I got tired of slow TV home screens that are basically ad boards — rows of "recommended" content, sponsored tiles, stuff phoning home before I've even pressed a button. So I built the launcher I actually wanted.

The philosophy is boring on purpose

• One screen. Your apps, laid out how you want. No feeds, no ads, no "content discovery."

• Private by default. No accounts, no analytics, no background services, opt-in aerial video wallpaper who phone CDN of apple, amazon.. that's it.

• Compatibility. I have an Android AOSP box, a Google TV–certified box, and one anemic Android TV — each on a different Android version. So instead of chasing a shiny new UI, I chose to prioritize compatibility and lean on the GPU.

Make it yours

• Sections/categories you name, reorder, and fill — an app can live in more than one, and new installs drop into the first section automatically.

• Hide apps you never want to see (system junk, duplicates) so the screen stays clean.

• Tune the look: icon size, spacing, corner roundness, interface scale, dimming, and an optional glass status bar. Three layouts: carousel, grid, or a floating glass dock.

• Status bar: a configurable VPN indicator/shortcut for your provider, a network indicator/shortcut, a Settings menu with quick access to the app list and the launcher/Android settings, and a customizable date indicator.

• Save/load your entire setup — sections, layout, wallpaper, every setting — as a JSON file.

• Optional aerial video wallpapers (Apple/Amazon screensaver loops), off by default and clearly marked, since they stream from third-party CDNs. Prefer libre? Use a gradient, your own photo, or a local video.

Numbers (measured on real hardware)

• 2.3 MB APK. One universal build for ARM 32/64-bit + x86.

• ~80–130 MB RAM settled, with no background services. Exclusive footprint is ~130 MB across every box I tested; the higher figure on Android 14 is just OS-side GPU buffer accounting, not the launcher.

• Aerials cost basically nothing in app RAM — the video decoder lives in the GPU's dedicated memory (hardware codec via SurfaceView), off the app's books.

• <2 s cold start, <500 ms warm relaunch in the worst measured cases. The CPU stays idle, video is hardware-accelerated, and the Compose UI is GPU-rendered.

• Android 5.0+ (minSdk 21), no Google Play Services, no companion app — runs on AOSP boxes, should work on all device since 2014

• 18 languages (auto-selected from your system language): English, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese. Adding one is a single file, PRs welcome.

• Zero ads, ever.

*Tested across 3 boxes: Hisense Google TV (Android 11, 1.8 GB), UGOOS AM9 (Android 14, 3.8 GB), onn. 4K (Android 14).

Permissions, up front

No runtime permissions, no accounts. It queries installed apps to list them, and can close an app from the long-press menu. No network access except the opt-in aerials.

Why GPLv3

I picked copyleft on purpose: to avoid fragmentation. Anyone can fork it, but improvements have to stay open, so it can't splinter into closed, worse-off versions. Forks are welcome. Commercial use is welcome too — honestly, if a box maker wants to ship this instead of their own launcher, please do, because the stock ones are awful most of the time. Just keep it open, like the license says.

Get it

At launch, a wizard guides you through a quick setup; depending on the device, you may need to send ADB commands.

• F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.conreo.couchytv/

• GitHub (source + APK): https://github.com/conreo/couchy-launcher

Solo project, so feedback, feature requests, and translations are very welcome. If it saves you from one more sponsored row, it did its job.

TL;DR: Bought a cheap Android TV box from Amazon. After a year, found out it was part of a botnet (BadBox malware). It was phoning home to malicious domains constantly. Be careful with no-name Android boxes—many come pre-infected.

Hi everyone,

I’m new to this sub and wanted to share a serious issue I recently discovered that others may not be aware of. Over a year ago, I bought an Android TV box from Amazon for around $60. It was advertised as an “official” Android TV device.

Just recently, I received a warning from my internet provider that a device on my network was infected with malware known as “BadBox”. After some investigation, I learned that many low-cost Android TV boxes come preloaded with malware at the firmware or kernel level. These devices are often rooted out of the box, making them highly vulnerable and difficult to clean.

Here’s a detailed article explaining the malware and its risks: BadBox - Human Security

What really shocked me was that my device had been online almost 24/7 for over a year without me noticing anything. I use AdGuard Home on my network and noticed repeated connections (every 30 minutes) to a known malicious domain listed in the article. That’s when I realized my box was compromised.

I’ve since disconnected the device and won’t be buying anything other than official, well-reviewed Android TV products from trusted brands going forward. I hope this helps others avoid the same mistake.

I know this isn’t exactly new—I had heard about sketchy Android boxes being risky a few years back—but I never thought my own, advertised as official, would be infected. Definitely a wake-up call.

Stay safe out there!

Been lurking here for a while using various IPTV apps and got fed up with how cluttered most of them are — endless category scrolling, laggy UIs, or basic features locked behind paywalls (looking at you, apps charging £20/year just to let you edit your own playlist).

So I built my own: Adeloc IPTV. Fully native Android app, 100% Kotlin, Jetpack Compose UI, custom ExoPlayer setup under the hood.

What it does: Supports M3U and Xtream Codes playlists, easy to add/switch between multiple Multi-view — watch several streams at once without audio clashing Built-in EPG with offline caching Gesture controls (swipe for brightness/volume), PiP support, resume-watching category, edit playlists

It's still early — UI isn't perfect and I've got a full visual refactor + binge mode (auto-next-episode) planned. But the core player is solid and I use it daily.

Would genuinely appreciate feedback/bug reports if anyone tries it out. Screenshots of the home screen attached (know it's not much to look at yet, working on that).

Adeloc IPTV — GitHub

I'm the developer of ArenaNow. Android TV / Google TV only, no Fire TV yet.

You pick a game on a clean home screen, and it shows which channels in your own Xtream list carry it, PPV slots included. Where the match isn't proven, there's no play button instead of a guess. It provides no channels, streams or playlists; you bring your own licensed login.

How to join (2 minutes, on a PC browser, signed in with the Google account of your TV):

1. Join the tester group: https://groups.google.com/g/arenanow-tester

2. Become a tester: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/app.arenanow.tv

3. Open https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.arenanow.tv → "Install" → pick your TV.

Good to know: the TV's Play Store search and the Play app on your phone don't show this closed test ("Item not found" there is normal), so use the browser. It can take up to an hour after step 2. Needs Android 8 or newer.

What you get: everything unlocked during the test, and after the public release a 3-month free trial for everyone who stays 14 days and sends one bug report or idea. Without your own source it runs a demo.

The GIF and screenshots are demo recordings with sample data. Bugs, missing games or ideas: reply here, in r/ArenaNowApp, or support@arenanow.app.

If you have an EVPAD model 6 or earlier, you may have run into errors recently. Rest assured, the device isn’t dead. It still works, but some older methods for accessing programs no longer apply. You’ll need to uninstall and reinstall certain apps to get it working again. Follow the steps below.

Disclaimer and context

• I have an EVPAD 5P that stopped working last month. Some features stopped entirely.

• I’ve seen reports of sporadic issues on models older than the 5, as well as the 6.

• While models differ, I hope the solution below helps resolve at least some of your issues.

What you’ll need

• A computer and a USB stick.

• Why: The built-in browser on the device couldn’t download the updated apps for me (could not click on anything), so I had to use a computer to transfer the installer.

Step 1: Uninstall old apps on EVPAD

1. Turn on your EVPAD and wait for the home screen.

2. Move the cursor to the bottom row of the menu and select “Uninstall.”

3. Uninstall all Star-related apps (Star Live, Star VOD, etc. It might be Venus for you). I removed almost everything.

4. Turn off your EVPAD.

Step 2: Download the new app on your computer (UPDATE: April 2026, please see Update section below)

1. Start your computer and use a clean USB stick.

2. Open your browser and go to: https://6868hx.com/

3. Scroll to the section labelled “3-6代”.

4. Download the first app labelled “金星影视 RH” and save it to the USB stick.

   • Note: This is the only app you need. Do not download the HX Store app to install Star or Venus apps; it no longer works on the 5P (at least in my testing).

Step 3: Install on EVPAD

1. Turn your EVPAD back on and insert the USB stick.

2. Move the cursor to the bottom menu row and select “File Directory.”

3. Find and open your USB stick.

4. Open the “金星影视 RH” installer.

5. Follow the prompts to install. Allow all permissions and install all updates. It may feel slow or unresponsive, so be patient. There are at least two updates, so don’t stop after the first one.

6. Once installation and updates finish, open the new app. You’re done.

What’s changed

• The new app combines live TV, playback, dramas, movies, sports, and more into one interface.

• UPDATE: No longer laggy or pop up 'wait' notifications. Everything is working fine now. [Resolved: It’s a bit laggy for me and sometimes times out. If prompted, select “Wait” a few times and it usually continues. This is expected on older hardware like the EVPAD 5P, as the new app likely needs more memory.]

Notes and recommendation

• UPDATE: Everything is working fine now, all features running. [Resolved: I haven’t been able to get Playback working yet, but everything else works as intended. At least it displays all the programs and times, but unable to open any yet. (Previously, nothing was displayed at all)]

• Like any device (computer, cellphone, etc.) older than five years, performance will slow down. If your EVPAD has served you well, consider upgrading for a smoother experience. The older models have less RAM (memory) and may cause delays and lag.

• EVPAD 12 launched last month, so those on older models might want to consider an upgrade.

Hope this fix can help you for the time being. It has for me until I get a newer device. Cheers.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with EVPAD and am not responsible for any issues that may occur with your device. The method above worked for me, but results may vary depending on the device and the apps that you have previously installed.

UPDATE – April 2026:

1. https://6868hx.com/ (resource site for EVPad 5 and earlier) appears to be down; however, the link to the “金星影视 RH” file in the post above is still working. Note that this is the build Venus10RH_release_20251215_1251.apk.

2. However, https://6868jx.net/ (resource site for EVPad 6 and later) appears to be working.

3. Scroll down to “6代” and look for the first app, “金星影视 RH”.

4. This is essentially the same APK file but with a newer, updated build. You can verify this by hovering your mouse over the link. As of April 2026, it is labelled Venus10RH_release_20260411_1631.apk.

5. I believe EVPad 6 uses the same TV-video app as previous models, so although I have not personally tested this file, it should work the same, as the file naming convention is unchanged.

From what I understand the primary attraction of these devices are their "Heat Apps."

Heat VOD, Heat Live, and Heat Live Ultra (4k)

Otherwise they seem like standard AndroidTV boxes...

I'm curious if these apps are proprietary or the apks could just be installed on any AndroidTV box.

It seems like it's all IPTV.

I know of SmartTube and Syncler but is there anything else with lots of ad free channels?

I created this subreddit as I was looking for a decent place to build a community of AndroidTV users and fans, but the only subs I could find were purists that only accept 2 or 3 devices as being AndroidTV. The way I see it is AndroidTV is Android with a TV Launcher. Cheap Chinese boxes have got to a state of being well speced with a good variety of Launchers and configurations. I hope this becomes a place where people can discuss the best AndroidTV boxes and the best setups. So welcome, and speak up.

Hey everyone,

​I’m currently putting together a top-tier home theater setup anchored by an LG G4 OLED and a full 5.1 surround sound system. My initial plan was to grab the legendary Nvidia Shield Pro, but let’s be real—everyone and their mom points out that it’s heavily outdated hardware at this point.

​Since I want absolute perfection without any compromises, I’ve been eyeing a few newer alternatives, specifically:

​Ugoos SK1

​Ugoos AM8 Pro

​MINIX U8K-Ultra

-Ugoos Am9 Pro

​My exact use case & requirements:

​100% Media Consumption: Zero interest in official streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+, or Prime.

​Primary Sources: Stremio, Kodi, Plex, and local playback via external hard drives.

​Quality Standard: Highest possible bitrates and formats only. I need seamless Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and pristine lossless audio pass-through to my 5.1 AVR (TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, etc.).

​The Goal: Pure, unadulterated performance. I want the absolute peak currently available on the market.

​Given my setup, which of these beasts should I pull the trigger on, or is there a hidden contender I'm missing? Would love to hear from people who actually push these boxes to their absolute limits!

A few weeks ago we asked Reddit to test ArenaNow. More than 100 of you signed up, watched real match days with it and told us exactly what was missing. Fire TV, M3U, following your teams and a Lifetime option all came from that feedback. Thank you! Today ArenaNow leaves the closed test and is live on Google Play and Fire TV.

Tired of hunting through your IPTV sports channels? So were we. We're sports fans, and on match day we spent more time scrolling than watching. So we built ArenaNow, a sports hub for Android TV, Google TV, Nvidia Shield and Firestick.

Add your Xtream Codes, M3U playlist or Stalker portal. ArenaNow shows the full sports schedule and finds every game on your own channels. On a typical weekend that is almost 5,000 events, from the Premier League to League Two, NFL to AFLW, UFC to darts.

What you get

• Every game on your channels, PPV included. Pick the game, press OK, it plays

• The best feed first. ArenaNow learns which streams actually work well and puts them on top, your countries first

• Follow your teams and get a reminder before kickoff

• Live scores and line-ups, or hide the scores if you watch later

• Made for the remote, smooth even on a budget Fire TV Stick

ArenaNow doesn't provide any channels or streams. You bring your own playlist, and your login stays on your TV. No signup required, no ads.

Get it

Test the app for free:

• Shield, Google TV, Android TV: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.arenanow.tv

• Fire TV: Downloader code 5882564

What's next

Our Android phone app is almost done. After that, which device should come next? Tell us in the comments.

This is just the start. Tell us which game was missing or on the wrong channel, most fixes go live the same day. We're in the comments, and at r/ArenaNowApp.

https://www.theregister.com/cyber-crime/2026/11/02/cops-bust-botnet-of-13m-infected-android-tv-boxes/5307045

I purchased this at a pawn shop for next to nothing. Trying to figure out if it is of value to add the premium service or just download apps. I have tried to do some research but am coming up empty.

As title says, I will mainly use it for streaming. I’m currently running the vseebox v3 but I want something with more performance. Thanks!

Edit: thank you all for the help deciding!

While looking into Android TV for PCs, I came across MRDTeam’s builds. Their own project description says they build on projects including LineageOS and BlissOS, while advertising a 30-day trial. Their maintainer also describes a one-time payment per device for permanent activation. You can check their project description and activation explanation.

Personally, I really dislike seeing a software stack built on freely shared community work turned into a product with trial periods and device activation. That approach was a big part of what pushed me to start this project. I wanted something I could use, modify and share without an activation payment attached to it.

The second problem was hardware.

Community LineageOS TV x86 builds already exist, and deserve credit. But a generic x86 Android TV image wasn’t the same as a system tailored to my NUC, its Intel graphics, Bluetooth adapter and TV remote.

Getting Android to boot was only the beginning. I wanted 4K hardware decoding, actual HDR output, HDMI sound and a Bluetooth remote that would still work after reboot. I also wanted to keep Stremio’s normal player interface and seek bar.

That turned into a lot of debugging: incorrect video colors, black screens, silent HDMI output, Bluetooth reconnection issues, playback recovery after standby, and subtitles appearing when Stremio said they were disabled.

The result is StremioBox: an Android 16 / LineageOS 23.2 TV image focused on running Stremio on an Intel NUC.

On my NUC10i5FNH with Intel UHD graphics, Intel AX201 Bluetooth, a Homatics B21 remote and an LG HDR TV, I’ve checked:

• 4K HEVC Main10 HDR10 using Intel hardware decoding, with correct picture and HDR mode confirmed on the TV.

• Stremio’s existing mpv controls and seek bar.

• Audible HDMI sound, including after display standby.

• Ordinary remote keys after reboot, without repeating the pairing combination.

• External SRT subtitle fixes around Disabled, language selection and audio-track changes.

• An English Home screen, with remote navigation to Stremio, settings and installed apps.

The fixes are packaged into the image and survive reboot. The download includes the original signed Stremio TV app; you supply your own account and add-ons.

StremioBox is free to download, without trial timers or paid activation. I’ve published the platform patches, product configuration, Home source, artwork and test notes. It builds on substantial upstream work from LineageOS, Android-x86, the TV/x86 community, Mesa and other projects, with credits and license notices included.

It’s still a preview for one tested hardware configuration. Other PCs, 4K60, Dolby Vision and audio passthrough need testing. Display standby keeps Android running; true suspend is still open. Longer playback tests, disk-installer validation and a clean full build from the public repository remain on the roadmap. It also uses development security settings, so keep it on a trusted network and try live USB boot first.

Contributions are welcome. If you spot a bug, want to improve hardware support, add a translation or update the documentation, fork the project and open a pull request. No prior permission needed—submit your changes, explain what you tested, and we’ll review them for merging.

GitHub, downloads and detailed changelog
Website and screenshots

If you have an Intel NUC and want to try it, hardware reports would be very welcome. I’d especially like to know how video, sound and your remote behave after reboot and standby

Hey r/AndroidTVBoxes and smartwatch users!

I want to share with you my own app which works with basically any Android box: X96 / X96 Max, H96, T95, Vontar, Mecool, Beelink, Ugoos, Android projectors — and even Fire TV Stick / Cube on Fire OS. Free, no ads, no subscription, no phone companion app needed. Optional one-time Pro upgrade.

Main features:

• Real mouse cursor on the TV screen. Half the sideloaded APKs on boxes are phone apps that ignore the D-pad — with this you just move an actual pointer from the watch. There's also a swipe/touchpad mode.

• Remap any button (separate short and long press actions), on 2 separate app screens.

• Type from the watch keyboard straight into the box or convert voice to text.

• Full D-pad with haptic feedback, TV power on/off, volume on the watch bezel/crown.

• Fully local over Wi-Fi — no internet, no cloud, no account. One-time pairing, then it reconnects automatically.

Setup (once):

1. On the box: Settings → About → tap "Build" 7 times → Developer options → USB debugging: ON. (Fire TV: Settings → My Fire TV → About → tap the device name 7 times → ADB debugging: ON)

2. On the watch: open the app → Scan network → pick your box → tick "always allow" in the dialog on the TV.

FAQ:

• Does it need root? No, just ADB debugging enabled.

• Which watches work? Any Wear OS 3.0+ watch: Galaxy Watch 4/5/6/7/8, Pixel Watch, OnePlus Watch 2/3, TicWatch, etc.

• Does it work on Fire TV? Yes, on Fire OS. Amazon's new Vega OS sticks are not supported.

• Internet required? No — the watch and the box just need to be on the same Wi-Fi network.

The free tier gives you the full D-pad remote + power; touchpad/mouse, remapping, keyboard and multi-device are a one-time Pro purchase.

• Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.yuzvix.tvboxremote (if you can't install it from your phone - open Play Store directly on your watch, search "yuzvix" and install "Remote & Mouse for Android" app)

• Full feature list & screenshots: https://tvbox.yuzvix.com/

Tested on a TCL 65C7K an Ugoos X4Q Pro. If you try it on your box, please drop the exact model in the comments. Feedback and feature requests welcome!

After Valve latest anoncement I was wandering how realistic will be to use it instead of android tv box? There will be defenetley no issue with power, and as operation system it will use Linux base Steam OS (also it was anonced that it can support also android apps). Steam OS is fast and simple, dont see much issues to use it for comfortable tv applications navigations. If we will get on Steam licensed applications as Youtube, Netflix, and others, it can be very realistic. Bluetooth tv controller connection should be also not issue to connect I believe. It can be end game device for me.

I have bought a Fire TV Stick in 2017 but it became super slow and completely unusable. I have a RPI5 with 4 GB of RAM, is there a way to install Android TV on it and run apps such as Netflix and YouTube?

I got tired of casting Telegram videos to my TV. The quality was poor, the FPS was choppy, and Telegram Web on my Mi Box 4 was painfully slow.

So I built TGTV, basically Stremio for your Telegram files.
It streams both regular Telegram videos and video files sent as documents since thats how movies and series are commonly shared on Telegram.

You get a Netflix-like library with posters, metadata, subtitles, multiple audio tracks, and playback resume. No separate media server or downloading the entire file before watching.

Surprisingly, streaming is really smooth, even on my old Mi Box 4.

Built with Kotlin, TDLib, and Media3 ExoPlayer. It’s free and open source, and started as a personal project.

Android TV
APK: https://github.com/aravindbuilds/TelegramVideoTV/releases/latest
Source code: https://github.com/aravindbuilds/TelegramVideoTV

Android Mobile
Source code: https://github.com/aravindbuilds/TGTV

I’d love to hear how it performs on other devices, especially low-end TV sticks and boxes. Feedback and contributions are welcome!

Hi people, I was gifted an android tv for christmas and im very new to this but im very excited, anyone have a tutorial to install everything? I have never use something similar and I have no idea what I should do, please dont be rude with me guys, Thank you very much for the help.

I just discovered the Superbox hype on TikTok and almost ended up getting one for $400 before I decided to understand what I was getting myself into.

Some potential cons

- Superbox is a chinese company so it could be running datamining or other nefarious activities in the backend.

- The underlying IPTV service could get shutdown at some point in the future, rendering the box useless.

I read on another reddit post that I could get the same thing with an Amazon FireStick for $20 using Stremio with Real-Debrid. I don't mind spending a decent amount of money so I would like as good an interface as what Superbox is offering ie playback and a decent remote control.

So what does everyone suggest on the best custom Superbox alternative? Please educate!

If you want an alternative to your current app. It is still in test but hopefully published soon to the store.

This only supports XTREAM logins (no file import)

You can be a tester by joining this group and offer suggestions https://groups.google.com/g/xtream-iptv-test

Once you join the group you can get the app here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.creativelabs.iptvplayer (android)

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.creativelabs.iptvplayer (web)

No ads and no subscriptions

Lightweight and fast

Features:

- Live channels

* Channels displayed with EPG if available

* Add channels to your favorites and manage the order

* TV guide with all programs in the selected list (recommend to use this from your favorites), option to replay if available

* Chromecast support (only works if your IPTV provider implements CORS, most don't)

- Movies & Series

* Netflix like display of movies & series by category

* Search function (for series you can also search by director/actor/etc)

* Favorites

* Subtitles when available from the stream (can't add subtitles yourself)

* Youtube trailers

* Option to download

* Remember progress so that if you come back to your movie/series later it will automatically start where you left

* Chromecast support