

Android TV won’t be commercially available on a wide scale for at least another few months but it appears as though the development community is already having some fun with it. Keyan Mobli on Google+ has compiled XBMC to work on Android TV. As it turns out, it actually works pretty well.

According to Mobli, it wasn’t all that difficult to get working. A few changes were required in the manifest before compiling and the app fired right up on his ADT-1. He goes on to describe XBMC as working “pretty much flawlessly” and demonstrated by showing off a picture of it playing an episode of Sherlock in 1080p. He also provided an APK download for anyone else who may have an ADT-1 with instructions to install the APK over ADB just like any other Android device.



This is very encouraging news for fans of XBMC who may be wondering if they should get Android TV. XBMC support on Google TV wasn’t very good and it took a long time before it was stable on Android as a whole. To see it fired up on an Android TV and work –to use Mobli’s words again– “pretty much flawlessly” means that it likely won’t take long for the community to have releases available for consumer use right alongside or shortly after Android TV’s official release. Of course, that’s only conjecture but we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed either way.

If you have an ADT-1 and want to try this out, you can find the download link on Keyan Mobli’s Google+ post.