I just got a UHD tv running Android 9.
This is my first experience with android tv.
Previously I was using a HD tv with firestick 2.
Can anyone suggest some of the must have apps to install and tips for android tv?
One thing I liked on my fire stick was the ability to monitor the data usage. It was in the settings. Does Android tv have such a setting or is there an app which does that?
/r/Addons4Kodi the best
Sorry don't know anything about data monitoring.
Yikes!
Android TV is sluggish compared to my firestick 2nd gen.
Maybe, it's the learning curve but I've a feeling I'm going to end up buying a firestick 4k.
another trick is there is a hidden application on your Shield that will not show up unless you have an application that it could hook into such as Pluto TV, Red bull TV, or haystack.currently these are the only three apps I am aware of that allow the live channels application to use their streams as sources for channels but you can also connect an antenna to your TV and use live channels app as a DVR if you connect storage.
live channels is a really fun app that I like to use for combining Pluto TV, Haystack, and Red bull TV channel sources with a traditional looking channel guide and it also has PIP so I can listen to and watch it while doing other things on the shield like browsing the internet or managing files Etc.
Here's a great article describing more information about a live channels works but if you want you can connect an antenna and use it as a DVR as well. Set up I have only uses free apps that I mentioned because I have a TiVo roamio as my actual DVR but even with the internet streamed channels I still enjoy it very much. https://www.cordcutters.com/android-tvs-live-channels-great-app-youre-probably-not-using
Yeah I saw someone recommend ES File Explorer but everyone needs to forget about that because they were removed from the Play Store for shady behavior and running ads in the background without the user's knowledge consuming device resources and bandwidth.
ES File Explorer changed owners and are now owned by scumbags using dirty tricks to try and generate extra ad revenue for themselves without caring about the users. Who knows what else they have done with that app, stop using immediately and get something better and safer such as FX file explorer, Solid, or X-Plore. All three of these are available on Android TV Google Play Store. My preferred choice is FX File Explorer. Description on the application alone is reason enough to use and trust it. It states "No ads. No annoyances. No tracking. Manage your files. Retain your privacy." How's that for the perfect mission statement as far as what users are looking for in a file browser? it's fast, lightweight, no ads, no BS. Absolutely perfect and the interface looks nice as well and is customizable with lots of color choices. It has all the features I need and then some and I use it a lot Even bought the pro version. Was only like 3 bucks.
It's an Nvidia Shield, don't cheapen it by messing with any kind of launcher. For a file browser you can't go wrong with FX file explorer. For sideloading things you cannot find in the store I would use APK pure App Store which will make updating side-loaded apps easy as well. Simply delete the installer files FX file explorer each time you update those apps. As for streaming apps I would highly recommend Cinema HD and UnlockMyTTV which is a clone of cyberflix but improved results. Should be the only 2 needed. For a browser I would use puffin TV in the play store or side load Firefox or chrome.
TV app repo is still very useful as well for sideloaded apps and generating shortcuts.
Haystack is a great app for news that integrates very nicely with the channels feature of the Shield. The Nvidia forums also has a great app somebody developed called Channels. Google Youtube Channels and it can be found easily. This will allow you to literally add any YouTube channel you wish to shields home page and you can sort and rearrange them in any order you prefer. Fantastic app that is a must have in my opinion. I believe it has a current limit of 50 channels though but honestly you shouldn't need more than 50 or so channels on your main page.
Aida64 for system info, Analiti for speedtest.
If you really absolutely insist on some kind of launcher then HAL launcher would be my recommendation although you are missing out on many useful features in Android TV. It has been developed with a lot of effort for a reason. It's very useful and works really good if you just give it a chance.
You can also use TV App Repo to create shortcuts for side loaded applications. Unfortunately it has not been updated for the last couple of ls upgrades but an old version can still be found on GitHub and still works quite well. I believe the last version was 1.1.4 or 1.4.1 or something like that. For occasional apps that no longer work with app repo you can make your own custom app shortcuts with this site: http://atvlauncher.trekgonewild.de/index.php
Sideload launcher can also be found in the app store and is easy way to launch sideloaded apps with no shortcut but I just make my own if one isn't provided with the tips I gave above.
seriously though, forget launchers completely. Everybody has been brainwashed by these inferior cheap Chinese boxes that make people think a launcher of some kind is needed when the only reason those types of inferior crappy launchers existed in the first place is because they slapped it on top of the stock Android OS not intended for televisions. It was an attempt to make it usable when it really wasn't designed to be used for that purpose and because of that everybody thinks they need some kind of horrible launcher with no features to make it "look" like an android box.
You have a premium product with a really good operating system called Android TV. Enjoy it, don't ruin it by trying to make it look like a cheap Chinese box OS.stead learn the features of Android TV and combine it with awesome applications such as Haystack TV, that YouTube Channels app I mentioned and others.lots of applications have a channel available or multiple channels even to really help you customize further. The play next row is very useful for continuing watching things you start. All of it is customizable as well.learn it, use it, love it. Don't ruin the UI by slapping a bad launcher on top of a good OS.
This is probably the most important part for making it faster and you mentioned above.look up developer options on the Nvidia Shield. You might already know this trick but if you click multiple times on the version of Android you won't unlock developer mode. Look under developer mode for options to adjust the window scaling and animation transition scale or whatever it's called but they will be set to x1 by default. Lower them to x0.5 and navigation should be much snappier and faster. You could lower them to zero but it looks a little bit bad in my opinion so x0.5 is quick enough.