Do you know an open source TV app for Android TV so Google cannot push its shit?
Do you know an open source TV app for Android TV so Google cannot push its shit?
I basically gave up on finding a custom ROM for this TV so I'm looking for alternative TV apps to at least change the default app. Do you know if there is an app like this exist? It should work with satellite, I'm not looking for IPTV or streaming services, just something that supports plain satellite TV.
Edit: Currently experimenting with KODI, no luck yet though. If you also have suggestions regarding to it, I'm all ears.
Edit 2: KODI (and so Jellyfin, Plex etc.) needs a backend server for Live TV so add-ons alone won't work. According to KODI Wiki, currently there are no backends that work on Android. I also tried Google's older app called Live Channels but Google doesn't let you to run it because it's old more useful.
Edit 3: I at least blocked all many of those ad streaming domains on pi-hole. Here is the regex I added to my blacklist. Maybe it will be useful for another poor soul who bought TCL TV.
^(.*\.)?(leiniao\.com|kedo-tclrestream\.b-cdn\.net|now\.amagi\.tv|huan\.tv|rttv\.com|kaltura\.com|plex\.tv|otteravision\.com|ads\.ottera\.tv|sofast\.tv|jwplayer\.com|fuelmedia\.io|molotov\.tv|mcncdndigital\.com|evrideo\.tv|aniview\.com|partytymestreaming\.com|playmoviesdfe-pa\.googleapis\.com|ov-static\.ottera\.tv|ottera\.tv)$
There are also some cloudfront domains however they use hash, so it's not possible to block the future hashes by now and they will appear again.
Edit 4: After some hiatus, I have one more update to add here. I decided to go uninstalling apps via adb, since it's always possible to factory reset. However it didn't go as planned at first.
After enabling developer options on TV, I connected to it with adb connect 192.168.X.XX. You'll need android-platform-tools package on your PC to do this (it basically provides adb and fasboot). Anyway, after connected to it, I deleted apps with adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 app.name.here. I went medieval at first and deleted everything that has TCL in it. And that broke everything. I couldn't even factory reset. Apparently TCL swapped some system apps with theirs. After some adrenaline, I realized that I can create another user, so that would bring all the apps I deleted.
I created user via adb with:
adb shell
pm create-user "NewUser"
and switched to that user via
am switch-user userID. To see users command pm list users. In my case the user ID was 10. After this, I was able to factory reset.
These are the apps I deleted to remove bloatware:
com.netflix.ninja
com.tcl.tv.tclhome_passive
com.tcl.dashboard
com.tcl.partnercustomizer
com.tcl.t_solo
au.com.stan.and
tv.wuaki.apptv
com.tcl.suspension
com.amazon.amazonvideo.livingroom
com.tcl.ui_mediaCenter
com.tcl.MultiScreenInteraction_TV
com.tcl.hotelmenu
com.tcl.guard
com.tcl.channelplus
com.tcl.miracast
com.tcl.inputmethod.international
com.tcl.waterfall.overseas
com.tcl.ttvs
com.tcl.useragreement
com.tcl.keyhelp
And these are the one I didn't delete:
com.tcl.initsetup
com.tcl.factory.view
com.tcl.system.server
com.tvos
com.tcl.providers.config
com.tcl.autopair
com.tcl.android.webview
Since there is no Google account login this time, I had to install some apps via adb as well.
I did it with this command: adb install app_name.apk
I installed Projectivity Launcher for a better default launcher experience.
I also played with Shizuku and Canta and it's great to be able to use those too.
Added an update.
I'm not aware of an alternative TV App for android tv. On my android TV live tv is also wrapped within the android interface but other sources like HDMI inputs are not.
If you can switch to HDMI sources outside the android apps then maybe the best thing to do is get a separate basic satellite tuner device?
It seems shitty that google are effectively hiding your inbuilt tv tuner behind an app with all their advertising and other crap.
Yeah it sucks. I believe it shouldn't be hard to replace the default TV app but I couldn't find any alternative so maybe it is.
It is technically possible to use a separate tuner but my mother got this TV because she didn't want a separate box laying around in the first place. So I don't think she would want that. Personally I'm a home server guy but I don't want my mother to use her TV with Google's bullshit either.
Projectivy launcher.
I don't have traditional TV service so I'm unfamiliar with what "shit" Google is pushing through the TV app. However, if it's what I suspect (ads), a possible option would be using a local DNS server (like pi-hole or Unbound) to block Google domains on your TV.
It's worse. They add "personalized" ad TVs between the normal ones so these clutter the whole list. While it's technically possible to just use the satellite list, it's not a default behaviour and always revert to it when you switch to something else. While adding the domain on Pi-hole would solve the streaming part, it wouldn't solve the cluttering part sadly.
The general consensus seems to be "buy a dumb TV or at least the dumbest 'smart' TV you can find and never connect it to the net" and then "buy the media box that behaves the way you want."
Where I am, cable and satellite TV providers still have you rent a box for their service.
Edit: the lone review on this page suggests there is an "old" TCL TV app. Another but they don't have good reviews...
I'm full behind of buying a big monitor and plug a mini pc or raspberry pi kind of thing. But my mother wanted to experience smart TVs, no matter what I told. So here I am, trying to reduce the damage. :)
By the way, that first TCL app is still included and it's way worse than default TV app.
Think I use FLauncher, gets rid of ads on the home screen, and Smarttube for youtube. Instead of Netflix etc, I host my own plex server on my gaming pc for whenever I wanna watch some linux ISOs
I wish I could get those Linux ISOs through satellite tuner.
By "default app" I assume you mean the launcher. Just google for "android tv launcher".
If by "plain satellite TV" mean using one of the input sources on the TV (like HDMI, component, RF etc.)... this is unrelated to the launcher and would still work regardless of which one you used.
No, I'm not looking for a launcher. For example this is FLauncher but it doesn't change the default TV app, it just changes the UI.
This is a built-in TV app along with the other apps where Google pushes things I don't want to see.
Satellite TV is transmitted as DVB-S. Normally the TV itself does not decode it, but an external box.
How is the Satellite signal getting to your TV?
Yeah, the older TV had a separate box for it but that's included in this one. Just plugged into the cable that connects to satellite dish.
With my android tv I put the main menu in "Apps Only" mode to cut down on the ads... There is still the main screen ad you cannot avoid but thats it.
Then i sideloaded SmartTube, which is youtube but it skips the ads for you.
I also have a Plex server i stream from.and update by torrenting shows to the server separately when theyre interesting enough. This takes more time and effort but is definitely worth it to have control over your media.
There are no ads in the UI (thanks to launcher) but the problem is not the ads. There are ad TVs in between the TV channels list, which you can switch to satellite list to lose them but it's not a default behaviour so every time you had to do this, which is not convenient. I also sideloaded SmartTube but was hoping to find an alternative to default TV app as well.
I think you need a different hardware solution entirely. If your goal is satellite, get a dedicated satellite box and feed it directly to you air gapped TV, and switch HDMI like the olden days.
No android box that supports streaming (with associated DRM and therefore bullshit) will offer true privacy. If you don't care about streaming and want to integrate satellite into your own selfhosted content, try mini PC with an openELEC variant that supports multiple input, or use an AVR to feed multiple sources into it.
Well, technically it's my mother's TV and I'm trying to find a solution for the useless and infuriating parts of it. I installed SmartTubeNext for Youtube for example. But this default TV app is plagued with Google's bullshit. The older TV had a satellite box and at least it didn't have these problems. I suggested a custom Android box previously where I was gonna install a custom ROM but she didn't want it, so I have to improvise.
- Invest in an Nvidia Shield
- Install LineageOS Android TV
I have two of these in the household, one of the best tech investments I made. No more homescreen ads.
I would install LineageOS if it was possible, there are no ROMs. I'm not even sure if the bootloader is unlockable.
I was able to unlock the bootloader and root my Hisense Android TV just fine. I think you can also root TCLs, but I'd check xda first.
I didn't even need to enable OEM unlocking first to unlock the bootloader. Dumping the boot.img was a different story. Someone did it for me for my model, since my model's UBoot firmware is missing a lot of functionality. You may have better luck dumping through UBoot using the UART interface, or maybe there's an alternative. If your TV is a GKI device and you can boot a generic kernel, yhen you can use KernelSU without needing to first dump the stock boot.img (or init_boot.img), then you might be able to upgrade and dump the stock one from the other partition before rebooting
I couldn't figure out how to get into BROM mode on my TV.
Make sure there is a reliable way to reflash the firmware in case of a brick. Hisense provides firmware packages that can be flashed from the bootloader without needing to boot an OS.
I've never used the tuner/TV part of my sony x900f, only HDMI inputs and apps. Is google pushing ads to live tv now?
Not exactly like that but there are 20K+ ad TVs in the same list with the satellite ones which has only 400 channels. It is possible to switch to satellite only list but it always reverts so you have to do this every time. So I need either a separate app or the modified version of this current one. However it's possible that TV producers most likely don't open their SDKs so no one can create an app without reverse engineering.
Stremio
Smarttube
It's great and already installed.
Maybe I don't know enough of this, but would it be possible to install Kodi and use that and it's plugins for satellite? Plex also had this, and maybe Jellyfin is a good option?
In that way, you can show your satellite channels but in their interface.
Maybe that can do the trick?
Actually I was hoping to use KODI but apprently it needs a backend server to reach Live TV which doesn't work on Android. Needs a self-hosted solution. Same thing with Jellyfin or Plex.
Idk if this helps, but I recently learned Plasma BigScreen is a thing.
Sadly it's unavailable while it is being re-worked, but I am really hoping it turns out to be good. It's not all too hard to find a cheap or free used/refurb PC that's good enough to play video on a TV
It's paid but I use Sideload Channel Launcher. Best customization I've seen
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dxidev.sideloadchannel4
I checked it but it's just a launcher that changes the UI, it doesn't replace the default TV app.
It definitely does replace the TV app however....if you have shield you need another app to do that
https://www.mediafire.com/file/kzirqjm1ww73ry4/TDUK_LauncherManager-ATV_1.0.3.apk/file
Found this from a kind soul at reddit who uploaded this their MediaFire.
This works as I use it and I never see that horrible ad ridden tripe.
Nintendo switch (w/ dock) with android installed buggy but daily drivable, you can get it with or without gapps. (You need to homebrew the switch first)