Can I dumb down an Android smart TV if I want to?

by a1b3rt

I got a budget 4k android TV at black Friday sale price. The display size and quality are decent and I want to keep it for long term use.

But the android features and UI are sluggish and sometimes the input switches to built in chromecast for no reason whatsoever while I am in the middle of watching something like netflix app or youtube app. Trust me no one is casting with phone or any fiddling with remote. Feel the software is a tad bit unreliable and processor and ram are underpowered.

I have a 4k fire tv stick and plan to get a 4K Roku in future. So I don't really need built in smart features.

Can I somehow program my android TV to forget about all its smarts and apps and just sandbox it to work as a reliable dumb TV? Just allow me to choose between HDMI 1/2/3 and do nothing else except volume control and oixture settings?

tune-happy

Sony Bravia Android TVs support "pro mode" which when enabled will turn all of the Smart TV features off. So yes it is possible to turn some Android TVs into dumb TVs but being able to do it is likely in the realm of your particular TV manufacturer / TV model.

simiwood

Disconnect it from the internet

Max_Roc

I disconnect it from the internet and enable CEC so that when I use my attached streaming device remote to wake up my fire stick/Shield etc, the tv will wake up and automatically open that input, bypassing the tv OS home page altogether.

Arzemna

I am interested in this as welll. The built in chrome cast for my hisense is slow and I find myself hard rebooting the tv once a week. I would love dumb it down to just the inputs

ForgotMyOldAccount7

No, there is nothing you can do to strip it of its OS.

Just don't use the smart features. Default to your other streaming device and don't connect your TV to the Internet. It's that simple. Your TV won't be sluggish because you'll be using the streaming device for everything, not your TV. You'll in effect be using the TV as a monitor and that's it.

gabstance

To my knowledge, Chromecast isn't an "input" unless you have an actual Chromecast device connected via HDMI. The built in Chromecast feature on Android TV devices can probably be disabled though in the sytem app settings. If you use it, you can try instead to uninstall the most recent Chromecast app update in the PlayStore to see if it resolves the issue. You will need to disable auto updates though, because it will just update again if you dont. There have been different issues with Chromecast on other Android TV devices that were resolved by uninstalling the previous app update, restarting the device, then reinstalling it by updating the app again in the PlayStore.

Due to the overall sluggish performance and the fact it is a budget TV, you are probably better off just using connected devices instead of the apps on the TV.