Google TV is something of a personalization layer for Android TV: it changes the look of the menus and basically the launcher, which prioritizes content over apps. If you want to try Google TVyou can do it for free and without complications on your computer using the official Android emulator.
We tell you step by step how can you have google tv on your pc and control it with the keyboard and mouse to test the system or directly consume content with the official applications for Android TV, instead of being relegated to the web applications of each streaming service.
Install Android Studio
To have Google TV on our PC, we are going to use the official Android Studio emulator, which works fine. Obviously, as an emulator, you will need a relatively powerful PC for the system to work properly.
Android Studio is the official Android programming IDE and it’s totally free. Even if you don’t have the slightest intention of programming anything, you can use it to enjoy your emulator without prior knowledge. It all starts with downloading Android Studio from the official website. The download is quite heavy, almost 1 GB.
We have already told you several times about the process of installing Android Studio and the truth is that it is quite simple, since you only need to press Next and accept the default options offered to you. The installation itself shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.
Then it’s time to prepare the emulator
Now comes the hardest part, which is not difficult: preparing the Google TV emulator. First, you will need to locate the icon to open the Device administrator from Android Studio, the place where you can create virtual devices. You will find it in the top bar of the application: it is called device Manager.
If this is your first time using Android Studio, the device manager will appear empty, so the first step is to press Create a device to start setting up your new virtual device.
In the window that opens, switch to TV category in the left column and then choose the TV profile that suits you best. They are all the same except for the resolution, so the middle option –Android TV (1080p)– is a good compromise. Select one and press Following.
Now comes the part of “installing” a version of Android TV on your virtual device. Again, if your Android Studio is freshly installed, you will not have any Android TV images downloadedSo that will be the first step.
You choose the version you want to try, but if your intention is to try Google TV, the most important thing is to look at the Target column, for select an image from Google TV
Of course, you won’t be able to choose any image until it has been uploaded. To download one of the displayed system images, you need to press the arrow icon next to your namewhich opens a new pop-up window.
In this window, just press Following and wait for the download to complete, which may take some time depending on your internet connection speed. When you are done, press the button Finish.
This will take you back to the previous window, where you can now choose the image that is uploaded. after pressing Following you will end up with a few options for customize your virtual device with a name and nothing else.
to enjoy
Once your virtual device has been created, all that remains is to start it. Your new virtual TV will appear in the device manager with the name you gave it and you will find yourself a play button next to it. Click on it to start the virtual machine.
In recent versions of Android Studio, the emulator view is integrated in an interface panel of the app, making it tiny and hard to see, but luckily it’s easy to fix.
It’s optional, but a good idea to click the gear icon on this panel and use the menu View Mode > Window so that the emulator it will be displayed in its own window instead of living in Android Studio.
For the rest, we just have to wait complete system startup and you will have emulated Google TV on your computer. If you have a powerful PC, the system works very quickly and you can use it almost completely normally. If not, at least it will help you to see a bit how it works with the respective patience.
You can control emulated Google TV on your computer with mouse and keyboard and the truth is that you will rarely encounter any problems, although some applications work better if you navigate using the keys on the keyboard than with the mouse. On the top bar of the emulator, you have buttons to send the back, home and recent key to the emulator.
In this Google TV emulation, you can Sign in with your Google account and install apps normally from Google Play, although you will find that some apps, such as Netflix, are not available. Technically, you can force the installation by downloading the APK file to your computer and dragging it into the emulator window.
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