Android is a very flexible and third-party oriented platform. And taking advantage of this ability, XDA Senior Member AmznUser444 Dev has developed Android TV x86 that ports your old PC into a media streamer.
Android TV has grown into the go-to operating system for smart TVs. The polished and unique features of Google embedded into Android TV is something that suits smart TVs and media players.
Good thing is that Android TV OS is different from Android OS on mobile but has several similar functionalities as well. Voice search and content discovery are some of the key selling points of Android TV OS.
With Android TV x86, you could all the flexibilities of Android TV OS on powerful desktops and laptops running Intel (or AMD) processors.
Notably, the app provides an easy and convenient way of handling games, apps, and all the media content on your PC. This is similar to how you would operate your Android TV os powered smart TV.
You will be able to use all the features like LAN, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and sound because the ROM has these features inbuilt into Android TV x86.
Android TV x86 initial build is based on Android 9 Pie, has 64MB of video memory
To talk about some specifications, the Android TV x86 is based on Android 9 Pie. This may sound old, but that is what most of the Android TV’s are running on. So, no complaints there.
Other system requirements read a 1.2 GHz dual-core 64bit processor with 64MB of video processing memory. It would support any Intel/NVIDIA/AMD GPU.
Since the minimum requirements are low, it shouldn’t be much of a tough ask for older PCs to run this Android Tv x86 and revive the PC with the richness of Android TV.
At present, there are some bugs, which you should keep in mind. Notably, it gets stuck on “Detecting Android TV…” on the non-EXT4 partition, Chromecast built-in does not work without DRM support, and Netflix is working on the mobile version.
Due to lacking Widevine L1 certification, you will not be able to run HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or any other video streaming apps.
So, that’s a bummer, but it should not matter as you are already getting several perks using Android TV OS on your older PC. You can grab the installer ISO from the official website of XDA.
Moreover, the installer already has all the Google apps included. Negating the need to install the Google apps separately from Google Play Store.
It is advised that you should get through the official changelog, bugs before going ahead and installing the Android TV x86.