AndroidTV
Android TV is a version of the Android operating system designed for digital media players. It features a user interface designed around content discovery and voice search, surfacing content aggregated from various media apps and services.
AndroidTV vs AOSPTV
The difference between AndroidTV and AOSPTV is the same as Android vs AOSP.
AOSPTV is Open-Source which means that you can download the source, modify it according to your needs and compile it. However, It doesn’t give you access to any Google services like play-store etc.
AndroidTV is the locked down variant of AOSPTV, the source isn’t available and its only available through OEM consumer products. They do provide full access to Google services for a more complete experience.
AOSPTV on 96Boards Hikey and Hikey960
Recently Google added minimal functionality to AOSP source which allowed us to setup AOSPTV builds.
This resulted in me sending a patch to enable AOSPTV builds for Hikey and Hikey960, which have now been merged upstream.
Build AOSPTV
- Just follow the official guide for building AOSP
- And replace
lunch hikey960-userdebug
withlunch hikey960_tv-userdebug
orlunch hikey-userdebug
withlunch hikey_tv-userdebug
Pitfalls
- WiFi connection UI doesn’t have a “next” button. To be able to connect we have to use third-party apps
- hikey boots to UI with kernel 4.4 or less
- Just enter the following command before make
export TARGET_KERNEL_USE=4.4
- Just enter the following command before make