I can also recommend Wolf Launcher. Been using it for years.

What do you see that makes a difference? Lack of ads or is performance also better?

No ads, better performance, customizable

I also tried Projectivy in the past but I don’t remember why I switched away from it. I think there was a performance bug that was causing it to crash. Both may be good options now

I recently swapped back to FLauncher after using Projectivy for a while. Projectivy uses a lot more resources (cache + RAM) and my TV only has like 4GB of storage.

All of that. Lack of ads, more performant etc. Plus (and depending on the device), you can set it up in such a way that you don’t need to sign into your google account, yet still have ability to watch YouTube (Smartube), install apps (side load plus use the Fdroid TV store … name escapes me at the moment… Flicky I think?).

Even if you need to be signed in for some reason, it’s a smoother experience.

Its just…better. You’ll lose some of the prettiness (for some reason, mine no longer displays backgrounds from upsplash, only solid colours) but its more than worth it.

EDIT: Yes, it IS Flicky

f-droid.org/packages/app.flicky/

f-droid.org/en/packages/app.smarttube.fdroid/

www.sendfilestotv.app

Blocking ads usually helps performance, most ad networks are trash

Would I be able to watch Plex with this? (Haven’t made the switch to jellyfin yet)

Don’t see why not. It’s just a front end launcher. If you can install the app…this will launch it.

PS: I like Jellyfin but I’m a fan of Nova-Player too. Simpler is sometimes better.

github.com/nova-video-player/aos-AVP

just a warning about jelly is that you have to setup your own home host site. plex already comes with one it youre hoping to listen to your music on the go.

Same. It’s fantastic.

I used the adb commands they recommend to disable the stock interface. So pressing home on the remote brings me back to Flauncher always.

Haven’t seen the stock dash in years. Been great.

The only bastard thing is that when I set it up on a fire stick, the fire stick would disable wifi if the stock dash wasn’t used. That thing is trash anyway, so no loss. Don’t buy firesticks.

what to buy ? something that’s about the sane aize as a firesrick ? want to use a plug in USB thumb drive for media storage for travel and a “player” eg kodi. Dial home to Plex/JF not needed but internet access is

Can’t speak to cutting edge options but will say when we went to Tokyo at start of year, I took the google Chromecast with TV (1080p version) + USB pass-thru + 128GB flashdrive.

The Chromecast had Nova player installed. I pointed it at the flashdrive and boom - instant media front end for the kids. Had to connect briefly to scrape images etc but after that was all off line.

That - plus smart tube - meant they could decompress after a day out and about.

That version of the Chromecast has been superseded (though can still buy on eBay).

And a key mapper to go back to the launcher instead of the home screen from a remote

Yep, that too. Though on one of my TVs (TCL), simply disabling the inbuilt ‘startupwraith’ seems to have the same effect

# Disable com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx which is the default launcher on CCwGTV
$ adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.apps.tv.launcherx
# com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith will then be used as a 'fallback' and will automatically
# re-enable the default launcher, so disable it as well
$ adb shell pm disable-user --user 0 com.google.android.tungsten.setupwraith

i use Flauncher on my Nvidia Shield Pro and have for years

Is there something similar for Linux people like? I have an old computer hooked up for freetube but would like it to be the default input for my Frame TV.

github.com/complexlogic/flex-launcher