Android TV Leanback Frontend

Note: The download site for leanfront packages has changed. See the documentation at https://github.com/bennettpeter/android-MythTV-Leanfront/blob/master/README.md .

Overview

Leanback Frontend (also known as Leanfront) is a lightweight MythTV frontend that is built for the Android TV "Leanback" interface. It is different from, and does not have the full functionality of, the Android mythfrontend.

The Android Leanback user interface is used by many video streaming services, such as Amazon Prime Video. leanfront will be consistent in look and feel with other android TV applications.

Advantages over mythfrontend

• It is able to play 4K video at 60 fps with true 4K resolution.
• It uses hardware decoding exclusively for all video and audio output.
• It supports Voice search using the built in microphone.
• It works entirely off the service API, so it does not need database access.
• The version is not tied to the MythTV version.
• It launches in about 1 second.

Features

• Play recordings and videos from MythTV.
• Play Live TV
• Display the Program Guide and set up recordings from it.
• Search using voice or keyboard for recordings or videos to play.
• Search using voice or keyboard for Programs in the Guide and set up recordings for them.

Disadvantages

• There are no plugins for Music, Photos, etc.
• The dependence on hardware decoding can be a disadvantage if the android device does not have the required codec

Technology

This application is based on the sample application provided at https://github.com/android/tv-samples . It uses exoplayer from https://github.com/google/ExoPlayer , which has a full featured library for playing video on android devices.

Documentation

See https://github.com/bennettpeter/android-MythTV-Leanfront/blob/master/README.md