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Do you know an open source TV app for Android TV so Google cannot push its shit? (programming.dev)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Added an update.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Stremio

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Oof, well you know what you are doing. Good call on the pi-hole. See if the satellite provider has a box, convince them that the device rental is supposed to be already part of customer's bill whether they need it or not. Otherwise it's $5 per month per box where I am.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Thanks! Only Cloudfront domains I couldn't add to blacklist as regex because they use hash and adding a general block to it breaks many websites. That's a bummer. I can only temporarily block them so that means, even if I factory reset the TV, some of those channels will reappear some time later.

Here we don't have additional fee if you have the satellite dish yourself so at least it's not a problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Get her a universal remote, seamless experience

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Well, if i go this way, it's definitely a due.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's paid but I use Sideload Channel Launcher. Best customization I've seen

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dxidev.sideloadchannel4

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I checked it but it's just a launcher that changes the UI, it doesn't replace the default TV app.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I checked both apps and all I got is this:

Which is just a launcher where I place shortcuts. I put the TV app on it to show. If there is an app inside this to replace it, I'd like to hear. However I couldn't find anything like that.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

No the default TV app doesn't go away if that's what you're looking for. The launcher bypasses it though. With both of these apps the sideload launcher starts up at boot and you never see the default one. It's almost like it has been replaced

There are no other options.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's what I'm talking about. I want to replace the default TV app, not the launcher. Though it seems the tuner is vendor locked so I won't find any alternative most likely. And the easiest thing is to get a separate satellite box and plug it into HDMI and use that instead of the built-in one. That launcher manager works great though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh shit I just read this you want to replace the LIVE TV.

Yeah I think those "channels" are pulled from Xumo and Pluto.

You can get the same (but not integrated) experience by installing both

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, exactly. The app I have to use to view satellite channels but there are also some bullshit channels inside, and they are a lot, like 20K+. No idea what Xumo or Pluto is but if that's all maybe it's possible to block them via pi-hole. Though probably they'll still occupy the channel list because when internet is not connected those channels still occupy those places.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The Google TV "Live TV" that's free sources from those two sources.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Thanks for the insight. I specifically checked those channels one by one (not all of course, just enough to get the streaming service domains) and blocked them on pi-hole. Now none of them can connect to internet. :)

Now is find a way to clear that hollow list. Factory reset might pull the trick but currently it's not convenient before backing up smarttube etc.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

That's baked into android. Not going to happen. You could try ADB commands to disable the stock launcher but I highly advise NOT disabling core android functions as there may be unintended consequences.

As what they used to say on the Internet" "there be dragons."

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah it seems so. It sucks that it's not possible to use it peacefully. I wouldn't disable the core functions as well. I once disabled the default file manager on a phone and learned surprisingly almost everything is tied to it. :)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I wish I could get those Linux ISOs through satellite tuner.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Smarttube

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

It's great and already installed.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Oh wow, that sounds highly inconvenient. I wish it was as easy to re-flash android TVs as it is to re-flash android phones. Best of luck, and keep us updated if you find a solution!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah, it is. To be honest, I lost hope for all-in-one solution. Currently the cheapest option seems to be get an HDMI satellite tuner and plug it in one the of the HDMI ports and use that as a TV source instead of the built-in one.

Thank you! If I find an app solution instead of this, I'll edit my post. I can also try installing a backend for DVB-S on the network and connect the TV and use KODI but apparently that also requires a separate tuner, so the previous one seems easier.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I would install LineageOS if it was possible, there are no ROMs. I'm not even sure if the bootloader is unlockable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's the initial thing I wanted to do but there seems to be no ROM for this TV yet. I really prefer this to replace the default app.

I just hope there is some work from some developer but currently I don't know any.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Mine doesn't have a custom ROM either because Hisense refuses to release the kernel source for my device. Didn't stop me from rooting anyway. Magisk/KernelSU modules can also do a lot of heavy lifting for replacing things.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sounds nice. What can I do with rooting though? Since there isn't a replacement for the default TV app. I know I can remove the TCL stuff, but besides that? Also, now I wonder if shizuku would work too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Shizuku would absolutely work. I can use adb either wirelessly or through a USB A to USB A cable with the 5 volt line cut (which is also how I interact witth fastboot). Activating developer settings is as simple as tapping build number 7 times, like on every Android device.

Rooting can help you replace built in apks. For example, there is a Magisk module that lets you replace the system's WebView with an alternative, like the one from GrapheneOS, for instance. App signing is the problem here, so that's what that specific module helps bypass.

Modules work on top of an OverlayFS, which essentially lets you write to /system without actually writing to /system, similar to rwfus on the Steam Deck.

Also your current TV app is one made by TCL and not a stock Android app. I wonder if it can be substituted with a different one from a different vendor, or maybe an older version of the TCL app. The only issue I forsee is if the app attempts to communicate with hardware in a non-standard way. Alternatively, I wonder if you block internet to the TV app using a firewall if the TV functionality would still work without showing ads. There is AFWall+ if you're rooted and DNS/Android VPN based firewalls if not. There is also DNSNet, which is a DNS based ad blocker that uses Android's DNS service.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

That's nice to hear. I wouldn't mind playing with shizuku to see what can I do.

Modules work on top of an OverlayFS, which essentially lets you write to /system without actually writing to /system, similar to rwfus on the Steam Deck.

I see. So if something goes wrong, I can do factory reset without any problems. I guess.

I actually did another way. I blocked these streaming domains on pi-hole. Now none of those ad channels can connect to internet. I'm assuming the list would also disappear if I factory reset and rescan the channel list, those ad channels wouldn't get into the list in the first place. Cannot try this right away but will definitely try this.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

This is why I recommended a Shield for which there is an actively maintained LineageOS. Yes, it's an investment, but well worth it nowadays.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Not sure when we'll fed up but I'll keep this in mind, barely 2 years passed with this TV.

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