Force stupid Sky X App to work on Android TV?

by RichRatsch

Would love to rant, but instead of that I'd be thankful for your help with two topics:

  1. The Sky X Streaming App, which I pay for via subscription, does offer an Android, iOS, Windows and Playstation App. But no Android TV App. Nice. When trying to sideload, different build versions either force close or open in the wrong orientation. Are there any good workarounds / patches / apps that help solving this to basically enable this App to work on Android TV? (The app works on tablets, so why not Android TV?)
  2. Based on that, why would a huge STREAMING company not adapt their Android App to be compatible with Android TV, since years? It can't be pure stupidity, any ideas if the reasons are security concerns or other weird blockers?

Appreciate your help! Cheers!

milanistadoc

Have you tried setting the 'Storage' permission On for your sideloaded app? On the orientation issue, you can install an app to force the screen as always landscape - I use an app called 'Rotate Screen Orientation'.

[deleted]

Not sure if this will necessarily solve your issue, but try the “Set Orientation App” There are variants on the google play store that I recommend seeing on your android TV if they are available in the play store. https://play.google.com/store/search?q=set%20orientation%20android%20tv

Alternatively there is an older version here that I used to use. https://androidtvnews.com/rotate-android-tv-screen/

The reason why I’m not sure if it will resolve you issue is some .apk’s absolutely hate being forced onto a tv and the orientation being messed around. For me it was hit or miss, but absolutely worth a shot.

PS if the app wasn’t developed to work for android TV’s lean back you will likely need to use an alternate pointing device to a remote. Since your tv isn’t a touch screen you will likely just need to connect a mouse to your TV to navigate

Deadpool-fan-466

I posted about it in this sub, asking for possible reasons. Got downvoted instead.

There are two workarounds:

  • If the phone app supports casting, then cast from your phone to your Android TV
  • Sideload the apk of the phone app on your TV (make sure the architecture is armv7a/ armeabi) & use set orientation app with it

Also, Sky is mainly a satellite television company, not a "huge streaming" company. The launched Sky X in Austria less than 3 years ago.

Quick_Roll354

as a programmer i tell you why:

The more systems an application has to support (hint: Different systems with each different hardware), the more performance is required.

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see? It works like a Filter. Each time you start an application, the best performing apps will only run on a SINGLE system type (no filter required).

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Then ,the more different systems you have to support as well, the harder it is to make it compatible for all these systems (see PC, there is a reason PC is dying as we know it and other systems are beating PC no in this regard) without losing a lot of performance.

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That´s because these filters (actually they are drivers. Each written for a different system, and if you want support for many systems you nee to run all these drivers at all times) cost a ton of performance.

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and so many companies today decide they rather skip older systems in order to not overload these apps with running-drivers.

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Because the more drivers you run (Size is equavilent to stability of your app) the less stability you will have.