I've been using Flauncher as the replacement dash for years on all my android TVs and Chromecasts
https://gitlab.com/flauncher/flauncher
It makes a massive difference and I strongly recommend it
What do you see that makes a difference? Lack of ads or is performance also better?
No ads, better performance, customizable
I also tried Projectivy in the past but I don't remember why I switched away from it. I think there was a performance bug that was causing it to crash. Both may be good options now
I recently swapped back to Flauncher after using Projectivy for a while. Projectivy uses a lot more resources (cache + RAM) and my TV only has like 4GB of storage.
All of that. Lack of ads, more performant etc. Plus (and depending on the device), you can set it up in such a way that you don't need to sign into your google account, yet still have ability to watch YouTube (Smartube), install apps (side load plus use the Fdroid TV store ... name escapes me at the moment... Flicky I think?).
Even if you need to be signed in for some reason, it's a smoother experience.
Its just...better. You'll lose some of the prettiness (for some reason, mine no longer displays backgrounds from upsplash, only solid colours) but its more than worth it.
EDIT: Yes, it IS Flicky
https://f-droid.org/packages/app.flicky/
Projectivity is another great option, especially if you want a few more options without anything you don't want.
I also use Projectivity on my NVIDIA shield. No ads, no recommendations, just the apps I want. Everyday I'm glad I installed it.
++Projectivy, it's top tier software. It's so clean by default, has lots of customization options, and no ads whatsoever. It's so good that I worry Google will try to take away the option to use a third party homescreen on Android TV.
Lol, just when I said I was going to take a break from tinkering, you tell us about this. Oh well! 😆
Can't we just have small Linux boxes with Plasma Bigscreen or something with cec support setup so the tv remote still works already :sob:
I've been using Pi 4s with a lineage OS build that has the Jellyfin Android TV client on it and thats been a pretty sweet setup.
Links?
OK gang my point is not that this is impossible to DIY. In fact we really enjoy you all sharing your setups and appreciate everyone taking the time :3
We just like for something like this as a cheap (enough) commercial product to finally catch on. At the end of the day folk just want to have a TV, plug something into it, and have it work.
We were already tired of the overpriced TV boxes that shady broadband companies forced into everyones livingroom. Nowadays that horrible experience comes physically fused to every TV further out in the markey than a sane person could reasonably be expected to look.
It just super sucks to see so many pay for devices that actively fight you in general. Most electronics already inherently feel like an accesability issue simulator to most people anyways. It being deliberately opaque, confusing and facilitating dark patterns on top of that is such a PITA. Not to mention if you already have inherent accesability difficulties from any number of conditions.
You can!
You’ll just be limited in your app selection and then there’s DRM.
Browser shortcut/PWA, and also DRM isnt a problem because google offers linux its DRM services for free.
I did also not rule out expandable local storage for offline media. Or connecting to a jellyfin instance.
Congratulations, you just made a copy of Apple TVOS, on much worse hardware.
Love them or hate them, the Apple TV is the best streaming box around. I’ve got One and a shield tv, and the Apple TVs level of polish and performance is on a whole other level.
Yeah, let's get more close ecosystem shit. Stop buying things you can modify because you own them. Think of the executives, what's wrong with you people?
What?
I’m just saying that Apple TVs are already a simple app launcher interface with basically nothing else.
You’re not wrong in it being a fantastic app launcher, but it being locked down makes it useless for many, sadly.
Being able to sideload is crucial for me at least, and the day google locks that down on Android devices is the day I will build a mini-PC for the living room.
I can assure you there's a whole lot of telemetry and tracking in those. It's not "and nothing else."
Apple is the least awful about data privacy. Owning your hardware and stack is still better for privacy.
*edit: others have bored this is still using Google hardware with only a custom launcher, not a unique firmware or os environment for data sovereignty. That Sudha, and the lettuce still remains that we need more open hardware vendors, or legislation that let's us unlock our own purchased devices to modify further. *
But the article is about using a GOOGLE TV stick……
It’s not about “owning your stack”.
Right, this isn't accommodating that, but I still contend that needs to be the goal.
I dint own this device or an AppleTV, while I've owned both in the past.
Yes but isn’t this article just about installing a custom launcher on a Google device? Presumably this does not solve data harvesting by Google, which would make this solution, while effective for app launching, probably worse than using an Apple TV device.
I also prefer using an AppleTV as my TV media player, but as long as the UI is snappy and it it’s capable of decoding HEVC, AV1, and other modern codecs smoothly, this solution is perfectly cromulent.
I haven't used other streaming boxes lately, but I find this hard to believe, mainly because of the shitty AppleTV remote with the godawful touchpad that everybody decided to implement different gestures for and which is notoriously difficult to gesture properly with and only when intended to
otherwise, I do agree that the AppleTV itself is quite polished. I use it for any streaming services that I may have, which is not many lately but was quite a few in the past, Plex, and YouTube primarily. also used to do some Zwift on it before I changed to using an iPad.
besides the absolutely horrible remote that for some reason doesn't have actual buttons for arrows and confirm, the rest of the experience actually is quite good and generally anything that is not is to do with the apps themselves. for example, Sportsnet is just a fucking terrible app no matter what platform you're on.
The current remote has physical buttons that have a track pad over the surface of them. You can completely disable the track pad and gestures and just use it like a plain old remote if you want. The gestures-only remote was replaced years ago, thankfully.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mw5g3am/a/siri-remote
This is the old one that I assume you’re talking about?
It's ironic how the only place to reliably navigate back on an Apple device is through the Apple TV remote.
The remote is shit, yes, and there’s an alternative to it. I can’t recall whether or not they’ve fixed that on the newer AppleTv remotes or not, but I detest that there’s no mute, either.
That said, it’s still pretty good, especially compared to the alternatives. The Roku keeps enshittifying harder and harder
You must also be thinking of the older one which was crap. This is the current one which has clicky physical buttons that also can act as a gesture pad, and a mute button.
https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mw5g3am/a/siri-remote
This was the garbage one before that:
I have a shield tv from forever ago. It’s still plenty fast enough. All the apps we use come right up. I use a third party launcher so I can declutter the screen a bit and it’s just fine. These things done have to be blazing fast.
The shield tv is still by far the best Android box in the market. It’s insane how it’s still supported by Nvidia, and still better than anything else out there.
The Apple TV is “decluttered” by default.
I want this, but for the roku box I got as a gift.
I want to make my TCL Roku Smart TV dumb.
Fortunately Roku is still not that bad. 3 rows of items to choose from, select and go.
It basically is a dump app launcher if you go into settings and make it one. Even more so once you use a network adblock to stop the single ad they display on the right.
They overload after a while I find and then often I press the arrow, nothing happens, I press again, it moves twice. Like all smart TVs. Apps take longer and longer to open, etc.
Mine don't do that, they are pretty snappy. But then again, mine are not TV's.
Man, this article is full of ads infections.
I'd love a stick that has Hoopla support, but of course that's going to be hard to come by because Big Entertainment doesn't make billions of dollars off of it.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
