[ROM] AlfaWise H96 PRO+ EyeTV ROM - AndroidTV ARM64 - my first release TWRP only

[bullgates]

Hello,

I've been trying to make my own ROM, I think it can be more universal and more brick free if you don't mess with the bootloader and recovery. So to install this ROM, a precondition is to have TWRP installed (works fine with 3.1.1)

Logo of EyeTV (meaning, my vision on how my android tv should be like)


What is this ROM about?
Speed, light and Kodi free, although you are free to install whatever you want.
It comes by default with this pre-installed:
- Spotify ATV, makes it handy to use your spotify on the mobile phone and cast it directly to the EyeTV box
- ProgTV, The best all in one IPTV program, than can record whatever video it streams
- X-plore, all the needed protocols for a filemanager (It can connect Google Drive and Mega for instance)
- ScreenCam Screen Recorder, most of the programs won't work properly but this one does even with 1080p recording and low CPU usage
- Blokada, get rid of the hostfile filters you want without making any important program to stop working. It also let's you change DNS hosts for the ones you want with one click
- HappyCast, Although it has many chinese texts and videos, you only have to open it, then you can cast from iphone directly or other android phone, it accepts videos and photos as well
- MyTunerFree, all around world radios in this nice App, with Leanback integration.
- Gamepad Tester, this may help in adding an input device so you can control better your EyeTV

The App "QuickClean" keeps the lowest memory needed by the system, so for instance if any application is not responding you can run the app to close them. Make sure to configure Blokada according to your needs.

Clean and fast logos on startup and bootanim. Builtin Off button that let's you shutdown or reboot also on recovery mode.

You can use another Android Device to setup the box like a TV (much easier than using the remote). For HappyCast to display from Windows, you have to download this application (it's in chinese, but only a few options so you may learn how to use it) http://ftp.hpplay.com.cn/update/pc2.1/happycastpc.zip

Known bugs:
(any help in fixing them is welcome)
1) to have Pluto TV with 50 channels on Live TV, amake sure you disable automatic updates on Google Play. If it updates, please uninstall any updates to have them.
2) the mute button on the remote does not mute as it should, tried about everything but it seems a bug in the amlogic sdk (I've never saw it working fine).
3) do not update Youtube since the last version have issues with codecs freezing the application. If you update for mistake just uninstall any updates and it will work fine

Android TV Remote App works fine, so you can use both iOS and Android apps to control the box. From there you can also use the Google Assistant with voice commands, just wait for the talk button to go red before you start talking (slow on iOS).

Changelog:

v1.05 (05/10/2018)
- Changed Wallpaper of Leanback (clean and light)
- Replaced Gallery for more functionality such as cloud services
- Updated Chrome, HappyCast, ProgTV, Google Play Games and TVIrl to the latest versions
- Made Blokada a System App so it does not get closed by the Clean App
- Added leanback shortcut to Chrome
- fixed wifi bug
- Removed Settings App since it's not really needed and avoids crashes

v1.04 (012/09/2018)
- Updated Chrome and TVIrl to the latest versions
- Added VLC 3.0.13
- Replaced Youtube Apk by the latest stable version (if you upgrade and it freezes, just uninstall any updates to restore this version; deactivate automatic installations on Google Play to keep it)
- Fixed Google Play Services crash on fresh install

v1.03 (05/09/2018)
- Added GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter, GoogleContactsSyncAdapter and PrintSpooler again since removing it brings Youtube freezes again (not sure if it's the cause, but seems working great again)
- Improved boot performance that was decreased in v1.02 (around 40s to boot instead of 60s)    

V1.02 (05/09/2018)
- Fixed crash of Youtube Leanback latest version (v2.03.06 is working fine, no more crashes or freezes after long testing)
- Fixed Live Channels issue that caused Google Play to crash getting more sources of channels
- Fixed default configuration of the application ScreenCam, where the "auto" setting would crash, changed "use floating controls" as default so we can stop the recording (apk was signed with another certificate)
- Fixed PIP problem (I mean, it's identified in Pluto TV, since other sources work perfectly)
- Added TVIrl, adding your own playlists to Live Channels, as well as EPG
- Added YalpStore
- Added And Boost (to compare performance runtime to other ATV Roms)
- Removed GoogleCalendarSyncAdapter and GoogleContactsSyncAdapter and PrintSpooler (doesn't makes sense on ATV)
- Updated HappyCast, ProgTV and MyTunerFree
- Reorganized logic of the apps so PlutoTV 3.01 can be restored

V1.0 (25/08/2018)
Initial Release

How to install:

Download v1.05: from Mega
YOUR FEEDBACK IS WELCOME!!!

1) Use TWRP to install it or as OTA Local update.
2) Also in TWRP add Magisk if you need root.
3) Delete Cache and Data
First boot here took around 3 minutes, it can take longer but no longer then 5 minutes I think.

Tell me if you like or if you know how to fix any bug,
please don't blame me if you kill your box, there are risks when flashing a ROM. Have a TWRP recovery around just in case...

Have fun.

Here's a quick preview saved with the screenrecorder in HD of v1.0:

[bullgates]

Tip: to add your own playlists to ProgTV, just make a file with the extension ".tvst", then open it with ProgTV and activate the items. This way you can have a lot of playlists organized the way you want. For instance there is a known legal IPTV list for Portugal in this link: http://lista.kodiportugal.com

so the file should look like this:

API=m3u
InstallerID=IPTV

ProviderName=MyList
ProviderComment=My IPTV List.

ID=#9F10
Name=KodiPortugal
Comment=Some Channels can only be seen in Portugal (geo-locked)
m3u=http://lista.kodiportugal.com

ID=#9F11
Name=AnotherPlaylist
Comment=Sample dummy list
m3u=http://pastebin.com/raw/test

[ReaperMan]

Congrats on pushing out your first born...ummm... I mean firmware.

[natzen]

thanks for your work ,this rom tested on green pcb ?

[bullgates]

Thanks Reaper Man

natzen I only have a blue pcb with DDR4 box, but I think it can work on that box too, since I'm using the Kernel from the ROM named aml_7.1_s912_q9377-H96PROPLUS_KDMC_mac-20180708.img
If you make a backup the risks are minimum and you can still boot in the TWRP recovery and restore it back.

[SUSKY]

Hello...
if want to delete the Google Package, can be delete 3 item from ROM ?

tks

[bullgates]

SUSKY what's the purpose? Google TTS is recommended because you can have the box read to you Google Assistant like questions. But you are free to remove them, it will install fine. I have some progress on my ROM, as soon as I think it's really improved I will publish a new version. I've fixed the latest youtube app problems and also the Live Channels crash of Google Play when searching for other live TV sources.

[X92-2GB]

I removed TTS, and Google, ATV runs fine without It. Also you can disable the mic in app restrictions.

[SUSKY]

SUSKY what's the purpose? Google TTS is recommended because you can have the box read to you Google Assistant like questions. But you are free to remove them, it will install fine. I have some progress on my ROM, as soon as I think it's really improved I will publish a new version. I've fixed the latest youtube app problems and also the Live Channels crash of Google Play when searching for other live TV sources.

The big issue was the Youtube ,,okay, waiting for V2, tks

[bullgates]

I've released v1.02. I was testing the Youtube App for a couple of days without any crashes, but now that I've made the release the freezes are back. This is a bit insane, as soon as I have some time I will try to fix it once more.

[natzen]

I've released v1.02. I was testing the Youtube App for a couple of days without any crashes, but now that I've made the release the freezes are back. This is a bit insane, as soon as I have some time I will try to fix it once more.

I have tested on my pcb green ,on my box your firmware is the better android Tv ,all works very smooths ;-) thanks

[bullgates]

natzen good to have great feedback, I'm doing my best and still learning. I will keep publishing my updates when I find a better or more stable base firmware. My pcb is the blue one so it's good to know it works on the green too. Thanks for the feedback

[natzen]

natzen good to have great feedback, I'm doing my best and still learning. I will keep publishing my updates when I find a better or more stable base firmware. My pcb is the blue one so it's good to know it works on the green too. Thanks for the feedback

you think oreo update possible ?and youtube problem cannot resolve ? we can't delete version ...

[bullgates]

natzen I'm thinking about that, but without proper support from Amlogic I don't think there will be Oreo running fine. The Youtube problem is quite strange, for several times it works just fine, then the freezes appear from nowhere. I thought I've fixed it, but somehow it appears again, I will make a version with the option to revert back to the version that works fine until I find a definitive solution. It's good to have some feedback in order to address the issues.

[X92-2GB]

Hi, I have been moving back to modded latest phablet based factory firmware, from Russia. I had been working on ATV and had some notes on variances.

Here is what I see... All H96 ARM8a 64 firmwares have some API issues with Google analytics (Firebase and Dynamite). I noticed some custom firmwares use a developer version of Android Webview v52.xxxx , which does not update, and is part of the OS build. If you remove it and install a Google release to update it with, apps that require it will FC. Also the OS will not detect it's installed. Obviously something needs to be done to allow the use of Google updated version. I tried to update and it would not function.

So long story short, some firmwares that have the Developer webview 52.xxxx do better than others built around the later 58.xxx. Seems that SuperCeleron has emplemented he phablet way of using webview, on his SCV7a in ATV mode, which i found to function better with more apps than SCV4a which has the Chrome disabled Google production release version of webview as default in ATV.

If anyone can get Google api fully functional, and build around Google's production release, it may relieve the issues with YouTube braking. Until then, phablet based ATV seems to be more versatile with wider support. Just the downside is both Chrome and the developer Webview must be enabled and used.

i have not tested everything out as of yet, but i think my issues with the latest NBC releases of both ATV and tablet versions cannot coexist on phablet builds for H96 pro plus boxes. Had to remove a tablet version of another app for the ATV version to work. As before with ATV, i was able to have both versions fully function. Which makes ATV pretty cool, but not widely compatible.

He latest ATV builds of Pluto, and other NBC owned apps, work fine, just miss live channels, as it only works in ATV, and makes Pluto TV nicer to operate.

well that's my notes in a nut shell... i can live with it but it would be nice to see more improvements in keeping up with Google's changes.