One of the ways Amazon’s Fire TVs are better than Google’s Chromecasts is that they allow more experimentation with them and give access to hidden features and customizations of all kinds.
For example, they have quick access to a hidden menu that allows you to see advanced statistics while you use your Fire TV.
Activate the “X-rays” of your Fire TV Stick
System X-Ray is a tool that helps internal and external developers identify application or system problems on Amazon Fire TV devices. As with other devices, this developer menu can also help you unlock full potential or access locked features.
After activating System X-Ray, a long rectangular overlay appears on the screen displaying different types of information, including information related to the type of image we are viewing, CPU, memory, or network resource consumption.
In effect, it is as if we were accessing an X-ray of the Fire TV from the inside and knowing the metrics of what we cannot see directly. You can invoke the Developer Tools menu in several ways.
Using the remote, on the directional pad, hold down the center button for one second; then (still holding Center), press the Down button as well. Hold down both buttons for about 3-4 seconds. Then release both buttons and press the Menu button on your controller. (If this doesn’t work, try holding Center and Down simultaneously instead of staggered.)
However, there is another way that is even easier and validated by Amazon. As AVPasión reports , you can use the remote and the official store to search for an app called “Developers Tool Menu Shortcut for Fire TV” . This will open the developer menu directly without the need for the remote key combination and will serve as a shortcut.
All the information of interest when activating this menu
The screen section can show for example the HDMI mode, including the physical height of the screen in pixels and the refresh rate in frames per second. For example, if the screen shows “1080p 60”, it means that 1080 pixels is the physical height of the screen and 60 is the refresh rate in frames per second. You’ll also see what version of HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) your Amazon Fire TV device uses to encrypt content that’s sent over the HDMI cable to your TV.
The CPU section shows the percentage of CPU usage of each core of the device in real time with different colors. Each column represents a different nucleus. CPU usage is represented as follows:
- 0% to 33% (low utilization) is displayed in green
- 34% to 66% (moderate usage) is shown in orange
- 67% to 100% (high utilization) is shown in red
In the Memory section, we can check the Application (blue), Other (gray) and Available (white) labels, the memory use of the application in the foreground, of the rest of the applications and how much is available to know if we are using up too many resources Of the device.
The Network section displays WiFi signal strength along with download rates across the device and for the visible app, with indicators like RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) , how many bits per second are actively downloading to the device or how many bits per second the visible app is actively downloading.