Custom Launcher for Shield TV: Questions - Shield Android TV Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Dear all,
I would have some questions related to customizing the Android TV experience on the Shield. I am fairly new to the topic, so please excuse potential stupid/easy questions
Is it possible to put a different/customized launcher on top of the current Android TV version of the shield with the following requirements:
on startup should launch automatically and open a predefined app
basic UI: home-screen would only show pre-defined apps (not all apps installed on the system showing), possibility to list Sideloaded apps on the home-screen
system to be locked: access to Shield TV settings only via password - also ok to just switch to the original Android TV for that
I guess it should be feasible, looking at existing launchers on the playstore - but since I would need a customized version, is it hard to get this developed (Can anyone guess how many hours development that would mean?)
is a root of the device necessary for that?
Another question, not directly related to the above question is: is it possible to hide the nvidia & google logos on the startup of the shield? If yes, how would that be done?
Thank you all in advance for your help!

Related

[Q] A few questions re: CM10.1 on the Nexus Q

I was tempted to post this in the development forum. Mods, please feel free to move if that's where it should go.
Basically, I've got myself a Nexus Q and was considering installing CM10.1 on it but had a few questions.
1. Can I still control music playback from the music app on my handset and tablet?
2. Is there any advantage to installing CM10.1 if I don't have a TV? I'm not sure I could control any of the additional features unless there's a way to 'see the screen'.
Thanks in advance
viniosity said:
I was tempted to post this in the development forum. Mods, please feel free to move if that's where it should go.
Basically, I've got myself a Nexus Q and was considering installing CM10.1 on it but had a few questions.
1. Can I still control music playback from the music app on my handset and tablet?
2. Is there any advantage to installing CM10.1 if I don't have a TV? I'm not sure I could control any of the additional features unless there's a way to 'see the screen'.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you don't have a screen, flashing CM10.1 will gain you nothing (according to my recent reading of that thread). You will lose original functionality. You will gain a launcher and easier access to apps, however.
If you do decide to use a TV with your Q, I would recommend rooting and sideloading your launcher of choice. From there, I control the Q with a combination of Juice Receiver (to call up Droidmote Server or Launcher) and Droidmote Client (on my mobile device). I have a homescreen, working widgets, unlimited access to apps, a wireless mouse (my phone/tablet) for touch events, and original YouTube/Google Music/Google Movies/etc. functionality.
soccerwuedo5 said:
If you don't have a screen, flashing CM10.1 will gain you nothing (according to my recent reading of that thread). You will lose original functionality. You will gain a launcher and easier access to apps, however.
If you do decide to use a TV with your Q, I would recommend rooting and sideloading your launcher of choice. From there, I control the Q with a combination of Juice Receiver (to call up Droidmote Server or Launcher) and Droidmote Client (on my mobile device). I have a homescreen, working widgets, unlimited access to apps, a wireless mouse (my phone/tablet) for touch events, and original YouTube/Google Music/Google Movies/etc. functionality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
minus status bar, minus nav bar, minus working notifications, minus working play store. There are also many reasons to have CM10.1

Change Display Density in Android TV / Sky Go (GER) on Android TV

Hi you all,
this is probably not the right forum for this request (I don't have a Shield TV, but a Sony 4K TV with built in Android TV).
But I didn't find a better suitable Forum than this one.
I'm new here and generally relatively new with Android. I only got two Android devices at home:
- an Amazon Fire TV in my office and
- a Sony KD 55x8505c 4K Android TV in the living room.
My Smartphones and Tablets all run on iOS - but I realize more and more that it might be helpful to get a small Android Tablet in the near future to benefit from all possibilities Android offers.
Now to my problem:
I wanna use the German Sky Go App on my Android TV. The current version 1.4.3 is installed an it works. However, it's far from perfect because the menus are out of alignments, you can't see episode numbers and if you click anywhere else than the PLAY button, the app crashes.
I had exactly the same issue on the Amazon Fire TV - but there I found a solution. You simply needed to change the display density by typing "am display-density 280" before starting the app and it works perfect. You can automate that by using the app Tasker. So on Fire TV in the office - everything's perfect.
Now I wanted to achieve the same on my Android TV - and therefore I need your help. The command "am display-density 280" doesn't work an the Android TV. I tried entering it directly through a Shell / Terminal. When I started the Tasker App I couldn't get past the Disclaimer. There was no Accept button to be found. In a different forum I found a possible way for tasker by extracting an already activated tasker version from a different Android Device and installing this version on the Android TV. However, I only got the Fire TV as a different device and I have no idea how to extract the app from the Fire TV including the necessary data. But without knowing the right command to actually change the display-density, Tasker wouldn't help me anyway.
So the most important thing is to find a way to change the display-density to 280 first. Afterwards I need to find a way to automate that when the App is launched. Can you please help me?
Greets
z0dac
Hi,
I'm trying to do the same as you. I also read the Fire TV thread and tried Tasker on my Shield TV, which didn't work.
So i guess i'll set up tasker on my phone to change density to 280 when starting SkyGo and back to standard when leaving the app.
Then i have to backup the app+data - either with Helium (no root) or if that fails (which is likely) with Titanium (root, my Shield TV isn't rooted... yet ).
If i succeed, i could share the Tasker backup with you, if you're interested. I'm busy this week, but i might give it a try next week / weekend.
so hereĀ“s what i did:
i changed the display density with the adb command "adb shell wm density 280 %% adb reboot"
i could watch a trailer in sky go, but no luck with live streams or movies. so for now no solution from my side
Thank you!
I finally did it!
I installed Android Studio on my Mac including all SDKs. Then I turned Developer Mode on on my Android TV and connected through adb. With your command I was able to switch the display density to 280 and now finally Sky Go looks and works as it should.
However - now the whole Android TV OS is in density 280. I already noticed that the screen keyboard looks a bit odd.
Now the only thing I miss is the possibility to switch the density only for the Sky Go App. On Fire TV I can do that with Tasker, but on Android TV Tasked doesn't work. If anybody could help me with that...?
Thanks again and
Greets
z0dac

Customising Icons on Android TV Box

Hi. I hope this is in the correct forum. I wondered if it is possible to create groups in the all apps list on an android TV box?
I have several "forks" of Kodi and would like to create a Kodi group and put all the icons in there. I know this is easy on an android phone, but is it possible on an android TV box? Pressing and holding on an icon only seems to offer Open and Uninstall options. Right-clicking moves back a level / screen.
I'm running android Marshmallow on a Droibox T8 Mini. Unfortunately no update to this is forthcoming.
Thanks all,
Les

Just bought HD10 11th (2021) 7.3.2.1. How to block updates and what to do?

Hello
Bought HD 2021, no ads version
In short:
1. Need to block the updates. How do I go about it? I have a router, so blocking the traffic to Amazon maybe?
2. I'd love to completely disconnect the tablet from Amazon. I wish to gain maximum intrussion on my privacy, so I'd love to get rid of Alexa etc. But if there's something which improves the chances of increasing compability with older apps installed from a pre-downloaded files, not from Google Play etc. I'd like that too. Basically "what would you do in the first place". Aside from the looks. I don't really care how my icons arrangement looks like or if I can get somewhere in 2 clicks instead of 3. Not sure if the launcher swap is for me then.
After spending some time googling, I found that there's no way to install LineageOS on this one. And people talk about bad 7.3.2.2 update. (I have 7.3.2.1)
So, please help a noob with some simple step-by-step advise on what should I do (no need to tell me the actual steps of each procedure, I can google, but keep in mind I'm a total noob to Android and PC-Android apps, so please don't use shortcuts which prelong my future googling by 1000x, thanks )
I just powered it on, checked the firmware version, and didn't connect the internet to it yet.
OK, so I needlessly worried after finding a 5 method list of removing the auto updates and comments about none working, and thought Toolbox is mainly for changing launchers.
To answer most of my questions:
- Toobox allows to disable the updates, has ALL the options nicely explained and you can just read through all the menu items to learn what to do and what's what. It allows to remove the spying Amazon crap (Alexa), allows to sideload apps without using any stores (not even google account required, I guess ), restores Google Play access and gives direct access to the filesysem for easy file transfer. Among other.
Awesome thing. I didn't finish using the Toolbox yet, but seems like I'll be able to use the tablet now.
I have a new question though. If my OS version is from 2021, and I don't want the new updates, what about security vulnerabilities? Am I now an easy target?
edit: Still have Alexa
Amazon Alexa is one service
and
Alexa - is the name of second service
Also, how do I disable the Google Assistant after replacing Alexa with it?
Lastly. I have only 1.3GB of 3GB RAM free? Or is this under developer settings in Android settings menu, not properly displayed?
Welcome here! I hope you'll take this discussion over to the Toolbox thread to benefit more readers:
[WINDOWS][TOOL]Fire Toolbox V30.2
Fire Toolbox V30.2 All-In-One Toolbox for Fire Tablets! The Fire Toolbox is a collection of useful ADB (Android Debug Bridge) tweaks that can be applied to Amazon's Fire Tablets. The Toolbox project aims to help users fully customize and...
forum.xda-developers.com

Need HELP for minor Home Screen customization.

Hello everyone,
I've got a Smart TV with stock Android TV (v 11, can't disclose client , at the moment).
Is there any way to add a super minor customization to android tv ?
It's literally minor, it's adding an entry point for an App, which is not an App Icon Launcher, because they want it to look like integral part of the OS.
It could be anything like an Icon (next to the other system icons like settings, input, profile), or an Entry in system settings menu' , or something like that, to launch the Application.
It's so minor that redo all the work and get into AOSP is way too overkill, it would start a completely different project.
No, the client exclude the option to just have the App installed, they want the App as it was integral part of the Operating System.
I've read several documentations :
- Aosp : Way too many cons for such a small customization.
- Android Operator Tier with Custom Launcher : Could be viable to do a custom launcher, but the Smart TV is not eligible for operator tier (Not sold in leasing, do not sell any pay/linear channel, it's just a plain Smart TV)
- Custom Launcher on stock Android TV : Not viable, it would still be an Application with its launcher or would need some tricky configuration which wouldn't look like integral part of the OS at all.
- TIF (TV Input Framework) : Would just modify and recompile the TV App work ? I'm not sure if it is possible and how difficult it would be and if it is possible to "overwrite" just the TV System App on a Stock Android TV OS.
Do you have any suggestions how to achieve the desired "customization" without loosing all the built in supports/services that come with stock Android TV OS ? The simpler the better.
Thank you so much in advance!
from what you're explaining isn't a minor customization.
what you want is to customize the android tv launcher, however that launcher is an app just like everything else on the tvbox including your iptv app, youtube app, netflix app, etc...
so for your to achieve what you want, you'll need to have some dev knowledge, and you'll need to disassemble, modify and reassemble the launcher app + do whatever customization you need done.
it's not impossible, however it's not easy at all.
option2: you can hire a developer to develop your own tv launcher with whatever customization you want, probably won't be cheap, but will achieve exactly what you want.
option3: find an open-source tv launcher, use it, customize it as you like, you may or may-not need to hire a developer to do extra customizations, your cheapest, easiest, and quickest way to achieve what you're looking for. just google open source tv launcher, i'm sure you'll land on a few.
example:
Code:
https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher
donmega_icecube said:
from what you're explaining isn't a minor customization.
what you want is to customize the android tv launcher, however that launcher is an app just like everything else on the tvbox including your iptv app, youtube app, netflix app, etc...
so for your to achieve what you want, you'll need to have some dev knowledge, and you'll need to disassemble, modify and reassemble the launcher app + do whatever customization you need done.
it's not impossible, however it's not easy at all.
option2: you can hire a developer to develop your own tv launcher with whatever customization you want, probably won't be cheap, but will achieve exactly what you want.
option3: find an open-source tv launcher, use it, customize it as you like, you may or may-not need to hire a developer to do extra customizations, your cheapest, easiest, and quickest way to achieve what you're looking for. just google open source tv launcher, i'm sure you'll land on a few.
example:
Code:
https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello!
Thanks so much for the answer, Don Mega.
Damn i hope there was an easier way to add an icon.
I see...
No need to hire a developer.
I'm a Senior android engineering and I got a skilled team but we never had to work on the android TV OS system itself tho ( we're specialized on mobile apps and iot solutions, not tvs).
Btw .. I could develop a custom launcher but it may take time and as I said as far as I've read on documentation, a custom launcher would still need AOSP if the manufacturer want to override the system one.
Doesn't it ?
I ask 'cause AOSP is too much of an effort (at least just for an icon!) and several manufacturer who started on aosp and various customizations are now abandoning it (I already worked on a STB for British telecom and yeah, i didn't work on their custom OS specifically but i know they changed their mind in the end).
Probably because once you go that route, you loose all the support and services out of the box, and you need to take care of too many things to keep it up to date.
So they usually prefer to stick to Android tv stock version (wise choice).
If that's the case I suppose the manufacturer will be better find a more standard way to launch their app
Nimx said:
Btw .. I could develop a custom launcher but it may take time and as I said as far as I've read on documentation, a custom launcher would still need AOSP if the manufacturer want to override the system one.
Doesn't it ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no need for flashing a different OS or Custom Rom to be able to install a custom developed app.
so if you make your own apk, all you need to do on the existing tvbox, enable unknown sources, to be able to install your own apk on there, it should be pretty straight forward.
put the apk on a usb stick, plug it into your box and navigate to any file manager app, you'll be able to find your apk, click on it and install, on your remote control press the HOME button, it should popup a msg asking which launcher you want to load, since now you developed your own launcher and the old launcher is still there, choose which launcher you want to be default. you can always go into settings > apps and disable the old launcher so if anyone presses the HOME button again, it always defaults to the new one you developed.
so short answer, no you don't need AOSP or any type of Custom Rom
donmega_icecube said:
no need for flashing a different OS or Custom Rom to be able to install a custom developed app.
so if you make your own apk, all you need to do on the existing tvbox, enable unknown sources, to be able to install your own apk on there, it should be pretty straight forward.
put the apk on a usb stick, plug it into your box and navigate to any file manager app, you'll be able to find your apk, click on it and install, on your remote control press the HOME button, it should popup a msg asking which launcher you want to load, since now you developed your own launcher and the old launcher is still there, choose which launcher you want to be default. you can always go into settings > apps and disable the old launcher so if anyone presses the HOME button again, it always defaults to the new one you developed.
so short answer, no you don't need AOSP or any type of Custom Rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The manufacturer obviously don't want users to do this procedure to choose the new launcher, but should be able to persistently active it overriding the system one. And that's why I thought custom ROM was needed.
If that's not true then your solution is the perfect one
donmega_icecube said:
no need for flashing a different OS or Custom Rom to be able to install a custom developed app.
so if you make your own apk, all you need to do on the existing tvbox, enable unknown sources, to be able to install your own apk on there, it should be pretty straight forward.
put the apk on a usb stick, plug it into your box and navigate to any file manager app, you'll be able to find your apk, click on it and install, on your remote control press the HOME button, it should popup a msg asking which launcher you want to load, since now you developed your own launcher and the old launcher is still there, choose which launcher you want to be default. you can always go into settings > apps and disable the old launcher so if anyone presses the HOME button again, it always defaults to the new one you developed.
so short answer, no you don't need AOSP or any type of Custom Rom
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to keep you updated.
Custom launcher need user to set the new one.
But we found a possible solution without the burden to do a custom Rom.
Adding a new Ad-Hoc button on the Remote controller to launch their ecosystem settings app and/or a custom launcher (since this Smart Tv is a new model that will initially be delivered to several europe countries).
In this way it will look quite integrated in the android tv system, and the android TV OS will be always kept up to date from regular google updates, without all the issues plaguing custom roms like it does for other manufacturers.
Thank for your help
Nimx said:
Just to keep you updated.
Custom launcher need user to set the new one.
But we found a possible solution without the burden to do a custom Rom.
Adding a new Ad-Hoc button on the Remote controller to launch their ecosystem settings app and/or a custom launcher (since this Smart Tv is a new model that will initially be delivered to several europe countries).
In this way it will look quite integrated in the android tv system, and the android TV OS will be always kept up to date from regular google updates, without all the issues plaguing custom roms like it does for other manufacturers.
Thank for your help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sometimes i wish i was a developer, glad you found an easy solution.
thank you
It's still quite easy to become a developer due to high demand.
Not sure how old are you but I started when I was 34 yo by myself with no prior experience.
Nowadays, 5 years later, I Interview many candidates and I can tell the discriminating factor is not prior studies but dedication, high IQ (logic and abstraction wise) and learning speed.
Good luck if you'll ever decide to get into it
i'm 44 i have no patience for programming in general, I never did, I'm a full time network admin, and really into hardware a lot more than software.
but when it came to Android, i got my hands dirty flashing custom roms on all my phones. i started to customize my own roms for tv boxes.
but I kinda wish I did have some android dev skills, it's the only thing i end up outsourcing when needed.
thank you

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