how i set up my android tv
heyy so this is my submission for this month's bearblog carnival. you can read more about it over at moose's blog where you can also find other people's spin on this month's topic.
addressing the giant billboard in my living room
so android tvs. they are actually pretty cool and useful but they are also riddled with design choices that are so anti consumer it is bizarre. this whole device is a giant advertisement for streaming services. you get ads on your homescreen, you get ads baked into your remote. what other device do you know of that has unchangable buttons for apps that you don't even care about? also, you paid the full price of a tv for this. you own the tv. manufacturers might have other ideas about this but we are going to take control back.
before we start a little disclaimer, this is not a guide. this is just what i did. i am not responsible for any damage done for your tv.
fixing the unbindable buttons
you probably have streaming service buttons on your remote that you'll never use. well with button mapper you can remap those to the apps you actually want to use. this whole thing uses the accessibility service to function.
replacing the ad ridden launcher
you have a couple of options to replace the default launcher. before, you could turn on app only mode and use a dumbed down version of the launcher that only the showed apps. nowadays this still shows you an ad at the top.
you can download the projectivy launcher as a replacement. this also has a mode that uses the accessibility service to override your home button presses to open your new launcher. i did not bother with this, as i wanted a more permanent and less fragile solution. i used adb to disable the default launcher. beware though, this can brick your device. (and these commands are for the chromecast. my device was a xiaomi tv box but it worked on there too. it might not work on yours.)
i used the following commands:
# Disable com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx which is the default launcher on CCwGTV
$ adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx
# com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith will then be used as a 'fallback' and will automatically
# re-enable the default launcher, so disable it as well
$ adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith
if you want to go back you can use these commands to reenable the default launcher:
$ adb shell pm enable com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx
$ adb shell pm enable com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith
if you decided to dive into adb you can also disable some of the default bloatware apps while you are at it.
you can also use flauncher but that was a bit barebones for me.
goodbye official youtube app
you have a couple of options. tizentube cobalt patches the youtube leanback ui with sponsorblock and ad blocking capabilities while smarttube is a whole new client.
also you probably have a button for youtube on your remote. you can use button mapper to bind it to one of these apps.
i want PIRACY! NOW!!
i use an app called cloudstream. it doesn't have the content you want directly but you can add sources to it via extensions. from my testing the streamplay addon works pretty well currently. it's in the phisher repo but i'll not provide the link. i'm sure you can scour the internet for it, fellow pirate.
well this was all. if you have any other tips you can send me an email. i'd love to know.