Ambient mode pictures appear darker

[Arvindp]

Pictures in my Google Photos album appear darker on the TV screen when they are displayed via the Chromecast (gen 1) ambient mode setting - when compared to the same album viewed via Google Photos app on the TV. Does Google apply some kind of vignette filter to these photos before they are displayed in the Chromecast ambient mode?

[JenniferV · Accepted solution]

Hey there, 

Yes, you are correct. The Chromecast provides a slight overlay on the bottom portion of certain backdrop images to make sure that the network name, time, and the weather provided on the backdrop display can easily be seen (especially for backdrop images that are light in color). This is working as intended and there is nothing that you can do to adjust the dark appearance of certain backdrop images. 

As a workaround and as what you did, you can have it set to hide weather, time, and personal photo data.

Regards,

Jennifer

[JenniferV]

Hi Arvindp,

Thanks for reaching out. Could you please confirm if it also appears darker when casting? Can you share a photo of the issue? Please try to create another album with a different set of pictures and check if you will get the same result. 

Thanks,

Jennifer

[Arvindp]

Thank you for suggesting. I may have discovered the reason while I was trying to generate the pictures you asked for. It seems to me that Chromecast adds a kind of vignette at the bottom of the screen IF the ambient settings require that the temp, name, time etc. are chosen for display. If however I choose not to display any of these, then Chromecast does NOT add that darkish vignette to the picture. In other words, under the ambient mode, if the picture carries any such textual info for display, then Chromecast seems to add a tinted vignette at the lower bottom of the screen. This sounds reasonable to me. Would appreciate if you could confirm this understanding. 

[JenniferV · Accepted solution]

Hey there, 

Yes, you are correct. The Chromecast provides a slight overlay on the bottom portion of certain backdrop images to make sure that the network name, time, and the weather provided on the backdrop display can easily be seen (especially for backdrop images that are light in color). This is working as intended and there is nothing that you can do to adjust the dark appearance of certain backdrop images. 

As a workaround and as what you did, you can have it set to hide weather, time, and personal photo data.

Regards,

Jennifer

[Arvindp · Accepted solution]

@Thank you @JenniferV 

[JenniferV]

Hello Arvindp,

You're welcome! Do you still need help or have other questions and concerns?

Regards,

Jennifer

[Arvindp]

Nothing more for now. Thank you for your help..

[JenniferV]

Hi there,

No problem at all. If you don't have any more questions and concerns, I'll go ahead and lock this thread. Feel free to start a new thread in the Community should you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic.

Have a good one!

Best,

Jennifer