Transform any ad-bloated Android TV or Google TV into a lightning-fast, tvOS-inspired, fail-safe experience — without root, without bootloop risks, and without losing access to stock features.

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📐 Architecture & Transformation Overview

[ STOCK GOOGLE TV ]                             [ NLRC TV VIBEHACK ]
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐        ┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Sponsored Ad Banner (70% Screen)    │        │  NLRC Home · Ambient Clock & Date    │
│  [Trending Shows] [Paid Promotions]  │        │                                      │
│  50+ Bloatware OTT Apps              │   ➔    │                                      │
│  Remote Buttons Lock You In Paywalls │        │  Dock: [HDMI 2 (Cable)] [Media Vault]│
└──────────────────────────────────────┘        └──────────────────────────────────────┘
   • 2.5 GB RAM used                               • 120 MB RAM used
   • Heavy telemetry & tracking                    • 0 Ads · 0 Telemetry · 100% Fail-Safe

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🎯 The Motivation

Modern Smart TVs ship with:

• Sponsored ads covering 70% of the screen.
• Sluggish bloatware and 50+ pre-installed background apps consuming memory and tracking habits.
• Unremappable sponsored remote buttons (Netflix, Prime Video) that elderly family members hit by mistake, throwing them into subscription walls.
• Overly complicated navigation that makes switching to Cable/HDMI or playing personal home videos a headache.

tv-vibehack solves this permanently. Originally built to give aging parents a distraction-free, one-touch TV experience, it provides a universal blueprint for taking back control of any Android TV without root.

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⚡ What Makes This Different?

1. 🛡️ The 100% Fail-Safe Architecture (Zero Bootloops)

On Android 14 Google TV, disabling the stock launcher (com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx) breaks Direct Boot, tripping Android's RescueParty service and bricking the TV into a black-screen recovery state.

tv-vibehack never disables launcherx. Instead:

• The custom launcher is directBootAware="true".
• A lightweight native Accessibility Service (HomeKeyService) intercepts Home key events and window transitions in under 10ms.
• If the custom launcher is ever uninstalled or crashes, Google TV seamlessly takes over. Zero chance of bricking your TV.

2. 🔀 Hardware Passthrough (Direct HDMI Switching)

No more opening 4 nested TV menus just to watch cable. Through reverse-engineered Realtek RTD TvContract passthrough URIs, the launcher switches directly to HDMI inputs programmatically:

Uri uri = TvContract.buildChannelUriForPassthroughInput(
    "com.realtek.tv.passthrough/.hdmiinput.HDMITvInputService/HW151519744" // HDMI 2
);
context.startActivity(new Intent(Intent.ACTION_VIEW, uri));

3. 🎮 Sponsored Remote Key Remapping (No Root)

HomeKeyService intercepts hardcoded hardware remote buttons (KEYCODE_BUTTON_3 for Netflix, KEYCODE_BUTTON_4 for Prime Video, KEYCODE_PROG_RED/GREEN) and redirects them straight to HDMI 2 / Set-Top Box in <150ms without root.

4. 🎞️ Offline TV Media Vault & Legacy Transcoding

Many families have legacy home videos or recordings stored on USB drives encoded in older formats (e.g., DVD MPEG-2) that native modern Smart TV chipsets cannot decode inside standard MP4 containers.

How to Add Your Own Media:

1. Transcode to Hardware-Accelerated H.264:

   ffmpeg -i "MyVideo_Part_1.mp4" -c:v libx264 -preset faster -crf 23 -c:a aac -b:a 192k "Part_1.mp4"
   

2. Push Directly into TV Internal Storage:

   adb shell mkdir -p /sdcard/Movies/NLRC
   adb push Part_1.mp4 /sdcard/Movies/NLRC/Part_1.mp4
   adb push Part_2.mp4 /sdcard/Movies/NLRC/Part_2.mp4
   adb push Part_3.mp4 /sdcard/Movies/NLRC/Part_3.mp4
   

3. Instant D-pad Remote Navigation: Launch PenDrive / Media Viewer directly from the dock. No USB stick needs to remain plugged in; videos play natively at 60fps with intuitive remote controls:
   • ◄ / ►: Seek -10s / +10s with real-time HUD.
   • ▲ / ▼ or CH+ / CH-: Switch to Next / Previous part.
   • OK: Play / Pause toggle.

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Enable ADB on your Android TV

1. On the TV: Settings → System → About → Click Build 7 times to enable Developer Options.
2. Go to Settings → System → Developer Options → Turn on USB Debugging (and Network Debugging if available).
3. Connect your computer to the same Wi-Fi network as the TV.

2. Connect via ADB

adb connect <TV_IP_ADDRESS>:5555

Accept the "Always allow from this computer" dialog on your TV.

3. Safe Debloat

Safely disable ad-trackers and bloatware using model-specific profiles:

# Example for Acer / Realtek QLED Android 14 TVs
adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tvrecommendations

(See examples/ for model-specific profiles).

4. Build & Install the Launcher

cd launcher
./gradlew assembleDebug
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

5. Enable the Accessibility Interceptor

adb shell settings put secure enabled_accessibility_services com.gathin.tvhome/.HomeKeyService
adb shell settings put secure accessibility_enabled 1

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📁 Repository Structure

Path	Description
launcher/	Native Android TV launcher with Apple tvOS aesthetics, D-pad navigation, ambient glow, and Direct Boot awareness.
launcher/.../HomeKeyService.java	Fail-safe Accessibility Service intercepting Home button and sponsored hotkeys.
launcher/.../HdmiHelper.java	Direct Realtek / Android TV hardware passthrough input launcher.
launcher/.../PenDriveActivity.java	Media viewer card UI for offline TV storage / USB playback.
launcher/.../VideoPlayerActivity.java	Hardware-accelerated full-screen player with remote seek HUD and episode switching.
examples/acer-v-pro-32-qled/	Comprehensive teardown and architecture notes for Acer / MOKA Realtek RTD QLED TVs.
tools/	Helper scripts: safe_switch.bat / safe_switch.sh for one-click toggle between stock and custom launcher.

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📖 Deep Dive Hardware Case Studies

• Acer V Pro 32" QLED (Android 14 API 34, Realtek RTD, MOKA R3G)
• Xiaomi Mi TV 4A (PatchWall Debloat)

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions are warmly welcomed! If you've reverse-engineered input IDs or debloat profiles for your specific TV brand (TCL, Sony Bravia, Hisense, OnePlus, Nvidia Shield), please submit a pull request under examples/.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for details.

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. Outfit typeface licensed under SIL Open Font License.