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.
^(.*\.)?(leiniao\.com|kedo-tclrestream\.b-cdn\.net|now\.amagi\.tv|huan\.tv|rttv\.com|kaltura\.com|plex\.tv|otteravision\.com|ads\.ottera\.tv|sofast\.tv|jwplayer\.com|fuelmedia\.io|molotov\.tv|mcncdndigital\.com|evrideo\.tv|aniview\.com|partytymestreaming\.com|playmoviesdfe-pa\.googleapis\.com|ov-static\.ottera\.tv|ottera\.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.
I checked it but it's just a launcher that changes the UI, it doesn't replace the default TV app.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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. :)
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
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.
The Google TV "Live TV" that's free sources from those two sources.
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.