugging or, if you had the option, network debugging or wireless debugging.
At this point, you already have the TV ready, but you lack the other part: on a PC. You will need to install ADB and connect to the TV using the IP address you wrote down before. This is the command you should use, changing la_ip by IP address.
adb connect la_ip:5555
If everything has gone well, you will be able to take screenshots at your leisure from the other device, without having to make complicated button presses. To do this, you must use the following command, indicating each time a different name for the file, or else it will be overwritten (we have called it capture.png, but it can be any name).
adb shell screencap -p /sdcard/captura.png
The advantage of using ADB is that you can complete the entire process with commands, without having to send yourself or access the captures with other applications. In this way, you can use ADB pull for send the capture you just made to the PC, with the following command:
adb pull /sdcard/captura.png /captura.png
It is not the most convenient way to take screenshots, but connecting to the device via ADB allows you to do everything remotely, without touching the remote control, which has its advantages. Also, by connecting to the Android TV device by ADB, you have the advantage of being able to do other steps, such as installing applications or change the interface to Google TV.
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The news
How to take screenshots on Android TV
was originally published in
Xataka Android
by
Ivan Ramirez
.
