This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Lads didn't bother with a link to the actual project.
https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-all-in-one-tool-for-windows-android-tv-tools-v2.4654784/
The tool is virus-free.
If someone points out valid concerns being raised about your software, and this is the only thing you have to say in response, that's not reassuring.
The Virustotal results are concerning though.
There is no reason why this shouldn't be on GitHub since it's likely just a bunch of ADB commands anyway. In the Reddit thread the author repeatedly refused to acknowledge or address the calls to make the tool open source. No thanks, seems too shady to me.
Someone still on Reddit should go add a comment about the virus total, preferably as a reply to that top comment for visibility.
Good luck with that. Looking though the comments people are just installing and using this without any thought or scrutiny whatsoever and such a comment would likely be considered hostile by them.
On mobile so I haven't dug into them, but Kaspersky and CheckPoint are both vendors whose flagging does justify further looking into.
Someone should probably run some sandboxed scans and post the links.
Side note. What you posted is just the RAR archive. The actual file is much worse.
Thanks for sharing this. I took a look and it seems like most of them are “malware/generic“. I wonder how much of this is because it is some random script file that is launching shell commands like ADB?
You are totally right those results should be check. I used this tool instead if anyone is interested :
Ha! I feel like I live online and I've never heard of this site.
So you just upload a file and it scans it before you install it? Fairly legit service?
Yeah, very legit.
FYI: Google is the owner :)
Don't own an android TV or box but can you really not change the default launcher natively?
I have a chromecast with Google tv and could natively install a launcher from the playstore and non playstore apps from file managers. I have no ads. Autoboot to my streaming app. Remapped remote buttons. All without using adb
Running the streaming app on the Chromecast itself? Which app? Any links or references? I'd love to do something like this.
I don't know the rules here I'll pm you.
Android TV is very limited compared to regular Android. It's hot garbage. Connecting a Bluetooth headset requires navigating through 4 levels of menus, it is missing several accessibility features such as audio balance settings, and has ads on the launcher. On top of that, it runs like shit even on a 4 core CPU.
Not that regular Android is much better.
The entire android tv UI is garbage. Lose internet while Disney plus or Netflix are loading? There's a good chance you need to force close them to make them work again. That's like 5 menus deep and doesn't make a lot of sense how to get there. Long press to bring up app info? Yeah right!
And the hardware is often total junk. There's a reason people still recommend the Shield, a device which is 5 years old and runs Android 9.
People here don't want to hear it, but using an Apple TV will ruin the experience for everything else from a hardware perspective. Software aside, of course. There's no reason for Android devices to exist on such sub par hardware. And yet....
The Shield Software Experience is version 9. The Android version is 11.
Of course you can. Even on the cheap pucks from Walmart. I run projectivy on those and my shield.
How long do you think we have before Projectivy is taken down?
They don't make it easy, but it's not hard either. Flauncher + adb to change the default launcher ftw!
You can with some tinkering. You can uninstall the default launcher with ADB shell and some Android TV show select launcher options when more than 1 is installed.
Usually you have to either disable the default launcher with adb or you need to remap the home button to open a dofferent launcher.
I always go the adb route for everything. I also have UART access on my TV, so I can disable the setup wizard and avoid logging into anything or accepting any EULAs.
(On the shield 2019) If you block this domain with your dns ad blocker, the default launcher will only show ads for the YouTube, Google TV, and Google Play Store apps (not individual shows). I find these to be far less annoying as they use muted tones.
androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com
If you have already setup your device and currently see ads, you need to reset the android tv home application data to get rid of them. This will temporarily show you the old dashboard, but the new one will load eventually (without ads).
Anyone use this or something similar for the shield? Looking to eliminate the ads.
Projectivy + pihole or use adguard dns.
This is the way
I use Shield Pro 2019 since Nov 2019, have been keeping up on software updates -- haven't ever noticed ads. I use Pi-hole though, maybe that has been 'shielding' me (ha!) all this time and I didn't realize it?
(To clarify I mean no ads in the Shield UI itself, I'd still see ads in individual streaming apps like Hulu)
For me the default launcher would always first list "recommendations" to install Disney plus or other platforms, before showing content that I'm actually interested in.
I have since switched to a different launcher, one that automatically starts up plex as well, since that's all I use it for anyway.
I can't remember how I set it up, but I use Wolf Launcher and it's great.
Just build a htpc powerful enough to display media and play games with good performance
Put a tv tuner card in the htpc
Here, I drew the word "Just" in this post
[Caption for the visually impaired: "Atlas holding up the celestial globe" by Guercino]
Been there done that. I prefer the Nvidia Shield, easier interface to navigate with a remote, I don’t have to login first, it rarely needs an update, no noisy fans, I don’t need to keep a physical keyboard connected to it, it’s way cheaper, I don’t need to mess around with codecs, and there aren’t a lot of unnecessary services and background applications hogging memory and cpu resources.
I get that most of this can be fixed or worked around on a htpc, but that’s effort I don’t have to spend on a Shield.
It also smoothly supports all dolby/dts stuff with no fuss. To my knowledge, there's no way to get dolby vision working on an HTPC.
A $40 htpc with 4k HDR output, wifi, a remote, and uses like 10W maxed and <1W idle? Please share parts list.
What software does it run which is able to access non-local media like Hulu, Netflix, peacock, etc?
Definitely going to try this.
I have DNS adblocking / tracker blocking set up on an Android TV (spoiler: Amazon is very noisy, even if you don't watch anything on Prime Video), but it doesn't help against native launcher ads.
When the launcher first started showing ads, you could disable certain services, but it would break playback on other apps.
Try blocking this domain manually and see if it works (it wasn't part of my native lists in my router's adblock)
androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com
If you have already set up your device and currently see ads, you need to reset the android tv home application data to get rid of them. This will temporarily show you the old dashboard, but the new one will load eventually (without ads, in its place it shows a dark "Google play, Youtube", and something else that isnt very intrusive).
I just tried it and it worked flawlessly, my TV is a lot less sluggish now. Just make sure you turn off Windows Defender before using.
