A $12 USB-C hub brought my Chromecast with Google TV back to life

The Chromecast with Google TV is a terrific little streamer held back by one glaring omission: no second USB-C port for power.

Great for travel, that minimalist design leaves you with flaky Wi‑Fi and no expandability back at home. A $12 accessory completely transformed it into a wired, faster, and much more flexible media box.

Chromecast’s one-port problem limits power and peripherals

Out of the box, Chromecast with Google TV has HDMI for video and one USB‑C input for power—no Ethernet, no storage, no accessories. In an apartment building crowded with lots of other networks, 2.4 GHz can buckle under the load; 5 GHz suffers from interference and range loss. That’s not great for 4K streaming: Netflix recommends a minimum of 15 megabits per second for Ultra HD and YouTube advises at least 20 Mbps or more to stream in those formats with stable high dynamic range. When throughput sinks and jitter increases, the buffer runs out and everything falls apart.

There’s an official Google Ethernet Adapter, and it could be a reliable solution for wired networking if you aren’t inclined to geek out with USB‑C hubs. I just wished for slightly more functionality without spending extra or adding bulk.

The $12 fix: a USB‑C hub with power delivery

Surprisingly, the USB‑C port of Chromecast quietly supports USB OTG (On‑The‑Go) data when combined with a hub that passes through power. Chromecast suddenly gets a hub with working USB ports. Plug the wall adapter into the hub’s PD input, plug in your Chromecast, and voilà! ✨ — usable USB ports. Plug in a cheap USB‑to‑Ethernet dongle and it automatically switches on wired networking—there are no obscure settings, no developer menus to access.

That’s the same idea behind what a lot of phone docks already do for Samsung DeX or desktop modes on Android: all you need to do is plug in one cable to power the device and have the hub expose storage, input devices, networking, and so on. The same idea applies here, only that it takes a $30–$50 streamer and makes it behave much more like a small set‑top box.

Real‑world gains: steadier speeds, cleaner streams

Passed through the hub with a basic 10/100 Ethernet adapter, throughput more or less stabilized around the 80–95 Mbps point in multiple Speedtest runs, and local network latency dropped into low single digits.

That’s comfortably above what you need for 4K HDR playback on mainstream services, and means there should be enough spare overhead to cope with high‑bitrate Dolby Vision titles and multichannel‑at‑most audio without buffering mid‑movie.

And the distinctions appear beyond video as well. It’s faster instantly, for the same reason above—sustained bandwidth is constant rather than spiky. For example, app updates download quicker, casting connections feel snappier, and seeking in a long movie feels more immediate. In other words: wired means the difference between Chromecast being “good enough” and “consistently smooth.”

Extra ports unlock storage, input devices, and flexibility

• Keyboard or air mouse: a Bluetooth keyboard or air mouse can pair with the Chromecast for faster searches.
• USB storage: plug a flash drive or external drive into the hub and bring your own media on the road. Android TV supports external storage for local playback, and you can expand app space on Chromecast with Google TV by formatting a compatible drive as device storage in settings. That means fewer annoying “storage full” errors when trying to install big games or streaming apps.

For casual Plex, Jellyfin, or VLC dabbling, the hub actually turns Chromecast into a halfway decent local player that pulls files directly from attached storage. An HDMI port in a hub isn’t helpful—Chromecast already does video over its own HDMI connection—but it doesn’t hurt to have if you want to repurpose the hub with a laptop later.

What to buy (and what to skip) for a stable wired setup

• Hunt for a small USB‑C hub that specifically supports power delivery pass‑through (minimum 15 W; 18 W or greater is best).
• Combine with a USB Ethernet adapter—10/100 is fine for streaming, but if the hub and port support it, you might want to use a Gigabit model for more headroom.
• Use a quality wall charger; underpowered bricks can trigger random reboots with both Ethernet and storage connected.
• Do not rely on the hub to power 2.5‑inch spinning hard drives, as they consume a lot of power. Low‑draw USB sticks or SSDs are safer and faster.
• Although some hubs boast dozens of ports, you need only PD passthrough, at least one USB‑A port, and Ethernet (either built in or with a dongle).
• As streaming giants like Netflix and Disney+ note, steadiness matters more than raw peak speed—prioritize stability rather than frills.

The bottom line: a cheap, reliable upgrade for Chromecast

For about twelve dollars, a USB‑C PD hub gives Chromecast with Google TV the two upgrades it needed most: wired reliability and room to grow.

It’s the cheapest way to solve Wi‑Fi headaches while also adding storage and input options, and it extends the life of millions of devices that people already own. Before you spend money on a new streamer, give the $12 fix a try—it’s a surprisingly big upgrade for an equally surprising small price.