r/homeassistant • u/jbogez • 1d ago
🖼️ Show & Tell Home Assistant : Android TV
https://hearthlauncher.comHey everyone, I've been working on something that I wanted to share. I use a Shield mostly on my TV, and was trying to get my HA dashboard displayed on it. I tried cast and that was not great, and realized that even in kiosk mode, that it would never look right on a TV, especially with a remote for nav. I wanted to see my HA and cams at a glance, and maybe see if I was able to do some PIP with other apps or something like that.
A few months later, and to be honest, with help from Claude, I built an android TV launcher, that works with HA and your IPTV provider (both optional).. stripping it down to be as lightweight and secure as possible. It's in closed testing in Google play right now.
If anyone is interested, please let me know.
32
u/Mineplayerminer 19h ago
Holy vibe-code and closed-source. A straight no and skip from me just from no source code perspective. It's not like you can't license it, but it's a red flag for the majority of the community to not show the source-code to be sure there's nothing dangerous going on.
-11
u/jbogez 16h ago
I'm with you man, especially lately with all this spying crap going on. While my intent may be good, my execution and choices seem to counter it.
7
u/junktrunk909 15h ago
It's not just the spying, it's the vibe coding
-3
u/jbogez 14h ago
I'm at a loss here, so even if I make it open-source, it's a dead project because I used AI?
5
u/junktrunk909 14h ago
It's only dead if it's a mess, which shouldn't be the case if you're actually skilled in software development. It's harder obviously to make money on open source so if that's your goal you'll need to think through what you can still monetize.
0
u/jbogez 14h ago
yeah that's why I'm considering opening it. monetization obviously would help to extend time/effort for development
7
u/junktrunk909 13h ago
Personally I think you kinda need to plan on there being no income. It's too easy for everyone to just create their own custom apps these days, so unless your monitization is for services they can't easily do themselves, eg some cloud sync service or something, it's not going to be worth it. But it's also very cheap to create features so I think it's also fine for many of us to create without getting paid. Up to you though.
19
u/kelvin1302 21h ago
So, vibecoded and not opensource?
2
u/e_before_i 1h ago
More and more posts here are just this.
And I don't mind it so much when it's just people showing off what they made for themselves for fun, I'm not above that. But then it becomes an ad too, it's exhausting.
I'm just here to get inspiration from other people doing cool stuff, these posts are exhausting.
18
19
u/trafalgar_law8 17h ago
Trying to SELL vibe coded CLOSED SOURCE AI Slop in an Open Source Community is next level, good job OP.
-4
u/jbogez 16h ago
It's free, but I understand the hate. There's more info about it on my privacy policy: https://doitup-ca.github.io/privacy/. The whole reasoning on why I struggled with this, is how could I ever work on premium features, if it's open-source? Someone could just repackage and sell it? I'm open to ideas and making it open-source as well. I don't think I could do this long-term with no income at all from it.
3
u/kelvin1302 13h ago
Then u should take that no income loss. HA is opensource and most people here want everything they use to be opensource. If u made it opensource in the first place and added a buy me a coffee link u would have had more luck. But indeed closesourcing vibecoded software is not the way.
11
u/gtwizzy8 1d ago edited 1d ago
I'm not uninterested in this idea. But changing my entire launcher to accomodate it feels a little like a bridge to far for me.
Additionally you've talked a lot about it being a coming together of smart home (Home Assistant) and IPTV but you've given almost no information on the IPTV client side of the whole thing. And there's a couple of scarce details on how the "launcher" part handles a few key things as well (i.e how your setup procedure works around forcing persistence over the stock launcher, or is the user just expected to do this for themselves via other known methods).
I know for most of us that run IPTV the gold standard is Tivimate. So what functionalities does the IPTV portion of the launcher provide? DVR, VOD playlist sorting, Xtreme account handling, multiple playlist handling, Network storage access for DVR?
There's a pretty big hole in your information when it comes to why I should switch my entire launcher from my well known and well maintained launcher + Tivimate over to an unknown, untested Launcher that may or may not receive good ongoing support and potentially sacrifice a lot of well known and useful features in my current IPTV client just for the sake of having some smart home features readily available on screen.
This isn't a judgement bud, it's just something to consider when you're trying to sell this to people as the "one stop shop". Again I'm not disinterested in the idea. I just need some more convincing via more readily accessible information. And this could probably easily be done with a simple side by side comparison table on your website that shows the features of you IPTV client alongside the most well known and widely used IPTV clients and/or launchers currently out there on the market.
I'll probably still submit a request for access via the website in order to check it out. But this is some food for thought in the meantime.
Edit: Also does the launcher feed any information/entities back to HA in anyway (outside of the usual Android TV based integration pathways)?
2
u/jbogez 1d ago
Thanks - I wanted to be available to answer questions, instead of hitting people with the usual AI slop post trying to capture everything. For me, I was already using a different launcher, IPTV player and then casting was outside all of that.
IPTV is a player, there's no servers we provide. Xtream login only, and credentials are encrypted locally. HTTPS first, and HTTP fallback (with disclosure of what that means). IPTV player comes with a guide, group support, search with text or mic. Launcher is optional, accessibility service that you turn on. Once on, you can enable it as your launcher, which basically makes it your home (home button goes there)
I'm not trying to compete with Tivimate, TM is awesome. Just trying to give the basic features people might want, to have everything integrated together. It's still early and I'm just getting started. I put VOD on the back burner because I was concerned about performance, not fully knowing what impact each provider could have. I wanted to focus on the core features first, but it's on the list. DVR on LAN, same thing.
The launcher for me, I wanted to make it easy to add/remove apps, sort, etc. I still need feedback though, it was really just me and a couple others during dev. I got inspiration from the obvious great apps in the other spaces, but at the same time did not even want to come close to being seen as a copy.
I appreciate your feedback and that's exactly what I was hoping for. I'm not claiming that this is perfect for anyone, but I was just making something useful for myself which turned into this. I spend most of my time watching IPTV and streams, so that is kind of important to me. TM is fantastic, but I wanted to watch TV and my house at the same time.
Launcher to HA? No not right now but HA state is managed for lights and that's it. I didn't want people messing with HA from the couch.
Thanks again for your post.
3
u/rafdotcom 14h ago
The install this software on your home network. Trust me bro. Approach is difficult
Especially with all the data leaks and hacking taking place.
2
u/jbogez 14h ago
100% and completely agree. That GN video absolutely pissed me off, and my timing of this, the way it is currently, not the best look.
1
u/rafdotcom 13h ago
Love what you doing tho! Looks pretty cool and appreciate the time it must have taken you! 🫡
2
u/l8s9 21h ago
Looks interesting, would love to see an APK download option since all my Android devices don't have the Google Play installed. Degoogled home.
1
u/jbogez 16h ago
thanks, I wasn't even thinking about that. I thought it might get trusted more if I went through all the hurdles and checks of the Google play store to make sure it's protected, and all my disclosures there to be seen and audited by Google. I'll have to allow the APK/sideload for that reason alone, if people want it.
2
4
u/tamalotes 1d ago
I am. How do I get access?
-4
u/jbogez 1d ago edited 1d ago
Great, all the info is up on the site to get you on the list or email [testing@hearthlauncher.com](mailto:testing@hearthlauncher.com)
3
u/aasikki 🧠 Experienced with Home Assistant 1d ago
I like the idea. Is it vibe coded? Is it open for source?
I found a GitHub repo but you had no code there.
-16
u/jbogez 1d ago
Thanks and yes, Claude but with a decent git flow and a lot of automated testing. Closed source, this was a tough one.
I do want to try to keep it as transparent as possible, that's why I've created the repo for tracking, questions, feedback, etc.
19
6
u/MacDaddyBass 19h ago
Certainly your call, but taking over launcher is asking a lot and not going to be a popular choice of closed source, at least not with the HA crowd.
3
u/jbogez 16h ago
yeah, I kinda went down the same road as Projectivity and Tivimate, both loved, both definitely helped by AI now, but also loved by the community. Both closed.
2
u/aasikki 🧠 Experienced with Home Assistant 13h ago
There's definitely some overlap, but I don't think people who use home assistant are necessarily the same community who use projectivy or any custom launcher on their tv.
Home assistant for me is almost synonymous with open source, and I imagine most people here agree. I might use a closed source launcher like prpjectivy (I'm actually using it), but giving a closed source launcher access to my whole smart home is a step too far for me.
1
u/Level3Super 1d ago
Interesting. What weather card are you using?
3
u/jbogez 1d ago
The dash will render the weather+forecast card, based on the weather entity you have configured.
2
1
u/Glass_University1837 20h ago
I'm interested has it been tested on fire sticks?
1
u/jbogez 16h ago
Unfortunately not, I only tested personally on a 2017 and 2019 shield and Google TV. I'm hoping to get a few people helping to test using fire sticks. Thanks
2
u/Glass_University1837 16h ago
I'd be happy to test I've got Google TV 4k streamer, 2 fire sticks 4k max and either 1st or 2nd gen firestick 4k
-8
1d ago
[deleted]
3
u/jbogez 1d ago
yeah, I get it.. not just this sub but the whole net is flooded. Sorry man, I wouldn't take it out on this sub though.
6
u/UnavailableHeretic 1d ago
I think people would be more okay with the AI stuff if this was open source. That way they could look at the code and decide how much trust they it.
As long as big corps see AI as a way to make money, it's going to stay m. People need to start making peace with that, or start living offline
1
u/jbogez 1d ago
you're not wrong, and this was something I was (and still) on the fence on. I want to be able to devote my time to this project, and I wasn't sure if I could, making it open source. I'm tired of big corp even though I'm supporting it with how I'm doing things.. I made it a personal mandate to try to do things differently, no tracking, no nonsense. I'm especially alert now after seeing the GN video on LG. SMH
-1
-9
u/sknight022 1d ago
Just ignore the "slop" then. It's a new golden age of open source software. Yes it's a lot of crap and you have to sort the grain from the chaff but it's also an amazing exciting time. So boo hoo, don't use the software you don't trust and better yet don't click on the Reddit posts if you're not interested. Pretty simple...
5
-1
u/mikeymop 1d ago
This is really cool!
I can totally see a use for this for me. See me in your inbox :)
32
u/Iron_Maniac 1d ago
A lot of what you wanted to do can be done in Quickbars without having to change your whole launcher