Native support for Android TV / Android devices

Development
465

You are a genius! :slight_smile: Thanks a lot, my total respect, you know your code base! :+1: :slight_smile:

I disabled the screencapture (must have overlooked that setting), and all errors are gone. It’s now running for a good 45 minutes without any error message, even the “new one” seems to be gone. All is responsible and working as expected. I can switch, play, pause, turn on or off, all good… :+1:

Thanks a lot and have a nice weekend! :slight_smile:

EDIT: After around one and a half hours the error that you already have fixed is back, but that’s not a problem, I’ll wait for 0.113.1 and report back. :slight_smile:

466

Having used Apple TV’s in the past and recently switched to Android TV I do miss one thing. On the ATV (and the HA component) it was able to determine whether the device was playing or paused. I find that with the SHIELD TV and the Xiaomi MiBox S they both show a playing state when browsing apps like Disney+ or Netflix, the state would simply change to playing after a few seconds even if you were just browsing these apps. This makes automating anything based on play/paused states quite difficult which was not the case for my ATV’s. Also updating the state takes over 5 seconds which makes the automations feel kinda clunky. I wonder there is a way to change the polling speed or something so that at least the states update in realtime.

For my movies I use the Plex integration to automate on (which surprisingly does update the state in real-time. Even more surprisingly, my ATV had correct states and real-time play/pause state changes, but the Plex integration had that same 5-8 seconds delay which my Android TV has on all other apps XD).

I wonder if this is a limitation of the ADB implementation and if there is a way to work around it (which I am thinking it isn’t possible). Too bad if it can’t get better than this, I actually like the Android TV experience in conjunction with other Google services as opposed to the Apple TV. Though currently I think the ATV HA component works slightly better in this regard.

I am fairly new to the Android ecosystem and thus also fairly new to this component. If there is anything I should know or something I have missed please correct me XD.

467

Are you using the state_detection_rules and apps part of the configuration for androidTV (in the component)? Check these out here, https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/androidtv/#custom-state-detection

Depending on the apps you use, you should/could try intents as well. This page gives a little glimps: https://gist.github.com/mcfrojd/9e6875e1db5c089b1e3ddeb7dba0f304

This should give you some reading time and a better understanding, what is going on with androidTV. :slight_smile: In my understanding, there are two ways to communicate with your TV (or whatever androidTV device you are running). One is to send a command through the adb shell directly via a service or you use the custom state detection rules. I would start with the later, and if these don’t work or something isn’t supported, I’d take a look if there is a shell command, you can use. :slight_smile: At least that is my understanding how it works, but I’m in no way an expert. :wink:

1 Like
468

@JeffLIrion I have an existing shield 2017 that has been working great with the python implementation of the androidtv integration. I recently bought a second 2019 shield and enabled network debugging then added it to my configuration. This time I let HA generate the adb key but the old one is still using the one I generated a while back. I get the popup asking to allow the adb connection and tick the box saying to always allow. For whatever reason, every time I restart home assistant, the box “allow connection” box pops up on the shield even if I have that “always allow” box ticked.

Any thoughts?

469

Which device always prompts you, the old Shield using the existing key or the new Shield using the key that HA generated?

470

The 2019 Shield (new one) that has an auto generated key.

471

I think this pull request will fix it: https://github.com/home-assistant/core/pull/38344

In particular, I think this pair of commits is the fix:

If you know how to use custom components, you can grab these files and test it out: https://github.com/JeffLIrion/home-assistant/tree/androidtv-bump2/homeassistant/components/androidtv

472

So I copied those files into custom_components named the dir androidtv_test, and changed my config section for the 2019 shield to reference the androidtv_test platform (left the old one on androidtv). Restarted HA a few times and the popup keeps coming up.

I may have done the custom component thing wrong, would it pull the new versions of adb_shell and python-androidtv?

I also tried building a new docker image with just your commit cherry-picked but it appears I need to wait for the new versions of your libraries to appear in the HA base image?

473

Just call the custom component androidtv. I think there are multiple places where you would need to rename it. Also, the requirements are different for the native vs. custom component, so I think that could create issues. Speaking of which…

I’m not sure how HA handles custom component requirements that conflict with native component requirements. It’s possible that it’s not updating those packages. Unfortunately, I think it’s difficult to tell.

It might be necessary to delete the androidtv_adbkey and androidtv_adbkey.pub files in the .storage folder, restart HA, and re-approve the connection. WARNING: in general, deleting files in the .storage folder is a bad idea! (But deleting these two files won’t mess up anything.)

That pull request should be in release 0.113.3, if/when that gets released. So you’ll be able to try it then without needing to fuss with a custom component.

1 Like
474

0.113.3 has been released. Let me know if you still experience the issue. I expect that when you restart, you’ll need to approve it again. But after that, you shouldn’t need to.

If you do still need to approve it every time, delete the key files that I mentioned previously and see if it’s fixed after that.

475

Just updated. Popup still came up after restarts so I deleted the key pair from .storage. Unfortunately, the popup is still coming up. One thing I did notice is the RSA key fingerprint is the same in the popup even after deleting the key pairs from .storage. I did double check the new key pair is different. Shouldn’t the “RSA key fingerprint” be different each time the key is generated?

476

I am having the same issues. Asked each time the fireTV starts.

477

Did you first connect to this device from HA version 0.113 (not an earlier release)?

What is your Android device and which version of Android are you running? (@kylehendricks can you also let me know what version of Android you’re running)

It could be due to this: https://github.com/google/python-adb/pull/152#discussion_r306312516

But I’m just guessing at this point.

Two things you can try:

  1. If your HA installation permits, make this edit in adb_shell/adb_device_async.py: https://github.com/JeffLIrion/adb_shell/pull/83/files#diff-f27635d2c39efc12ac6521e3fb51af85
  2. If you have a different key (as @kylehendricks does), use that key in the config for your Android TV device.
478

You can try this custom component that incorporates the change I mentioned above: https://github.com/JeffLIrion/ha-androidtv

FYI, it’s entirely possible that made a a typo or other mistake and it won’t work.

479

Both shields are Android 9. I’ll try making that change or using that custom component.

480

So I think this has something to do with my “2017 Shield” androidtv entry that has the adbkey field set. I just got the RSA fingerprint of my existing key and it has the same fingerprint that keeps showing up on my new Shield. Here is my config for reference (Basement Shield TV is the shield with the issue):

media_player:
  - platform: androidtv
    name: Shield TV
    device_class: androidtv
    host: shieldtv.home
    adbkey: "/config/adbkey"
    apps:
      "com.plexapp.android": "Plex"
      "com.netflix.ninja": "Netflix"
      "com.google.android.youtube.tv": "YouTube"
      "com.amazon.amazonvideo.livingroom": "Prime Video"
      "com.alexvas.dvr.pro": "tinyCam"
      "org.jellyfin.androidtv": "Jellyfin"
      "com.liskovsoft.videomanager": "Smart Youtube"
      "com.google.android.youtube.tvunplugged": "Youtube TV"
  - platform: androidtv
    name: Basement Shield TV
    device_class: androidtv
    host: 192.168.1.34
    apps:
      "com.plexapp.android": "Plex"
      "com.netflix.ninja": "Netflix"
      "com.google.android.youtube.tv": "YouTube"
      "com.amazon.amazonvideo.livingroom": "Prime Video"
      "com.alexvas.dvr.pro": "tinyCam"
      "org.jellyfin.androidtv": "Jellyfin"
      "com.liskovsoft.videomanager": "Smart Youtube"
      "com.google.android.youtube.tvunplugged": "Youtube TV"

I think I’m going to try just using the auto-generated key for both Shields.

481

OK nevermind. I think I’m confused about this RSA fingerprint thing. When I run:

awk '{print $1}' < .storage/androidtv_adbkey | openssl base64 -A -d -a | openssl md5 -c

I always get back that same fingerprint, even when I regenerate the key pair and verify they’re different.

482

I don’t see why /config/adbkey should affect the 2019 Shield… If you set the log level for the component (homeassistant.components.androidtv.media_player) to debug, it will tell you the key that it used.

483

Here’s the fix: https://github.com/home-assistant/core/pull/38471

484

Hey Jeff,

Sorry about late response. I am running a 4k FireTV Stick. I installed the androidTV settings in my configuration.yaml after the 0.113 update(s). I am not use an adb server. I also have not forced a key but it is the same key each time. Thoughts?