With a SofaBaton remote and some button reassignments using the Button Mapper app, everything is just right now, and pairing a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard was easy.
The IronFox version of Firefox works excellently on my 2019 Shield TV.
Also the DuckDuckGo browser blocks a ton of stuff on my 2019 Shield TV when first installed via NeoStore (F-Droid and other repositories frontend) then upgraded via AuroraStore (Google Play Store frontend) or Google Play itself. I've found that I had to use that sequence because it could not install initially from the Play Store, but maybe that has changed.
Another browser option is Cromite, which is a hardened Chromium for Android.
The Shield TV's cylindrical form factor could use a rethink. It is hard to find a good spot for it on a shelf when cords are connected at both ends (HDMI and MMC slot at one end, power and LAN at the other) and the ports are too close for all cords to use right-angle-heads. Leaving it invisible by placing it on the floor or behind other gear sometimes impedes Bluetooth signal, so there it sits, well apart from the AVR, BD, other devices.
The solution to it being clunky can't be to add mass to it. Unless you're proposing transferring the internals to a new case and facing all the ports to the back. Seriously, look at this thing. The best thing you can do is tie-wrap the cables together.
I've been hacking on computer and av hardware for ~40 years, but I know NOT to risk the only one I've got without getting some clear sense of the pitfalls ahead by using schematics, teardowns, photos, etc.
That is the new Shield TV design from 2019. The original Shield TV and the Pro were flat design. Strange that they changed it when old design worked well.
If you are uncomfortable with ADB on the CLI, you can look up the subject ''Debloat++ Shield TV'' as discussed in XDA Forums' Shield TV subforum for how to use an app for that.
Projectivy has turned out to be my favourite launcher for the Shield TV after trying a bunch. It displays only the things I want to see, and has a great deal of options.
A million times this. I was so frustrated with how slow and ad-laden the default Shield launcher was. When I got it, it had no ads and was really snappy. Changing over to Projectivy (or any custom launcher really) fixed so many issues and made the device snappy again.
The article mentions the ''enormous, easy-to-press-by-accident Netflix button" on the Shield TV remote, and I agree with the major annoyance of it. With a SofaBaton remote and some button reassignments using the Button Mapper app, everything is just right now. The original remote went into storage, and pairing a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard was easy. Debloating via ADB has been successful based on some great tips at XDA, and adding the NeoStore app gives access to F-Droid and other repositories.
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