flauncher VS AerialViews

Instructions for two methods to Set FLauncher as default launcher are given at the website of the Flauncher app.

https://gitlab.com/etienn01/flauncher Last update was 2 months ago, honestly I've never updated it, has been working fine since I installed it. So didn't find a reason to update.

For the issue with ads on the launcher, I have used "Flauncher" which is a free and open source android tv launcher with no ads or anything. It's really clean. I honestly like it better than both the stock android TV launcher and the Nvidia shield TV launcher. In order to set it as the default launcher follow the steps here.

Change the launcher (e.g. https://gitlab.com/etienn01/flauncher) and set up a DNS based ad blocker on your network (e.g. PiHole) or maybe AdAway on your device itself, though the cleanest install of that requires root access.

I installed Flauncher on my CCWGTV and used the instructions here to set it to my default launcher. It was working well until I got a USB hub to add external storage.

One thing I really like about FLauncher is that it's actively maintained and the developer really tunes in to user suggestions. Here's his GitLab page: https://gitlab.com/etienn01/flauncher . If you scroll down on that page, you'll see his description of methods 1 and 2 above. You can also look at the Issues page where users make suggestions.

Another thing I like about FLauncher: It's well maintained and the developer is responsive to user comments. See: https://gitlab.com/etienn01/flauncher

FLauncher is indeed open-source: https://gitlab.com/etienn01/flauncher

And solving number 3, organizing all those videos in such a way that they don't just sit on an external harddrive, was a hard one. I found the Android TV program Aerial Views and use it to randomly cycle through my raw drone videos on a TV as a screensaver, using a Chromecast (a $30 Android TV gizmo). It works really well and has really helped me keep track of all the videos I've watched. Which also helps me see the mistakes I made while flying.

Then I use the awesome Android TV program Aerial Views to actually play the videos. I gather it's modelled after the screensaver on an Apple TV, so maybe an Apple TV would work well for this whole process too. In Aerial Views I go to "Video Sources" in Settings and disable all the stock footage (though the stock footage is nice too). That's the "videos by apple", the "videos by jetson creative" and "videos by Robin Fourcade". Then I enable either Local or Network videos and tell it where my videos are.

Also, although Aerial Views doesn't show up in the Play Store on your phone, it should still work if you want to side-load the APK.

Gotta use the Android fork: https://github.com/theothernt/AerialViews

Amazon Fire Stick with the Aerial Views[0] (Apple TV Screen Saver) app probably the best thing on TV since GoT.

[0] https://github.com/theothernt/AerialViews

Aerial Views: This is an open-sourced Android TV screensaver that streams screensavers from Apple TV's screensaver server. These are the cool, moving videos that you will see on all Apple TV box screensavers. Takes up a lot of data so beware of that, I personally do 4K SDR quality with this app. This is also on the Play Store. (Github)