Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Like many affordable smart TVs, mine runs on a frankly garbage processor that makes trawling through my TV’s updated Google TV interface a real chore. Quad‑core Cortex‑A55 CPUs are pretty standard but also as cheap as they come, and paired with a tight-fisted 1.5GB RAM, it’s easy to see why the UI experience is just so bad on my TV and many others.
Thankfully, there are plenty of options to escape the confines of cheap TV processors, including various Android TV boxes and the much-loved NVIDIA Shield. But I’m a big fan of making do with the kit I already have, and an old Raspberry Pi 4 has been sitting dormant on my desk for far too long.
Does your Android TV box suffer from performance issues? 939 votes Yes, it's a huge problem 43 % Yes, but only now and again 40 % No, it doesn't 17 %
On paper, the Raspberry Pi 4 looks like a solid candidate for running Android TV. With four Cortex‑A72 cores, up to 4 GB of RAM, and built‑in HEVC 4K HDR decoding, the Pi 4 (and its successor Pi 5) should handily outpace cheap TV chipsets — and even nudge closer to Shield territory. So over the last weekend, I set about seeing what I could get this aging box to do.
Thankfully, I didn’t have to start entirely from scratch. The brilliant KonstaKang maintains LineageOS Android TV builds for various Raspberry Pi devices. I grabbed the 22 build for my Raspberry Pi 4 based on Android 15, slapped in on my speedy Samsung T2 SSD to avoid microSD card performance bottlenecks. I won’t repeat the installation instructions, as it is as simple as flashing the .zip file, tweaking one line in a file, and plugging into the Pi.
Hello, Android TV, my old friend
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
I was instantly pleased on boot to be treated by the “classic” Android TV interface — no flashy banner ads, just space for my apps. While even I find the barebones look of the interface to be a little stark, at least it’s functional and has everything you want exactly where you need it. I can’t say the same about the eclectic Google TV interface, which I despise from both performance and ad-infestation perspectives.
The drawback is that Google services aren’t pre-installed (more on that in a minute), so you must manually load up specific TV APKs. USB storage works fine, and APKs are dotted around for various streaming platforms. After flashing Widevine L3 for DRM, I tried to load up an Amazon Prime video, and although I could sign in and the app ran smoothly, I encountered nondescript playback issues. Perhaps some platforms require more secure Widevine L1, but I couldn’t find a patch for a custom Android TV setup.
... continue reading