Is Android TV plus side-loaded apps a reasonable option?

by pudds

As a Canadian cord-cutter, there aren't a lot of good options out there for me and my family. Roku has almost no Canadian content, and Apple TV and Chromecast, while fairly flexible when combined with a phone or tablet, are cumbersome and don't really pass the wife test. (The wife likes the ATV, but hates casting anything).

What's the Nexus TV like when working with side-loaded apps? There is a lot of Canadian content available on standard Android; if I could get access to those apps on a set top box, it would be ideal.

Do most side loaded apps work properly? Do developers ever explicitly block Android TV users (as opposed to simply not developing for it)?

I assume that most side-loaded apps don't work properly with the standard remote, are there decent mouse-emulation type options? The wife will not go for a keyboard option, but a wireless trackpad + remote might be doable, is this possible?

nickm_27

It is hard to block TV but developers have to design their layouts in such a way that the focuses work for TV. There was a post on here yesterday about someone who changed some apk's to be leanback layouts to make sideloaded apps work.

7HR4SH3R

If you give me a list of apps you use I can try them out on my Nexus Player.

That said, I am super happy with mine so fair. I mainly store TV shows and movies on a local Plex server but I do use some Kodi add-ons like HGTV and Food Network and they work great.

closetgeekshow

I'm in Canada too and there's not a great deal of content right now, The Weather Network app just was added (though it shows everything in Fahrenheit) and it's strangely the best source of Canadian news (though it's mostly about climate and weather - duh) I've found short of just following news orgs through Youtube. I keeping wanting CBC or someone like that to do give me a video news app.

Some side-loaded apps work but they need to support controllers/remotes/keyboards as the touchpad (works as a mouse on the Shield Tablet) on the controller does not work on TVs. I've come across several apps in the last few weeks that claim to work but do not. I don't think that's necessary maliciousness from the developers, I contacted one about it and they sent me a screenshot of the Play Store's control panel for defining compatibility. Android TV is buried in with all the tablets and phones (hundreds of em), so one can easily check their app as compatible without really noticing it.

I have a bluetooth keyboard/mouse combo and my mouse never comes up anymore (an update remove that feature i think b/c it worked before) in anything though the keyboard works (though I haven't used it in weeks - I just put up with the on-screen keyboard instead).

One option for more content is the HDHomerun Antenna , I've not got it yet but I plan to. It's an HD antenna that integrates with the Live Channels app on Android TV (where you're supposed to go for actual TV content), depending on where you are located that might be a good option. I'm just north of downtown Toronto on the 10th with a clear LOS to the CN Tower - so I'm hoping that it will pick up a lot of things, I have a buddy on a 1st floor apartment with one and he gets Global, City, CTV, TVO, TFO and CBC reliably and says occasionally PBS. I'm hoping I can get more being at a higher elevation. There's a tool I found that can help you make a more informed decision about what is available in your area.

If you have soft copies of TV shows or movies on a hard drive somewhere on your network or plugged into your device PLEX, Kodi and Mizuu.tv can be used to index, search and play that content.

I've mostly just been playing games and watching Netflix with it.

l3rian

Interesting! I did not know that. I wonder why that is? Shouldn't it be coming from the same source?