I love the Android TV interface (the leanback launcher) and the casting abilities, so I figured if I could get my (Intel based) HTPC (that currently runs Lubuntu) to boot Android x86, I could flash the Nexus Player CM Gapps package on it and get a fully functional Android TV based HTPC.
Unfortunately, so far I failed - not because of the GAPPS but because every single version of Android x86 Lollipop I tried was painstakingly slow and unresponsive. I know I can run Android 4.4 x86 form a USB on this same device, but all the Android TV packages are Lollipop based so that won't work. Also, Android x86 is officially only 4.4 so far, the Lollipop versions are all experimental and all versions I tried were slow to a halt, which I'm assuming is GPU/Kernel related as I've read they haven't integrated those yet into the nightlies.
If I could get Android 5.X running normally, the rest should be easy in theory (it's all in the gapps).
The hardware is a pretty standard PC, HP Pavillion with an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, an Intel ICH7 chipset motherboard and an nVidia GT 630 graphics card.
Has anyone else toyed with this to some level of success? Tried it on other hardware maybe? I'd love to know if/how it works.
This is exactly what I have been trying to do, haven't got as far as you in trying the x86 version of android.
I am wondering if there is some sort of virtual machine, was looking at the developer tools for this: https://developer.android.com/tools/help/emulator.html