Help me get accustomed to my new android TV :)

by prostitutepiss

Hi all. Just got a shield TV based on recommendations around here. Super happy with it. I have some general usage questions on Android TV, hopefully people can chime in and help.

  1. Is there a way to see what apps are currently open and running in background? Do background apps slow down the box? And how to close background apps? For example let's say I run an emulator program, I press home button, and want to watch Kodi, how do I swap back to the emulator to close it?

  2. I sideloaded Chrome. The voice search doesn't seem to work with Chromes search bar. Is there a way to get this to work or another web browser that will work with it?

  3. I have Spotify, I like how it continues to play music in the background if I'm navigating the home screen or other apps. Is there a way to change songs (next song) while in the home screen or another app? What I've been doing is going back into the Spotify to do this, I know other systems like PS4 has a quick way to change songs while out of Spotify and with Spotify running in the background.

  4. Regarding the voice search button while in home screen. It searches well, but then it gets hung up in he searching 10 apps part. I would like to be able to search SPMC sources while in home screen. So for example, if I'm in the home screen and I want to find an spmc stream for Married with children, is there a way to do this while in he home screen window instead of having to load spmc and goto addons then tv search etc.

  5. Is there a way to influence what shows up on the home screen. Above apps, it seems like android tv has some suggestions along the top. For example, I downloaded Twitch and now I have like all these suggested streams from twitch on there. What I want to show up up there is stuff like the weather, but I don't need to see 5 suggested twitch streams.

Edit: New Question:

6.. When using Kodi, some streams ask me to visit a website and pair kodi with the stream or something. Is this safe to do? Should I be pairing to receive more streams?

CaptZ_3148

For number 5; No. You can control witch apps show up but not what they recommend.

Don't get to used to it though, a big change should be coming this year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOijyUAVQTw

http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/google-android-tv-ui-1202431034/

simiwood
  1. Double click the circle button
ryadre1

Try puffin TV browser

Also the pairing In kodi streams is fine, just do it on your phone on the same wifi network. Usually Openload and thevideo need pairing. Openload is better than thevideo

kaaylim

4 - I don't know SPMC, but since it's a fork of Kodi it should be the same. It's not implemented yet but should be on the next version of Kodi 18 "Leia".

BiggussDikkuss

SPMC will only voice search its content if:

  1. The media files have been scraped and a Database of Metadata has been compiled.

  2. SPMC is already running on the Android TV device. It can be minimised as well.

TIP: There is Short and long remote button press functionality in various Android TV Apps.

lament

3 You should be able to change tracks from your phone with the Spotify app open or desktop app or in a browser (assuming they're both on the same network as the Shield).

5 Settings > Home screen > Recommendations row - choose the apps you want to see suggestions from.

Andrroid

Stop worrying about background apps. Android handles RAM differently than Windows. Don't go closing apps will nilly. You're actually doing more harm than good.

kaaylim

6- it's safe to do, but in only works for 3 hours or so, then you'll have to do it again. It's a bit annoying to do, but the streams are usually better. You can can just type olpair on your phone for openload for example (it has to be same network), it's not that long.

If you dont want to do it than you can deactivate streams that requires authentification/pairing in your addon settings