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a desktop tv and program guide for over-the-air broadcasts: what's on air, what your tuner gets, live tv, recordings

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airwaves / android / README.md
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Airwaves for Android TV

A thin shell around the server's TV page: a fullscreen WebView on <server>/tv/ (airwavesd serves it), with a native setup screen for the server address. Android 9 or later, for Google TV and Android TV.

Build

Needs a JDK 17 or later and the Android SDK (platform 36), found through ANDROID_HOME or sdk.dir in local.properties.

cd android
./gradlew assembleDebug        # app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk

Install

adb connect 192.168.1.50:5555  # the TV, over wireless debugging (below)
adb -s 192.168.1.50:5555 install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apk
adb -s 192.168.1.50:5555 shell am start -n dev.airwaves.tv/.MainActivity --es server nas:8089

Or all of it, from the repo: scripts/android.sh 192.168.1.50:5555 [nas:8089]. The server extra is optional: without one, the app asks at first run.

Wireless debugging on a Google TV

  1. Settings > System > About: select Android TV OS build seven times, until it says you're a developer.
  2. Settings > System > Developer options: turn on Wireless debugging (USB debugging too, if it asks). The TV and the computer must be on the same network.
  3. In Wireless debugging, choose Pair device with pairing code. It shows an address with a pairing port and a six-digit code: run adb pair 192.168.1.50:37123 and enter the code. Pairing is once per computer.
  4. Connect to the address and port listed under Wireless debugging itself (not the pairing port): adb connect 192.168.1.50:41235. That port changes when the TV restarts; adb devices lists what's connected.

Older Android TV (before Android 11) has Network debugging instead: adb connect 192.168.1.50:5555 and accept the prompt on the TV.

Using it

  • First run, or when the page can't load: setup. Enter the server (nas:8089; no port means 8089) and Connect; it checks /api/info before saving.
  • Back goes to the page (window.airwavesBack()); when the page has nothing to close, Back twice exits. Hold Back, or press Menu, for setup.
  • The remote's keys reach the page as keydown events: arrows, Enter (center), digits, MediaPlayPause, MediaPlay, MediaPause, MediaFastForward, MediaRewind, MediaTrackNext, MediaTrackPrevious, MediaStop, MediaRecord, ChannelUp, ChannelDown, MediaLast, Guide, Info, ClosedCaptionToggle, ColorF0Red and the other colors. The app keeps these keys even when the page ignores them.
  • In the background the page is hidden (visibilitychange) and what's playing pauses; it resumes on return. A page can take that over with window.airwavesPause() and window.airwavesResume(). If the WebView's renderer dies, the page reloads.

The page talks to the app through window.AirwavesAndroid: getServer(), setServer(url) (saves it and loads its TV page; "" opens setup), openSetup(), getVersion(), copyText(text), openUrl(url) (false when no app opens it, as for web links on a Google TV, which has no browser), log(level, msg) (logcat tag Airwaves) and exit(). The user agent ends in AirwavesTV/<version>.

Debug builds can be inspected from Chrome's chrome://inspect on the computer.

Art

The banner, the launcher icon and the setup wordmark are rendered from the HTML in art/ (the Steam art's look and the desktop icon's W): PLAYWRIGHT=/path/to/node_modules/playwright/index.mjs node android/art/render.mjs.