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Comment by pdimitar | Hacker News Reader

Anybody has experience with TCL and Spectre? I'm seeing them a lot, even saw one really big TCL TV in a local shop and loved the colors and the FPS, but no idea how good are they really, are they longer-lasting, are they annoying if you don't give them network access etc.

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I have a TCL that I'm happy with. I followed 'some instructions somewhere' to use adb to disable the default launcher and replace it with the ProjectIvy launcher, which is nice and clean and has no ads or promotions (ads by any other name).

Mine _is_ connected to my network, but I have DNS blocking via self-hosted Adguard along with specific SmartTV block lists and regular expressions, plus a firewall for the 'entertainment' VLAN that's fairly tight. I'm also monitoring (and recording to a database) all outgoing traffic on the entertainment VLAN so I can add further firewall restrictions - once I have the time to analyse the logs, maybe after I've retired...

From your message I gather it's a Google's Android TV software, then? Can you send me a shortened / anonymised link to the "some instructions somewhere", please?

I use AGH as well but haven't gotten around to an untrusted VLAN yet; once I get a TV I'm definitely adding one though...

Yes, Google Android TV software.

I can't remember the exact site that had the instructions that I followed, but Brave Search AI provided the answer below, which fits my memory.

Key point: Install the replacement Launcher first, otherwise Android will run without a launcher, ie. without an interface, which is a bit... non-ideal. This happened to me at least once (because I can be impatient), but if i recall correctly, I could still get to an adb prompt to re-enable the default launcher, reboot the TV, then try again. Also, please look up some alternative references just to make sure; I don't want to be solely responsible for any potential bricking...

  To replace the default launcher on a TCL TV using ADB, you must first install a third-party launcher (such as Projectivy Launcher or FLauncher) and then disable the stock Google TV launcher packages via command line.

  1. Enable Developer Options and ADB
  Navigate to Settings > System > About and click Android TV OS Build or Build Number seven times to unlock Developer Options.
  Then, go to Settings > System > Developer Options and enable USB Debugging (and Network Debugging if using wireless ADB).

  2. Connect via ADB
  Connect your computer to the TV's IP address using the terminal:

  # adb connect <TV_IP_ADDRESS>

  3. Disable Stock Launcher and Setup Wizard
  Run the following commands to disable the default Google TV launcher and the setup wizard (which often reverts changes on reboot):

  # adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx
  # adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith

  Note: On some newer TCL models running Android 14, you may need to temporarily disable the package installer (com.android.packageinstaller) to sideload APKs, or manually select the new launcher via the Home button prompt after disabling the stock launcher.

  4. (Optional, to revert the above changes) Restore Stock Launcher:

  # adb shell pm enable com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx
  # adb shell pm enable com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith

Other resources:

https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-to/best-google-tv-launch...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAKno02w7J0

I have no idea why your comment was dead. Vouched it and upvoted it. Thank you!

Thank you. Probably because of the copy and paste of an AI answer, which is somewhat understandable in most cases.

I hope you get it to work. I tried re-mapping some of the custom buttons on the remote, but it didn't seem to work consistently, and right/left arrowing to navigate the app list isn't much of an impost, so I haven't really tried to troubleshoot it.

If I was a bit more brave with my TV (family members would not be happy with a bricked TV), I'd give this a go: https://github.com/seun-novodev/android-tv-debloat-toolkit

P.S. These are the Smart TV Blocklists I use:

  https://perflyst.github.io/PiHoleBlocklist/SmartTV.txt
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hkamran80/blocklists/refs/heads/main/smart-tv.txt
  https://blocklistproject.github.io/Lists/smart-tv.txt

Plus this list of regular expressions specific to TCL domains:

  /(\.|^)leiniao\.com$/
  /(\.|^)tclking\.com$/
  /(\.|^)tcllauncher\.com$/
  /(\.|^)my7v\.com$/
  /(\.|^)huan\.tv$/

Spectre is the only manufacturer I'm aware of still mass producing non-smart consumer TVs.

Where are you buying them? I can't find them and other users seem to reporting the same. I'm thinking they are silently discontinued.

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