simbasjungles/free-my-tv

On TCL TVs, also let it run in the background (TCL blocks it by default, and the switch never starts):

   adb shell "appops set io.freemytv AUTO_START allow || appops set io.freemytv APP_AUTO_START allow"
   

On some TCL TVs (Android 11, Realtek), a second background killer, TGuard, can stop the switch while it measures the original home screen: the settings screen closes and the TV's own home screen stays. Android runs the switch again by itself within a minute or two; then press Home: Free My TV opening means it went through.

LG TVs (webOS)

The same home screen as an LG app: the picks, the glass shelf with your apps, the drawer with inputs, weather and prices, day and night, Home Settings and the shelf editor. It installs through LG's own Developer Mode, with nothing rooted or changed on the TV. LG's home screen stays where it is, and Free My TV is one press of a number key away (or in LG's app list, on remotes without them).

You need an LG TV (webOS 3 or newer) and a computer on the same Wi-Fi, with Python 3.

1. On the TV, open the LG Content Store and install Developer Mode. Sign in with a free LG developer account, turn on Dev Mode Status (the TV restarts), then turn on Key Server. Write down the IP address and the passphrase it shows. 2. On your computer, get the code and build. config.properties works as for Google TV (your city, your TMDB key):

   git clone https://github.com/simbasjungles/free-my-tv && cd free-my-tv
   python3 webos/build.py
   

   python3 webos/install.py 192.168.1.50
   

With an AI assistant, say "Install Free My TV (github.com/simbasjungles/free-my-tv) on my LG TV at 192.168.1.50. I live in Lisbon." It builds the app and hands you the install command, so you type the passphrase yourself.

With the webOS Homebrew Channel, you can skip the computer: add the repository https://freemytv.io/webos/apps.json in the Channel's settings, and Free My TV shows up in its list. That's the release build: it takes the city from the TV's time zone (change it in Home Settings → City), and for the picks you type your TMDB key in Home Settings → TMDB key. If you installed your own build, don't update it from there, or the release replaces it.

On webOS 6 and newer, LG doesn't let apps installed through Developer Mode see which apps the TV has. Free My TV then shows the well-known ones it finds (Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV, Plex and more) and asks the TV, once, for the access LG's phone app uses: a message on the TV asks whether to allow Free My TV. Allow it, and from the next start all your apps show, with their icons.

Older LG TVs (webOS 3) don't let Free My TV see their apps at all, so the shelf stays empty. There your computer asks the TV instead (the TV asks once whether to allow it), and the list and icons are built into the app. Run it again after installing new apps on the TV:

python3 webos/apps.py 192.168.1.50 && python3 webos/build.py && python3 webos/install.py 192.168.1.50

Developer Mode lasts about 40 days: open the Developer Mode app now and then and press EXTEND. To remove Free My TV, run python3 webos/install.py 192.168.1.50 --uninstall.

Samsung TVs (Tizen)

The same home screen as a Samsung app, with everything the LG one has: the picks, the shelf, the drawer with the inputs, the weather and the prices, day and night, and its own settings. It installs through Samsung's own Developer Mode, with nothing rooted or changed on the TV, and Samsung's home screen stays where it is.

You need a Samsung TV on Tizen, from 2015 or newer, and a computer on the same Wi-Fi (a 2015 UE48JU6100 on Tizen 2.3 was reported working, #317; Orsay models can't run it, but a Google TV streamer on HDMI can). 2015 and 2016 TVs can't run TizenBrew, so on those build it yourself (below); TV Settings isn't in the drawer there, since apps can't open the TV's settings.

1. On the TV, open Apps and type 1 2 3 4 5 on the remote. Turn Developer mode on, type your computer's IP address in Host PC IP, and restart the TV. 2. On your computer, download TizenBrew Installer, the community's installer for Samsung TVs, open it and connect to your TV. 3. Install from GitHub: type simbasjungles/free-my-tv. On 2023 and newer TVs it asks you to sign in to your Samsung account once, to sign the app for your TV. 4. Straight to it: in the TV's settings, under Start Screen Options, turn on Autorun Last App: the TV turns on into Free My TV.

This build takes your city from the TV's time zone (change it in Home Settings → City), and for the trending picks you type your TMDB key in Home Settings → TMDB key. To build it with your own config.properties instead, open the folder in Claude Code and say "Install Free My TV on my Samsung TV at 192.168.1.50. I live in Lisbon." It sets up Samsung's tools, and on 2023 and newer TVs you sign in to your Samsung account in the browser to make the certificate. Your signed build installs with python3 tizen/install.py 192.168.1.50, which needs only Python: no Tizen Studio, and no Rosetta on Apple Silicon Macs.

Settings

The first values come from config.properties, created by the first build (Google TV, LG and Samsung use the same file). Most of them can also be changed on the TV, in Free My TV → Home Settings, and the TV's choice wins:

| Key | What it does | Default | |---|---|---| | tmdb_key | Your free TMDB key, for the picks | empty | | tmdb_region | Your country (two letters): which titles are on which app | US | | watchmode_key | Optional, free Watchmode key: a pick opens the title's page in its app | empty | | plex_url and plex_token | Optional, your Plex server's plex.direct address and token: its newest titles join the picks and open on their page | empty | | latitude, longitude | Your city, for the weather and the sunset | New York | | city | The name on the weather card | Weather | | hide_animation | Leave cartoons and anime out of the picks | false | | language | auto (follows the TV), or a language with a translation (en, pt, es, de, ru, fr, ja…) | auto | | show_crypto | Show Binance crypto prices on home and screensaver | true | | currency | Crypto prices in USD, EUR, BRL… | USD | | temperature | C, F or auto | auto | | theme | auto (dark from sunset to sunrise), light or dark | auto | | disable_assistant | Also turn off Google Assistant | false | | screensaver | false keeps the TV's own screensaver: Free My TV then changes only the home screen and the promo apps (Google TV) | true | | hide_services | Streaming services to leave out of the picks even when their app is on the TV (netflix, prime, disney…), comma separated; for apps the TV ships that you don't subscribe to. It is where the switches in Home Settings › Picks › Picks from start; what you switch on the TV wins. Google TV only | empty | | hide_apps | Apps to leave out of the shelf, All Apps and the picks, by id or name (part of it), comma separated; for apps the TV ships that can't be uninstalled, like Samsung's built-in Netflix. LG and Samsung only | empty | | shelf_apps | The shelf's apps in this order, by id or name (part of it), comma separated; changing it wins once over the shelf picked on the TV. On Samsung, a whole app id also brings an app the TV leaves out of its list, like one installed in Developer Mode. LG and Samsung only | empty | | drawer_first | true opens the home screen with the drawer already out (apps in the middle, inputs, weather and prices below), so nothing has to be scrolled to reach the inputs; Back closes it to the full page. For a TV whose streaming apps live on a box, where the picks stay empty. LG and Samsung only | false |

Changed something? Run ./build.sh and install again. Keep freemytv.keystore: updates are signed with it.

The TMDB key

Free, and it takes two minutes: create an account at themoviedb.org, then open Settings → API and request a developer key. Paste the API Read Access Token (or the API Key) after tmdb_key=. It's your key: config.properties stays out of git.

On Google TV and Android TV you can also add it on the TV, which the APK from the releases needs: Home Settings → TMDB key shows a QR code. Scan it with your phone (on the same Wi-Fi), paste the key and send it; the TV checks it with TMDB and keeps it. The code works once, for 5 minutes, and only while it's on screen. The phone's page is plain HTTP on your own Wi-Fi: on a network you don't trust (a hotel's), type the key instead. No phone at hand? Type it with the remote: the short API Key (32 characters) is the easier one to type. A key added on the TV wins over the one in config.properties, and Remove the key goes back to it.

On LG and Samsung you can also type it on the TV, in Home Settings → TMDB key: the short API Key (32 characters) is the easier one to type with the remote. TMDB checks it before it's saved, it stays on the TV, and it wins over the one in config.properties (Remove the key goes back to that one).

Opening a title, not just its app (optional)

With a free Watchmode key (watchmode_key= in config.properties), a pick opens its own page in the streaming app instead of the app's home. The free plan (2,500 credits a month) is enough: each title costs two requests the first time and is remembered after that. It works where the app takes the title's web address (tested: Prime Video and JioHotstar); where it doesn't, the pick just opens the app, as without a key.

Your own photos (optional)

On Google TV and Android TV, with the TV connected over adb (see Install), send photos or whole folders from your computer:

python3 tools/photos.py  beach.jpg hills.jpg Holidays/

They land in the app's own folder on the TV (no permission needed); on Android 11, which keeps adb out of other apps' folders, they go through Free My TV itself. The next time the home screen, the screensaver or Free My TV's settings open, the app imports each one: turned upright, cropped to 16:9, resized for the TV and saved without its GPS and other tags; what was sent is then deleted. The screensaver shows them in the order you sent them, instead of the picks' photos; without a TMDB key, one of them is the home screen's background, a new one every hour. Home Settings → My Photos: the arrows turn them on or off, OK removes them. Up to 100; JPEG, PNG and WebP, and HEIC on Android 9 and newer.

Your Plex library (optional)

Set plex_url and plex_token in config.properties, and one of the newest movies and one of the newest shows of your Plex server (another one each time the list is made, a few times a day, among the latest 8 of each kind) join the picks, with their own poster and backdrop, tagged "Plex". A tab shows at most one. Selecting one opens the title's page in the Plex app. If the server can't be reached when the list is made, its titles are left out.

This is for Google TV and Android TV, and it needs the TMDB key and at least one streaming app on the TV: without those no picks come at all, Plex included.

• plex_url is the server's own plex.direct address, which has a valid certificate (the TV checks it as for any site; plain http and any other address are ignored, so a typo never sends your token anywhere). It looks like https://192-168-1-20.0123456789abcdef0123456789abcdef.plex.direct:32400: your server's local IP with dashes, then its id. Open any item in Plex's web app, Get Info → View XML, and the address bar has it, before /library/....
• plex_token is on the same address, after X-Plex-Token=. It gives access to your Plex account, and any app on the TV can read the APK it is built into, so use the token of a Plex Home managed user with access to your libraries, not your own, and never commit it.

Going back

On the TV: Free My TV → Home Screen → Original. The factory home screen, screensaver and every app come back exactly as they were. If the new home screen ever crashes three times in five minutes, it switches back by itself.

To remove it for good, switch to Original first, then uninstall Free My TV (Settings → Apps). Uninstalled it while it was on? Install it again and pick Original: the list of what it turned off is kept in the TV's settings, so everything comes back.

What it changes

• It becomes the home screen and, unless screensaver=false, the screensaver.
• It turns off, without uninstalling:
• the stock home screen and screensaver (the screensaver stays with screensaver=false);
• Google TV's recovery home, Play Games and YouTube Music;
• on TCL TVs, the TCL Channel, messages, store demo, hotel menu, manuals, mirroring and logging apps;
• on Philco TVs, AI PONT (promo channels and app downloads) and the manual;
• on Multilaser TVs, Anoki's screen-content recognition (ACR), the store demo and the manual;
• on KTC-made TVs (NextStar), Anoki's screen-content recognition (ACR), the store demo and the manual;
• Google Assistant, only with disable_assistant=true.
• On Google TV, the Assistant's results for films and shows come from Google TV's home app, which is off in Free My TV mode: asking it to play a show can end in "Sorry, I don't understand", and a search can show only YouTube videos. Opening apps, questions and apps' own voice search (YouTube's, for one) still work; Original brings it all back.
• On TCL TVs, the remote's Netflix, YouTube and Prime buttons keep working through a small accessibility service that only reads those buttons. Pick what each one opens in Free My TV → Remote Buttons; Original turns the service off. On TCL TVs with Android 11 the service stays off, since with it the TV moved the volume two steps per press: there the buttons work on Free My TV's home screen. On Vestel-made TVs (F&U and other store brands) and Xiaomi (Formovie) projectors the same goes for the Netflix button, and on KTC-made TVs (NextStar) for the Tabii button. On Sony TVs, the BRAVIA CORE, Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, YouTube and Crunchyroll buttons (and Google Play, on remotes that have it) can each open the app you pick, or keep Sony's default. On Xiaomi TVs whose remote has a Mi button instead of Home, that button opens Free My TV instead of PatchWall (or, if you pick it, PatchWall as before, or another app). On Xiaomi TVs, the YouTube button opens YouTube again (Google TV's home screen answered it), and the PatchWall button can open the app you pick. On Xiaomi TVs sold in Russia, the same goes for the Okko, VK, Rutube, KION, Wink and IVI buttons, which keep Xiaomi's default until you pick another app. On Hisense TVs, the Prime Video, YouTube, Disney+, All Apps, Settings and profile buttons, which Google TV's home screen answered, open what you pick (All Apps opens Free My TV's own; Netflix stays with the TV). On any of these TVs, setting every button to Nothing (or the brand's default) turns the service off.
• With Home Settings → Now Playing widget on (it starts off), what an app is playing shows in place of the prices while it plays, on the home screen and the screensaver. Android hands that only to a notification listener, so turning the widget on allows ours through the TV's ADB; turning it off, Original and the switch back after crashes take it away. Where the TV refuses it, the row says so.
• On HY300 projectors, whose stock home screen was the only way to them, the bottom drawer gets Keystone (keystone, zoom and projection mode) and Screen Mirroring (the projector's Miracast receiver), and HDMI opens through the projector's own player.
• Free My TV → Sleep Timer turns the TV off after 5 minutes to 4 hours, with the minutes left over any app (top center, or the corner you pick). It presses the remote's Sleep key through the TV's own ADB, so it works in Free My TV mode; Original stops it.
• Picture, sound, inputs, remote pairing, Google services and the Play Store are on a protected list, checked before every change, and so are Android's own pieces and factory menus. Before anything goes off, the TV is asked whether its inputs or its remote's Input key depend on it; those stay on.
• On Google TV,