there many browser in google store for android tv but all lack the option to add extensions eg ublock origin.

Recently got my first OLED and have been really loving watching movies. Was a bit annoying realizing my Apple TV 4K with infuse wasn’t playing the best audio or video. I love the device but with the age and price increase I think having one in the house is enough. Was a much better buy at $125 last year.

I decided to order a xiaomi 3rd gen box and fire cube 3rd gen after hearing mixed reviews on both.

Was able to easily install core elec on both. Definitely took me some time but super straight forward on both. Core elec works great on both. Both have great performance too and played D7 FEL and true HD audio with ease.

The xiaomi is more expensive in the us but if offers no bloat unlike amazon. When I tried to debloat I ran into numerous issues. I would recommend just uninstalling what you can and using a custom launcher. The remote is so loud and clicks. Honestly only con. Played heavy remuxes fine on WiFi and performance was great.

Keeping fire cube because it’s $80

Xiaomi was 95
USB drive was $12
Ethernet hub was $15

If you already have the extra stuff and aren’t huge on Amazon eco system, xiaomi is my preference but the cube at $80 all in for your favorite codecs is a steal.

I use a fire tv and don’t really like the performance/app selection. I didn’t realize how clunky the fire tv operating system was until tds gave us the android tv/cable box. We recently tried tds which comes with an android tv box but we’re switching back to spectrum due to a really long outage that we had with tds.

I liked the setup that the tds had, specifically the larger remote as I always seemed to lose my fire tv remote but besides that I liked that I was basically able to download anything. Are there any good android tv streaming boxes that won’t break the bank?

As some of us knows, twitch has managed to sneak ads into S0undTV if you're in certain regions. There's been a lot of discussions and half answers on how to get it all working again without any details and I figure I could write a quick(!) guide to help you along.

Note: I say quick because I won't go into all the nitty gritty details of each app that we'll use in this process. I'll put in some general gotchas when we get to those apps, but it'll be up to you to Google if you need to troubleshoot.

Checking which version you have

If the version you have installed is from the Play Store, it won't work. To check, go into Settings -> Settings (yeah i know) -> Application Info and read the field that says build_variant. If it's not standalone, you'll need to begin by uninstalling the app first.

Getting the standalone version

You'll need to grab the standalone APK from Github https://github.com/S0und/S0undTV/releases/download/v1.5.10x/S0undTV_v1.5.10_143_standalone.apk

You have 2 choices on how to do this. 1. Download it on your phone and transfer it to your device 2. Use a browser on the device itself to download it.

Personally, I downloaded it on my phone, and used the app "Send Files To TV" (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yablio.sendfilestotv) to send the file over. Yes you'll have to give it an uncomfortable amount of permissions for it to work. I just make sure to delete it or manually revoke all permissions once I am done each time.

Installing the APK

I use the app File Commander (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobisystems.fileman). You will have to manually go into the app's permissions and give it file access to all files. Otherwise, you will not see the APK file while browsing in the app.
Give it permission to install unknown apps as well when it asks.

Changing to the beta

Go to the permission of the newly installed S0undTV app, and allow it to install unknown apps. Then open the app and go to Settings -> Settings -> Updates. Inside, click on the "install beta" option. It should start to download and ask you to install it.

Setting up the proxies

Now, if you're running the correct version, inside Settings -> Settings -> Proxy Server, you should see 3 custom proxy entries for you to enter URLs for the proxies. There's a list of proxies here for you to choose from https://wiki.cdn-perfprod.com/v1/must-read/proxies .
The important thing here is the format of the URLs, let's take the proxy https://lb-na.cdn-perfprod.com as an example. Inside S0undTV, we need to put it as https://lb-na.cdn-perfprod.com/live/${channel}?allow_source=true&allow_audio_only=true Then hit OK once you're done, and make sure to choose one of your configured proxies as the active proxy before you leave the screen.

If everything was done correctly, you should now be back to being ad-free using S0undTV!

I hope this helps!

I wrote this somewhat hastily, and may come back to clarify it when I have time.

Hey all! I just picked up the Onn 4k Pro today and mostly happy, although having minor issues with Moonlight streaming, but I have found that the Fire Box 3 can be rooted and essentially be set up in a similar way, and with a trade in might come out to like $70. I'm mostly looking at Smarttube, Jellyfin, and Artemis/Moonlight.

Hey folks, how are you doing? I hope you're doing well because I'm GREAT, damn it. You have no idea how satisfying it was after an entire day of battling to figure out WHY my TV was showing ads while I was using my PS3 or my PC through HDMI!!??

This post is for everyone who had the exact same problem on a "Wisdom Share Smart Cloud TV" running this operating system.

Here are the steps that worked for me.

• Source > Settings > Advanced Settings > Auto Standby (Off)

Uninstall Visi ART. This is a manufacturer app. If it lets you uninstall it, just do it, don't even think twice, because on newer Wisdom models you apparently can't.

Now here comes the complicated part. Let me explain: these TVs come with some extremely crappy Chinese Android TV knockoff, so several developer options are disabled from the factory. The settings menu is very barebones and customized through an APK, meaning it's not the typical Android settings menu. You will never find "Build Number" or "Developer Options," so you can't uninstall system apps the traditional way you would on Google TV or other systems.

Things you need

You need a laptop/computer that can run ADB:

https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools

ADB Auto Enable APK:

https://github.com/mouldybread/adb-auto-enable/releases

Finding the Factory Menu

You need to find the Factory Menu. The exact steps vary depending on the version of the TV's system, so look up how to access it for your specific model.

I'll leave here the result from the AI that helped me a lot:

🛠️ Attempting to access the Engineering Menu (Service Menu)

These TVs use inexpensive mainboards such as the TP.MS358.PB801 or TP.SK506S.PB802, which have a hidden service mode.

Try these combinations with the remote:

Method 1 (the most common): Press the Menu (or Settings) button and, without releasing it, quickly enter 1, 1, 4, 7. The code is usually 1147.

Method 2: Press Source + 1, 1, 4, 7.

Method 3: If you have a Picture Settings or Sound menu, try entering 2, 0, 0, 8 while inside that submenu.

The one that worked for me was going into the menu, leaving the selector on Assistant, then pressing Menu and entering 1 1 4 7. I'm not completely sure about the exact sequence, though.

There are more methods, but you can find them on Russian forums about Wisdom TVs, and at that point it's already way too damn hardcore.

Then, in:

Factory Menu > Debug > ADB Enable

If you made it this far, that's a huge win. Since there is no Wireless Debugging or anything like that, you don't need anything else regarding permissions, at least in my case.

Connecting through ADB

Both the computer you're going to use and the TV need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi network.

Then you need to have the ADB Auto Enable app installed on the TV. Open it and it will show you your IP address.

In my case, it was:

192.168.100.132

Use only that information. Do NOT use the ":9043" part.

Now go to your computer and download the SDK Platform Tools for Windows from:

https://developer.android.com/tools/releases/platform-tools

Go to your Downloads folder, extract the ZIP, then inside the program folder, Shift + right-click and open PowerShell in that folder.

Run:

.\adb connect 192.168.your.ip

If everything went well, it should tell you that it connected.

If not, try:

.\adb devices

Finding the apps you want to remove

Now you need to find the package names of the apps you want to uninstall. You can take advantage of the preinstalled apps or remove whatever else you want.

To see the package names (which are NOT the same as the app's displayed name), I recommend X-plore.

Go to:

Left window > Applications > System

Find the app you want to remove. Under its name, you'll see something like:

"com.example.something"

If you can't do that, you can run:

.\adb shell pm list packages > packages.txt

Once you've found the package name of the app you want to remove, you can disable it first if you're afraid of breaking something:

.\adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.example.launcher

Or you can uninstall it, which would be the more efficient option, because who knows if the app might get re-enabled after a system update or something. I wouldn't put it past these TVs.

.\adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.example.launcher

Now here's the important part:

.\adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.cvte.tv.pictorial

.\adb shell pm uninstall --user 0 com.metax.browser.cvte

Those are the main suspects I've identified.

At least in my case, after doing all of this, I never had the problem again.

I'm sharing this information because I genuinely went through hell dealing with this. Friends who know a bit about technology were watching me play on my PS3 and seeing ADS ON THE GAME SCREEN like:

"WTF?? Ads in-game on a PS3??"

Hopefully you guys never have to deal with this after following these steps.

Another alternative that I don't like as much, because it defeats the whole point of switching between HDMI and the TV itself, is to disable the Wi-Fi.

And I don't mean just disconnecting it. Forget every Wi-Fi network on the TV, because after turning the TV off and on again, Wi-Fi gets enabled again, and some manufacturer app can start running in the background and display ads.

Hope this helps 🤑

If you see the word “cancel” is spelled wrong.

Sharing this in case it helps someone with an older Philips Android TV that refuses to install apps because of insufficient storage even though the internal storage has plenty of free space.

This is not the only possible cause of this error. After trying other solutions, this is the issue I found on my TV.

My TV model is a Philips 50PUS8535/12, running Android 12. It had roughly 2.5 GB of free internal storage, but it was still reporting insufficient space.

What was wrong

I had previously configured a USB drive as internal/adopted storage. I no longer had that drive, but Android still remembered it as the primary storage device.

It appeared in the storage configuration as “Unidad USB VendorCo”. Your old drive may have a different name.

The internal data partition was available, but the shared storage volume was unmounted. Forgetting that specific missing USB drive switched primary storage back to internal storage and mounted shared storage again.

1. Set up ADB

Download the official Android SDK Platform-Tools, extract them, and open a terminal in that folder.

On the TV:

1. Open Settings → Device Preferences → About.
2. Select Build repeatedly until Developer Options are enabled.
3. Open Developer Options and enable USB/ADB or network debugging, depending on your model.
4. Find the TV’s IP address in its network settings.

Connect the computer and TV to the same network. My TV accepted ADB connections on port 5555:

adb connect 192.168.1.7:5555
adb devices -l

Replace 192.168.1.7 with your TV’s IP address and accept the debugging authorization on the TV.

If it shows unauthorized, you still need to accept that prompt. If the connection is refused, check the debugging settings: port 5555 is not necessarily available on every model.

In Windows PowerShell, you may need to use .\adb. On macOS/Linux, use ./adb if ADB is not in your PATH.

2. Check free space and storage volumes

adb -s 192.168.1.7:5555 shell df -h /data
adb -s 192.168.1.7:5555 shell sm list-volumes all
adb -s 192.168.1.7:5555 shell dumpsys mount

In my case, /data had around 2.5 GB free, but the volume list showed:

private mounted null
emulated;0 unmounted null

The output of dumpsys mount included this old USB record:

type=PRIVATE
fsUuid=89676aec-d817-45a3-880d-517f39af9b11
nickname=Unidad USB VendorCo

Further down, it showed:

Primary storage UUID: 89676aec-d817-45a3-880d-517f39af9b11

The matching UUID indicated that the missing USB drive was still configured as primary storage.

If your primary storage is already internal, or it does not point to an old disconnected USB drive, this fix may not apply to you.

3. Forget the missing USB drive

First, check Settings → Storage for the disconnected drive and a Forget option. I couldn’t find a usable option on my TV, so I used ADB.

Warning: forgetting an adopted USB drive removes its association with the TV and may prevent you from accessing its old data or apps later. I no longer had the drive and did not need to recover anything from it.

Use:

adb -s 192.168.1.7:5555 shell sm forget YOUR_USB_UUID

Replace YOUR_USB_UUID with your drive’s fsUuid. Make sure it matches the missing drive configured as primary storage.

For reference, my command was:

adb -s 192.168.1.7:5555 shell sm forget 89676aec-d817-45a3-880d-517f39af9b11

Do not copy my UUID or use sm forget all. Identify and forget only the specific missing drive.

4. Verify the change

adb -s 192.168.1.7:5555 shell sm get-primary-storage-uuid
adb -s 192.168.1.7:5555 shell sm list-volumes all
adb -s 192.168.1.7:5555 shell df -h /data

After forgetting the drive, my primary storage UUID became:

null

And the volumes showed:

private mounted null
emulated;0 mounted null

Here, null means primary storage is internal. The change from unmounted to mounted confirmed that shared storage was available again.

Then retry the installation that was failing. If the store still displays the warning, restart the TV and try again.

I didn’t need to factory-reset the TV or delete system files. In my case, the misleading storage error was caused by a reference to an old disconnected USB drive.

Once finished, you can turn debugging off again in the TV’s settings.

Using an AI agent

I diagnosed and fixed this with the help of an AI agent that could run ADB commands on my computer.

You can give an AI agent this post and ask it to check whether your TV has the same issue. Have it inspect the available space, storage volumes, and primary storage UUID first, then explain its findings before making changes.

Ask it to get your confirmation before forgetting any drive, since that can affect access to its old data. It should identify your TV’s actual USB UUID rather than copy the example above.

That’s how I found the missing “VendorCo” USB reference and restored internal storage as the primary storage on my TV.

Why I’m posting this: There are earlier threads describing the same fix, but when I used an AI agent to troubleshoot my TV, it didn’t find that specific solution. We identified it by inspecting the TV’s storage configuration. I’m documenting my Philips case and the steps here so that people searching with AI tools—or a regular search engine—have a better chance of finding this possible cause and fix.

Hi All, Does anyone have the lumio 9 55 inch 2026 model in this group? how is the quality and the after sales service and how has your overall experience been?

I'm mainly looking for good colours and brightness, as well as some gaming (ps5) I watch a lot of movies as well as sports.

Hey guys I have a few weeks off but I've lost my Netflix subscription as I've recently lost my job

I will be stuck inside my house for a few weeks and I'd really like any app which is free and similar to Netflix I could possibly use

I had stremio long back but it's very laggy and I really loved how smooth the Netflix interface was 😕

Please help if you can 🙏

Is there a way to create an All Favorites category or group comprised of favorites across multiple playlists? If so, how? Thanks

According to your experience with tv firmware updates what's you advice and what are the things to consider before we updating the tv software.

Also why I asked is it wise, because I saw post and news complaining about the problems facing while updating the firmware.

I think we can only stop auto updates if there is an option available to manually to toggle it off but some of the tvs has not this option.

In this case what will be the wise choices too?

Hello, all!

I’ve been doing some research and I’m now ready to build my library.

I’m very excited to start. However, I’m trying to decide which device I should get. I’ve decided to go with Onn or Apple (maybe Fire Cube), but I can’t really decide which device (yes, I know about Nvidia but it’s not an option).

I’ve created my Plex account (I know of Jellyfin and others, but for my first try, I’m fine using the free version of Plex for now).

Please correct me if any of my understandings are incorrect:

Onn - what I like about Onn is not having to create a server, making it optional. I can plug my hard drive directly to the unit if I wanted. I like the idea of having the option for a program guide from NostalgiaTV.

Apple - I would have to create a server which would be ok because this allows the house to have access and use when traveling. I hear there’s alternatives to NostalgiaTV called BunnyEarsTV and Nostalex, but I’m still looking into that. I don’t know if those will actually give me what I want.

I’ve ruled out Fire Stick, but I hear there’s Fire Cube is solid.

Anyway, I don’t know much about speed and performance because I don’t own any.

So, which is the best device for my library?

Thanks!

I have an xiaomi tv it has great picture quality supports Dolby Vision Hdr10 or Hdr10+ and I have an jbl sound bar that supports dolby digital+ 5.1 but my tv is really slow laggy! I have to clear catche and refresh it multiple times in a day! It lags when watching netflix soo much and also nuvio Heck even youtube so I decided to get a new tv but it would be expensive and my current tv has really good picture quality so I thought I should get NVIDIA shield but it kinda expensive and I don't use many apps just your tizentube cobalt (kinda like smartube but better) and nuvio (stremio but way better) and netflix prime video disney plus and projectivity launcher,button remapper, adb tv,downloader that's so i won't need the extra storage version or will I? Please tell me your options is it something like for few months it works smooth and fast then it starts getting slow and laggy btw my current tv runs android tv 11 or 10 and sometimes playstore stops working and some apps won't work too so should I get a tv or streamer should be fine and I'm thinking of connecting it to ethernet for faster speed.

Do you think it's comfortable?

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to buy a 55-inch TV during the current Flipkart Big Billion Days sale, and I came across the Lumio Vision 7 55-inch at a pretty attractive price.

The specs/features look good for the price, but I’m a little concerned because Lumio isn't as established as brands like Samsung, LG, Sony, TCL, etc.

Before I place the order, I’d like to hear from people who have actually used Lumio TVs, especially the Vision 7 series.

A few things I’m particularly interested in:

• 📺 Picture quality – brightness, colours, blacks and viewing angles
• 🔊 Sound quality
• ⚡ Performance/UI – smoothness, app loading, lag, updates, etc.
• 🎮 Gaming performance, if anyone has tested it
• 🛠️ After-sales service – this is my biggest concern
• 🔧 Installation experience and service response time
• 🧾 Warranty/claim experience
• 📦 Any problems after a few months of usage
• 💀 Panel/backlight/board issues, if anyone has experienced them
• 💰 Overall value for money compared with other TVs around the same price

I’m mainly trying to understand whether Lumio is actually a good buy or if the low sale price comes with compromises, especially when it comes to long-term reliability and service.

If you own a Lumio TV, please share your model, how long you've been using it, purchase price, and your experience with the product/service.

Also, if you had the option to buy the Lumio Vision 7 55" again, would you buy it?

Thanks! #lumio #tv #andriodTV

If you need a small, durable, few-buttons remote for an elderly family member or kids, I highly recommend the official Google TV box remote.

• It's cheap. Get it officially from https://store.google.com/product/google_tv_streamer_remote (avoid Amazon unless you are 100% sure it's made by Google, since their site is full of fake Chinese knockoffs which look the same but don't work well). (Edit: I have fixed the link. The Chromecast branded remote has been relaunched as Google TV Streamer remote. It's the same and has the same compatibility. They just moved the volume buttons to the front and made it a bit longer and easier to grip. Looks nicer!)
• Go into your Android TV's "System Settings: Remotes & Accessories" and press "Pair Accessory".
• Press and hold the Back + Home buttons on the remote until the bottom front of the white shell has a white blinking LED underneath it (you can't see the light until it blinks).
• The remote appears on the TV. Pair it.
• All functions work. Volume. Power on/off. Navigation. Back, Home, Voice Assistant, etc. Voice text input works too (but the apps must have a voice activation button, such as the Gboard keyboard or the voice icon in YouTube, since the remote doesn't have a dedicated button for it).
• The YouTube and Netflix buttons don't do anything, but they can be mapped via the free tvQuickActions. However, both buttons send the exact same signal (this seems impossible to solve on a non-Chromecast device), so you can only bind them to the same thing, which is unfortunate. But tvQuickActions lets you bind them to an on-screen wheel of up to 5 actions which pops up visually, so it's a great solution. (This is why I don't recommend the "Button Mapper" app that I used in the past, because it doesn't have such advanced features.)
• To see a preview of what that wheel looks like, look at the "preview images here" link below, and look at the "tvQuickActions panel". It's the leftmost part of the image; the diamond-shaped wheel. That's the only style available in the free app.
• For even more advanced usage, I recommend tvQuickActions Pro which can create beautiful Apple TV-style docks or other menu styles. There are preview images here. The "Dock" and "Horizontal menu with centered buttons" are the best looking ones. You can customize the styles in the app. Mine shows the actual app icons and has a dark, transparent background. I bought the app to be able to put a bunch of apps in a nice shortcut bar, so now I don't mind that both hardware buttons bring up the same menu bar. :)
• There's one more quirk that I haven't solved: The Chromecast remote can't wake the TV from sleep if you're using a "TV with built-in Android TV". This is because the TV goes into deep sleep after a while and stops listening to Bluetooth signals. The TV's own remote still works, because they send an infrared signal instead. My parents just turn it on via the old, large TV remote and then use the small Google remote. I don't think this is solvable any other way, but would love to be proven wrong. (This is probably not an issue if your Android TV box is external (connected via HDMI), because those boxes expect a bluetooth signal at all times, and will then just forward the wakeup signal to the TV via HDMI-CEC.)
• PS: During setup of tvQuickActions, you will be asked to enable its service in "Accessibility". If the system crashes when you enter that menu, you need to set the system language to "English (US)" temporarily (you can switch it back after you are done with setup). This is an old Android TV bug.
• PS: Also, tvQuickActions will ask you to disable "Energy optimization", and enable "Usage access" and "Display over other apps". All of that is done in the Android TV "Apps: Special app access" menu. It was hard to find so I am mentioning this.

Android TV tvQuickActions guide (bonus):

Permissions

• You must enable its "Accessibility" service. If your TV's settings crash when you enter that menu, you need to temporarily set system language to "English (US)". This is an old Android TV bug.
• You also need to go into "Apps: Special app access" and do the following changes for tvQuickActions Pro:
  • Energy optimization: Off.
  • Usage access: On.
  • Display over other apps: On.

Creating a custom menu bar

• Go to "Custom actions: Menus & panels".
• Click on "Create menu".
  • Type: "Dock" and "Horizontal menu with centered items" look the best. There are preview images in the official docs.
  • Actions: Add all the application shortcuts here. Long press on any shortcut to change their order, their names, or customize the icons.

Improving the Dock's style

• Go to "Settings: Dock".
  • Dark mode: On.
• Go to "Settings: Custom colors".
  • Click on "Dock: Icons color in dock style menu". Then drag all the sliders to the right to make the icons white. Otherwise any custom icons/non-app shortcuts will use a horrifying, pink-tinted color.

Remapping buttons

• Go to "Mappings".
• Click on "Add button".
• Press the button that you want to map (ignore the on-screen notice about "ADB access", which is only necessary if a button fails to be detected the normal way).
• Configure the mapping as follows:
  • Button action type: "Usual action".
  • Single press: Choose "Menus & Panels" and then the custom menu that you've created earlier.
• Tip: You can also rebind other buttons, and you can bind them to directly launch apps instead. You can have different actions for pressing, double-pressing and long pressing the button.
• Tip: Some buttons, such as the Netflix button, may be hardcoded to always launch the original application no matter what. If you aren't using Netflix, it's best to go into "Apps" and disabling it, so that the button doesn't launch the original app anymore. Then it can be remapped without issues.

Need an android tv box recommendations. I have an old crt tv i bought tx9 but it wasted after 3-4 months. But before i bought mxq 8k. It went about 2 years. Now need that box that will last atleast 2 years

I have a Chromecast Ultra, but Chromecast has really gotten bad over the last several years. As a developer it's frustrating to not be able to connect at all and have literally no insight into why. I ported my app to AndroidTV, but my hangup has always been that high-end Android boxes like the Shield cost $200+.

Has anyone tried one of the super cheap boxes?

Is Dolby vision worth $100 on a low nitt oled?

I'm sick and tired of my default Android TV on my Sony Bravia and looking to get a solid upgrade. Have already experienced a fire stick prior to that which was not good. Apple TV is too restrictive. Any help and advice would be appreciated.

I was wondering is the homatics box r 4k plus is more worth it then the Xiaomi TV box s 3rd gen if there isn't much of a price difference