Most smart TVs don’t do much out of the box. Yes, manufacturers kindly pre-install online cinemas, but if you want to customize your new Android TV (or Google TV) just for you, then you can’t do without third-party applications.
I recently encountered this problem myself and collected 8 of the most necessary applications that can be useful for fully setting up a newly purchased TV. Here you will not find the well-known Media Station Xor unhelpful third-party launchers.
And you will find a convenient file manager, screensavers like on Apple TV, the most convenient parental controls, and several other really useful programs.
Save this collection, it will definitely come in handy 🙂
The very first thing you need to install on your new TV is a powerful file manager. Because it is with the help of it that you will then manage all installed applications, as well as “upload” APK files to your TV over the air when you want to install the same KinoPub client.
I recommend File Manager Plus as such a functional file manager. It is free, easy to use, and has an important feature in the form of the ability to connect to the most popular cloud storage services.
After installation, you will see a main menu with a choice of drives and folders, but you need the “Cloud” section. In it you can give the file manager access to your folders in the following cloud storages:
Dropbox
Google Drive
OneDrive
Box
Nextcloud
Yandex Disk
It’s simple, select the desired storage location and enter your username and password for it. Next, all you have to do is create a folder for APK files in this storage, download them into it on your PC or laptop, and install them on your TV directly from File Manager Plus.
This is much more convenient than looking for a more or less free option to transfer files to a TV over the air locally, and you will always have a selection of the necessary applications in a cloud folder at hand.
Download File Manager Plus app on Google Play
Almost all modern remote controls for smart TVs have buttons for quickly launching pre-installed applications. And if you absolutely don’t need a button like this that runs a conditional Netflixthen you can easily reconfigure it to open any other installed application at your discretion.
This is done using the Button Mapper utility, which can be downloaded and installed for free. After installation, do the following:
1. Select “Add Buttons”
2. Click “Add Buttons” again
3. Press the button on the remote that you want to reconfigure
4. Next, click on the button that appears (for me it’s Button_12)
5. Activate the toggle switch in the “Settings” line
6. Go to the “Single Click” section
7. Select “Actions” and then select “Applications” from the menu that appears.
For detailed instructions about this miracle program, see this material. Here I will briefly say that the free version is sufficient for our needs, the setup is easy, the utility works flawlessly.
Download the Button Mapper app on Google Play
You may ask why there is a browser on the TV, to which I will answer: to search for videos, applications, and even to watch movies online. Personally, no, no, I even open my browser on TV to view an actor’s filmography on KinoPoisk or find out the year of release of this or that film.
After trying several different ones, I settled on Yandex Browser, which I recommend in this collection.
Its advantages are that Yandex Browser is as convenient as possible for use on a TV without a keyboard and mouse connected via Bluetooth. Everything on the screen is concise – there is a search bar and search history. Convenient navigation, fast page loading and HTML5 support are also present.
Download the Yandex Browser application on Google Play
I’ll be honest, I’ve never had an Apple TV set-top box for my TV. But I always liked the screensavers from it. So I installed the Aerial Views application on my TV, which replaces the standard screensavers and shows beautiful views of different cities and picturesque places, exactly like Apple TV.
The Aerial Views application is free, in the settings you can select several resources from which screensavers will be loaded, and the screensavers themselves can be changed using the navigation buttons on the remote control directly during the display process.
It’s cool that you can also set up additional information such as weather, time and other data to be displayed on the TV screen while the screensaver is running.
Download the Aerial Views app on Google Play
You can not only watch TV, but also listen to it. For example, when you are getting ready for work in the morning and want to charge yourself with a great mood for the whole day, I turn on some foreign radio on my TV.
To do this, I use the Radio FM application, which contains hundreds of radio stations from all over the world. There is convenient navigation, the broadcast goes without delays or interruptions, the application itself, of course, is free.
You can trust chance and choose stations randomly, or you can create your favorite lists of stations and easily switch between them in a separate playlist.
My favorite stations, which always charge with positivity, are Spanish and American rock and blues radio, always with live DJs, who are no less pleasant to listen to than the music itself.
Download the Radio FM app on Google Play
Let’s not forget that you can still watch TV channels on TV, even if you (like me) no longer have an antenna wire in your apartment.
To do this, you can download the Light HD TV application, which contains more than 40 of the most popular channels, ranging from federal to specialized sports.
All you need to watch them is a stable TV connection to the Internet. The image is clear, the application itself is free, when using advertising I see less than in other TV channel aggregators, so I recommend it.
Download the Light HD TV application on Google Play
If the TV is in the children’s room and you want to easily and effectively control your child’s use of it, you don’t have to hide the remote control the old fashioned way. Try installing the TVUsage application on your TV.
This app allows you to limit screen time, set a break timer for apps, and set limits. It is possible to choose the types of restrictions: they can be set for specific days, daily for time periods, or provide breaks.
Unlike many simple similar utilities, TVUsage can apply settings to individual applications, for example, games or a specific online movie theater. Access to the settings is protected by a PIN code, so the child will not be able to change them independently.
The application also collects statistics on TV use in the form of graphs, which allows you to understand how much time is spent in a particular application.
Download the TVUsage app on Google Play
With these applications, your smart TV will be 100% upgraded. Then just turn it on and enjoy. Of course, if you have any special use cases, perhaps the utilities I collected will not be enough, but for most users who do not have their own NAS storage at home, this collection will be more than enough.
Of course, if you want, you can also roll up a beautiful launcher, but I tried several and don’t want to recommend any of them. Yes, they all have too many settings and functions, often simply unnecessary. And the TV starts to slow down quite noticeably.
Therefore – no launchers. Use the standard one and install only useful utilities. Enjoy watching.
Source: www.iphones.ru
