Installing Android TV on Raspberry Pi 3 and Sideloading Apps

A lot of time is required to flash a 7.7 gigabyte image to the SD card, which can take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to be successful. The process involves clicking right-clicking "yes" and sitting back and relaxing while watching the progress bar. Once the flashing process is complete, it's time to boot up the Raspberry Pi and access its Android TV interface.

The Raspberry Pi comes equipped with a keyboard connection that can also function as a wireless keyboard and mouse combination. However, users must use the enter button or return button to navigate through the screen, as clicking on an item is not supported at this stage. To set up Wi-Fi, scroll down to settings, network settings, and press enter. Users should then type in their password to connect to their preferred Wi-Fi network.

Setting up a strong password is essential for secure connectivity. If users are unable to get USB storage working, they can use the Fire TV Utility app to sideload apps from their computer. The Fire TV Utility app can be downloaded by navigating to sites.google.com/slite/SL-Amazon-FirV-Utility-app and clicking on the link provided in the article description. Users will need to unzip the file and save it as an application folder.

To sideload apps, users must select navigate to where their apks are located, Miner and my app back up and restore, and then choose third-party applications. The user can then select Mega 64 or another app they wish to install, such as ES File Explorer, and click on the "Sid load" option. Users may receive a warning message stating that the system cannot find the specified PATH; however, this should resolve itself after waiting for a few minutes.

Connecting to the same network as the Raspberry Pi is crucial for sideloading apps from the computer. Once connected, users can go back to their PC and type in their IP address to establish connectivity. The process of installing Android TV on the Raspberry Pi 3 and sideloading apps requires minimal effort and technical expertise.

Using the Fire TV Utility app, users can download, unzip, and save their chosen application folder. After navigating to the application folder, users must select navigate to where their apks are located, Miner and my app back up and restore, and then choose third-party applications. The user can then select Mega 64 or another app they wish to install, such as ES File Explorer, and click on the "Sid load" option.

To access the sideloaded apps, users must navigate through the settings menu, network settings, and then press enter. Users will be presented with their IP address, which should match the one displayed on the screen. If the Raspberry Pi is connected to the same network as the computer, users can see the IP address on the screen and use it to establish connectivity.

Once established, users can access the sideloaded apps by selecting "Apps" from the main menu. The app will be listed under the category of third-party applications, such as Mega 64 or ES File Explorer. Users can then navigate through the application's interface using the enter button or return button.

The N64 emulator is a popular sideloading option that allows users to play classic video games on their Raspberry Pi. However, it does not display an icon on the main screen. To access the emulator, users must select "Apps" and browse through the list of third-party applications until they find Mega 64 or another sideloaded app.

The installation process for Android TV on the Raspberry Pi 3 is straightforward and requires minimal effort. Users must connect their computer to the same network as the Raspberry Pi using HDMI and then download the Fire TV Utility app. The app can be used to sideload apps from the computer, allowing users to access a wide range of applications on their Raspberry Pi.

Setting up Android TV on the Raspberry Pi 3 is an excellent way for users to expand their device's capabilities and enjoy a wide range of features. By following the steps outlined in this article, users can install Android TV on their Raspberry Pi 3 and sideload apps with ease.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's going on guys it's ETA Prime back here again today I want to show you how to install the Android TV build for your Raspberry Pi 3 and I will also show you how to sideload a few apps easily over Network now this image or this OS was provided by geek till it Hurtz down in the description below I will leave links to his web page and his YouTube channel this guy is smart and he does a lot and lot of great stuff with the Raspberry Pi and other single board Linux computers so we're going to need to get into this and we're going to have to download a few applications but before we do I just want to tell you guys that this is far from finished if you are expecting to boot up Android and have Google Play you are sorely mistaken this is a very early build of the Android TV operating system running on the Raspberry Pi 3 you will probably run into problems um for the most part it works very well actually but this is really meant for people who just want to test this build out this is not a permanent solution to having Android on your Raspberry Pi 3 as of making this video there is real no permanent solution to having Android on your raspberry P let's get into it first thing we're going to need to do is open up a browser and we'll head over to geek tillet hurz geek tillet hertz.com now he is awesome we're going to go down here and click on the WordPress icon and what this is going to bring us to is his videos at the bottom of his Android TV for Raspberry Pi 3 video you will see a download link it is a media fire download link for the Android TV operating system that he provided go ahead and click on that you may need to answer a question to download it that's fine if you've ever used media fire you know how it goes you can also head over to his YouTube channel or I will also leave a link to the video he uploaded and this will bring you right to the download go ahead and click that little button too next next we're going to need to get win32 dis imager now this is the go-to software for flashing any operating system to your Raspberry Pi 3's SD card this is very safe there are no viruses no malware it is recommended by the Raspberry Pi company so we have 75,000 downloads this week alone click on this little green icon to download it's a very fast download and a very quick install I also recommend commend you getting SD card formatter now this will enable you to format your SD card to Fat 32 very quickly and easily after you install an operating system for the Raspberry Pi on your SD card and if you want to use that card for something else let's say you want to put it in an Android phone or just load some movies on it or something it will not register as the full capacity of the card you need to format the card after you're done with the card using it if you're done with the operating system that's on the card you will need to format it with SD card formatter in order to regain the stock capacity if you have a SD SDXC card which is larger than 32 GB I recommend using fat 32 format you can download This by clicking on the page here very easy works the same way I have already downloaded the Android TV oh here this is a dis image file it comes zipped and the zipped file itself is 226 mbes large when it's unzipped it's 7.7 GB so keep in mind it could take a second to extract depending on the speed of your computer in order to extract this you're going to need seven zip or win raar and I will leave links in the description for you right click I'm using WinRAR and we can extract by clicking here we'll extract it to another folder and you should see this image it's the disk image file 7.7 gabt big I'm going to insert my SD card into my computer I am using a Samsung 16 GB SD card also have an SD card reader CU I'm on a desktop this SD card is fresh and it is already formatted fat 32 go to properties to make sure file system is fat 32 open up wind disk imager after you've extracted and downloaded everything from the drop- down device menu here make sure you have your SD card Chosen and you can find that by opening up a file explorer my SD card is Drive e make sure you have the correct one chosen here it will be different on your computer this is where we're going to flash the SD card with the Android TV image click on the blue folder and we're going to navigate to where we extracted the Android image mine is on my desktop in the Android TV Raspberry Pi 3 folder you should see your dis image file double click and it's time to write to the SD card now this can take a lot of time this is 7.7 gigabytes needs to be flashed to the SD card click right click yes sit back and relax you can watch the progress if you'd like but it could take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes to flash successful we successfully flashed the Android image to our SD card it's now time to take the SD card out of the computer plug in your Raspberry Pi and give her her first boot so we're now booted into the Android TV interface I have a keyboard connected to my Raspberry Pi it's a wireless keyboard and mouse combination as you can see my mouse works in this screen also but you can't click on anything you need to use your enter button or your return button scroll down to settings network settings press enter we're going to set up Wi-Fi so we can um Sid load some apps from our computer I have not been able to get USB storage working so I've been Sid loading from my computer take a second to scan type in your password and you should connect to your Wi-Fi connected successfully now we are online press Escape now you can see there's nothing installed we don't have any apps but we want a few apps installed so what we want to do is find our IP address we can do that by going to network Wi-Fi click on the Wi-Fi network that you are connected to status info and here is your IP address take a picture of it write it down do whatever you need to do to remember this IP address yours will be different from mine so just jot yours down on a note of paper or take a picture of your screen if you have two TVs set up next to each other that's even better we're going to move back to the PC now we need to be connected to the same Wi-Fi Network that our computer is connected to okay we're going to need to download an application now when i s load apps I use my terminal or my command line but I found an easier way and it will be much easier for everybody to S load their apps open up your Chrome browser and navigate to sites.google.com slite SL Amazon firv utility app app forward slash this link will be in the description you want to download this come zipped you'll just need to download it and unzip it so I have mine here I've downloaded it and I have unzipped it it's in its own folder I have the applications or the apks that I want to side load I have a bunch here I'm not going to Sid load many here in this tutorial but this will work for sideloading most of your apps open up the Fire TV utility that you just downloaded Amazon Fire TV utility app we're going to run this at the top file settings now you can see I already have mine set up this is all you need to do is type in your IP address yours is going to be different from mine save and close yes from here select navigate to where your apks are located Miner and my app back up and restore so I want to Sid load the N64 emulator so I will choose Mega 64 and I will just click on Sid load third party application you may get this warning wait a second just give it time and it should connect and install to your Raspberry Pi 3 it is connected and it is sent the APK it is now installing I'm going to Sid load one more app here we're just going to do ES File Explorer Sid load thirdparty app it will give you this warning the system cannot find the PATH specified just wait if you've waited more than I'd say four to 5 minutes then it will not connect and you need to figure it out you may have the IP address typed in wrong there we go I just installed the N64 emulator and ES file explorer to my Raspberry Pi 3 running Android TV I did it from my PC over Network now they need to be connected to the same network so that your PC can see the Raspberry Pi five settings type in your IP address you should have no problems should connect we're going to go back to the Raspberry Pi now and I'll show you we just installed those two apps okay so I just left it exactly where we just left off going to hit escape and as you can see we have ES File Explorer installed here now the N64 emulator that I installed does not show up on the front end there so you go to apps and we have mega 64 and ES File Explorer so that's it guys that's how you install Android TV on your Raspberry Pi 3 and sideload apps it's very simple easy easy easy you need to be connected to the same network as your Raspberry Pi you also need to be using HDMI for this to work that's it guys thanks for watching if this helped you out at all help me out hit that subscribe button and uh give me a thumbs up like always thanks for watching\n"