Live Channels on Philips & Sony Tv's

[kyvaith]

Hi,

I have a hard time trying to get Live Channels to work on my Philips 55PUS7600 TV. After installing CumulusTV, Live Channels has shown up in App Manager, but not in launcher. Pushing "Launch Live Channels button in CumulusTV app, app says there was a problem running app. Do you know any way to force enable Live Channels on this hardware? Just to get you know - we have an access to install custom apps from "unknown sources", but no root access.

Thanks for any help!

[Fleker]

Hmm I haven't heard of any other issues with Phillips TVs. What live TV app
is running on it?

It's also possible that future updates will fix it just like Sony.
On Feb 17, 2016 5:41 AM, "kyvaith" notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi,

I have a hard time trying to get Live Channels to work on my Philips
55PUS7600 TV. After installing CumulusTV, Live Channels has shown up in App
Manager, but not in launcher. Pushing "Launch Live Channels button in
CumulusTV app, app says there was a problem running app. Do you know any
way to force enable Live Channels on this hardware? Just to get you know -
we have an access to install custom apps from "unknown sources", but no
root access.

Thanks for any help!

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub
#99.

[kyvaith]

It uses custom Philips app for cable TV. I was thinking about "Google Live Channels" (this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.tv). I haven't found a way to run it. It's preinstalled for sure, because, like I said before, it shows up in Android App Manager after installing Cumulus TV, but it won't show up in Leanback Launcher, and it won't run by pressing the "Launch Live Channels" button in Cumulus TV app. I'm really disappointed because of that. :(

[Fleker]

The Phillips TV may use a different package name which prevents the button
from working.

Can you sideload the ChannelSurfer sample (
http://GitHub.com/Fleker/channelsurfer) and see if that runs properly? I'm
moving over to that library now, so it may actually resolve your current
issue.

Thanks.
On Feb 17, 2016 10:14 AM, "kyvaith" notifications@github.com wrote:

It uses custom Philips app for cable TV. I was thinking about "Google Live
Channels" (this one
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.tv). I
haven't found a way to run it. It's preinstalled for sure, because, like I
said before, it shows up in Android App Manager after installing Cumulus
TV, but it won't show up in Leanback Launcher, and it won't run by pressing
the "Launch Live Channels" button in Cumulus TV app. I'm really
disappointed because of that. :(

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#99 (comment).

[kyvaith]

Ok, You mean to sideload this apk? https://github.com/Fleker/ChannelSurfer/releases/tag/v0.2.6
I'll try in few hours. I think Philips uses originall name for Google Live Channels, becouse when i tried to sideload newer version from APKmirror there was an error saying that APP coudn't be installed. I think Philips somehow disabled this APP intentionally and we need to find woraround.

[Fleker]

Yes that's the latest version. Let me know if that works. If so, then a fix should be coming soon.

[kyvaith]

Hi, so I tried to sideload your new APP, but I get simmilar effect. After pressing button I get message that Live Channels are disabled or not installed. But APP exists in Android APP Manager

[Fleker]

Can you provide the package name for Live Channels on a Philips TV? I have
to manually check for package names. The Live Channels functionality itself
should work well.
On Feb 18, 2016 3:11 AM, "kyvaith" notifications@github.com wrote:

[image: img_20160218_083550]
https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/107579/13137142/434a4a3c-d61f-11e5-8c0f-fe43c1150d19.jpg
Hi, so I tried to sideload your new APP, but I get simmilar effect. After
pressing button I get message that Live Channels are disabled or not
installed. But APP exists in Android APP Manager
[image: img_20160218_083720]
https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/107579/13137183/9ec8e878-d61f-11e5-82ea-f517cdc4140c.jpg

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#99 (comment).

[kyvaith]

Hi,

I did some checks and Live Channels uses standard package name com.google.android.tv and resides in /system/priv-app. When there is no app installed that uses its framework, the app is disabled and hidden. When I install CumulusTV or your new PoC app, Live Channels become enabled but hidden. When I trigger pm unhide com.google.android.tv, adb says its flag has changed to unhidden, but app still not exists in Leanback Launcher or Sideload Launcher.
Now some progress - when I trigger am start --user 0 com.google.android.tv/.MainActivity app shows up on finding channels screen, and there is a CumulusTV logo at the bottom. Unfortunately, after finding channels, that I enabled in CumulusTV, app starts to find channels again and again. After triggering am start --user 0 com.google.android.tv/.TvActivity app shows up for a sec and then FC.
I think, this is a problem with app permissions, because on /system/priv-app/ exist app that enables support for mouse too, and we are unable to enable mouse on 2015 Philips Tv's. I believe there should be another way to start Live Channels, because we won't be able to change permissions of this app because we don't have root access (even if we find exploit for that, there is a kernel level checksum check, that prevents system to start after any change on /system partition).
Maybe we can change package name of com.google.android.tv and sideload install it? I've tried that, but I don't know how to do it properly - I get "Parse Error : There is a problem parsing the package".

Thanks for any help!

[Fleker]

Isn't there any sort of live channel input for Philips TVs?

On Fri, Feb 19, 2016 at 4:25 AM kyvaith notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi,

I did some checks and Live Channels uses standard package name
com.google.android.tv and resides in /system/priv-app. When there is no
app installed that uses its framework, the app is disabled and hidden. When
I install CumulusTV or your new PoC app, Live Channels become enabled but
hidden. When I trigger pm unhide com.google.android.tv, adb says its flag
has changed to unhidden, but app still not exists in Leanback Launcher or
Sideload Launcher.
Now some progress - when I trigger am start --user 0
com.google.android.tv/.MainActivity app shows up on finding channels
screen, and there is a CumulusTV logo at the bottom. Unfortunately, after
finding channels, that I enabled in CumulusTV, app starts to find channels
again and again. After triggering am start --user 0
com.google.android.tv/.TvActivity app shows up for a sec and then FC.
I think, this is a problem with app permissions, because on
/system/priv-app/ exist app that enables support for mouse too, and we are
unable to enable mouse on 2015 Philips Tv's. I believe there should be
another way to start Live Channels, because we won't be able to change
permissions of this app because we don't have root access (even if we find
exploit for that, there is a kernel level checksum check, that prevents
system to start after any change on /system partition).
Maybe we can change package name of com.google.android.tv and sideload
install it? I've tried that, but I don't know how to do it properly - I get
"Parse Error : There is a problem parsing the package".

Thanks for any help!

[image: img_20160218_213309]
https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/107579/13171406/093236dc-d6f3-11e5-9399-d63fde02c37b.jpg

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#99 (comment).

[kyvaith]

No.

[Fleker]

You said Philips had a cable TV app. What is the package name of that? It should be able to work with Cumulus TV as well as regular cable.

[nextux]

@kyvaith have you tried to install the Pluto TV app on your Philips Android TV?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tv.pluto.android&hl=en

This is another app that uses the Google Live Channels infrastructure. If this app works, then there will be a way for @Fleker to be able to get Cumulus TV to work. Otherwise, it maybe something Philips have disabled on their end.

Alternatively try and install the following...which should install the live channels app if it is not available.

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/live-channels/live-channels-1-09-419-release/

[Fleker]

Has there been a resolution to this?

[kyvaith]

Well, after rooting TV and deleting preinstalled Live Channels app, its possible to sideload one from apk mirror and it works. There is no user friendly way.