Need help fixing JVC smart tv and its terrible interface

Sizeable_lad · February 8, 2020

[TL:DR for this first paragraph, JVC tvs are bad and you cant use many of their basic apps due to issues with the remote]

Ok we all know it, JVC is a cheap, low quality and frankly low standard brand, some of their small scale consumer electronics work fine, but their TV's well its best we dont talk about those. EXCEPT I OWN ONE and i am frankly sick and tired of trying to use even the most basic of apps on its poorly coded, bad looking, low effort "implementation" of android. I'm not sure of the specific model number of my tv, but i do know that its 45", 2k resolution, has the worst panel ive ever seen in a television and cant display ant color darker than a pale gray without a significant amount of crust developing in the image. furthermore, the actual hardware inside seems to be less powerful than that which might be found in an 80-100 dollar cheap, plastic screened smartphone. However, by far the biggest problem is the simple fact that its pre-installed apps, like Netflix, are the smartphone versions that you can download from the play store on any android phone. now this wouldnt be so bad, if those apps were designed to work with a TV remote, but they arent, and many parts of their interfaces such as options and search icons/buttons are totally inaccessible due to this. This means that i cannot, for example, switch users on netflix, in fact, the last time i did, i had to drive to the nearest electronics store to buy a wireless mouse (which oddly works with the television) just so i could navigate the interface (note that the remote has the option to bring up a cursor, however functionality such as clicking and dragging and the scrollwheel are nonexistent).

So heres my question oh mighty linus tech tips forum: is there any way, short of buying a new tv or using external hardware like that wireless mouse, that i can either: get a working version of netflix (like the ones you see pre installed on tvs that are worth a damn) or get some other type of OS or software onto the tv that will allow me to use its most basic features.

On a side note is it possible to put linux on android devices and if so would this be a viable option?

WereCatf · February 8, 2020

1 hour ago, Sizeable_lad said:

So heres my question oh mighty linus tech tips forum: is there any way, short of buying a new tv or using external hardware like that wireless mouse, that i can either: get a working version of netflix (like the ones you see pre installed on tvs that are worth a damn) or get some other type of OS or software onto the tv that will allow me to use its most basic features.

Not really, no.

1 hour ago, Sizeable_lad said:

On a side note is it possible to put linux on android devices and if so would this be a viable option?

There is no standard way for doing that, it's only possible if someone has actually gone to the effort of finding some vulnerability to get root with, then found or developed all the needed drivers and then made a compatible image. In 99.9% of cases this is a big, loud "no".

You have two options: buy another TV and practice your strength by seeing how far you can throw your JVC-one, or buy an NVIDIA Shield TV, connect it to your TV and use it instead for Netflix, Kodi etc.