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Tracee Hsiang
I have been using an ODROID-C2 with LibreELEC for quite a while, but was frustrated by the lack of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix support. I was also using a wireless keyboard/mouse to control it, which led to the disapproval from the spouse, so I wanted a proper TV remote control to control both the TV (power/volume) and the ODROID-C2.
This procedure is to install not only Kodi, but also Youtube TV, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and some individual Channel Apps. It also helps with installing apps from the Google Playstore. Although Netflix would not install from the Playstore one can download the APK and install that. The Remote Control configuration took the most time, because I could not find a single online tutorial detailed the entire process. Hopefully this article will help others with that.
The first step is to install Android on a Flash Card. Android for C2 can be downloaded from At the time of this article, v3.5 is the latest version, and that is what I used. Download the image, uncompress it and install it to the flash card using Etcher, which is available for many operatins systems, or win32diskimager, which runs on Microsoft Windows, or the Linux dd utility. More information may be found at
Install the flash card into the ODROID-C2 plugged into a TV via HDMI along with a USB keyboard/mouse and power on. It takes a few minutes, but eventually you should end up with a shiny new Android system, and the mouse should allow you to navigate.
The first step after Android is running is to adjust the overscan on the screen. I found on my TV that all the edges were missing. I could not see the notification bar at the top and the soft-keys at the bottom were mostly truncated. This is easily fixed by using the "ODROID Utility" app. Through this utility you can set the resolution (the default "autodetect" also works for me), use the arrows to adjust overscan and turn off the blue LED, which blinks to distraction. After adjusting the settings in this app, you must click "Apply and Reboot", which will reboot the system.
Selecting Download will pull a ZIP file into the Download folder. This ZIP file needs to be treated as an Android Update, and hence is loaded using the same Odroid Utility App used to update the Overscan and Blue LED above. Run the Odroid Utility app, and click on the upper right corner (three dots). The menu present will have an option "Package install from storage" which is clicked. On the next page, choose "File Manager" and navigate to the Download folder where you will select the open_gapps ZIP file. You will be prompted to proceed, after which time the odroid will reboot and the Google Apps will be installed.
I downloaded that APK and installed it with FileManager. It runs well with the remote control. There are newer versions of the Netflix APKs available from However, when I downloaded a couple of them, I found they were not remote-control friendly. It is unclear why.
Configuring the apps is the same on all platforms. My Kodi installation communicates with a MythTV backend on another server which does all the LiveTV recording and manages my Movie collection. Finding the MythTV PVR addon was a bit of a challenge in Krypton. It is already in Addons->My Addons, but in a disabled state.
I use an ODROID-C2 TV box with some old TVs that I inherited, and the original remotes were lost long ago. However, I have lying around some old Dish Network 3.0 IR PVR remote controls. These can be had on Ebay for under $10. In my opinion these are good sturdy remotes with good tactile feel and enough buttons that I should be able to do what I need. They are also "programmable" in that they come with a list of TV and other Device Codes which cause them to emulate the other manufacturer's remotes.
It was pretty easy to find the code to control my old TV. Power, Volume Up, Volume Down and Mute are all I really need. I thought I wanted "Input select" to work so that I can change HDMI ports, but nothing I did could get that remote button to work. Fortunately, the ODROID-C2 is the only input device I have, so no switching is needed. If I ever add a second HDMI device, it will probably require a revisit to the research process, to find a viable solution.
Armed with a list of a few hundred codes, I sought out a remote control device code that would send NEC codes for all the buttons. Frustration set in when I found that many devices supported in the Dish Network remote control would only send codes for a limited set of buttons. I had a really hard time finding one that would send codes on the 5 navigation buttons (up, down, left, right and center). Many codes would facilitate only 3 options (up/down/center or left/right/center), or 4 or 5 of the options. I finally found a Memorex DVD player (code 709) which offered all 5 navigation directions and all the number buttons on the remote. It would not send the '*', '#', Volume or Mute codes. The Volume and Mute codes are relegated to the TV code and so I can only control the TV Volume using the buttons, not the Android Volume.
Since the "number keys" are mostly useless for a TV box (except for channel numbers), I re-purposed them in the remote.conf to perform operations such as the Android Home, Android Volume Up/Down/Mute and Fast Forward/Reverse.
In my case, this is where I started searching the Dish Network 3.0 IR device codes looking for a suitable device. I set the device code in the remote, and hit the buttons to see if I got responses in dmesg. I tried many many codes until I was close enough to my requirements with the Memorex DVD code 709, which transmits remote type 0xff00.
This is where the fun begins. You need to press every button and see what code it sends, and note that. Then you need to figure out what you want it to do and find the Android action in the Vendor_0001_Product_0001.kl file that corresponds to the action you want the button to do. Finally, you need to get the Linux KEYCODE from Vendor_0001_Product_0001.kl that will be used to tie everything together.
Now glue everything together by updating remote.conf in the key_begin/key_end section and possibly in the repeat_key_begin/repeat_key_end section. I do not rely on key repeats, so my repeat_key_begin/repeat_key_end section is empty. Also, I am not relying on the mouse_begin/mouse_end section either.
Make a backup of Vendor_0001_Product_0001.kl and remote.conf by copying them to /storage/emulated/0/Download and make sure they are saved in the /system filesystem. If you upgrade Android, you may find that these files need restoration or your remote will not work anymore. Hope this is useful to at least one person. I will probably need to dig it up in the future so I can remember what I did. For comments, questions and suggestions, please visit the original forum post at
Roku TV, Android TV, Smart TV, AI TV, Google TV, Mini LED TV, QLED TV, and so forth are some of the marketing terms utilized by TV manufacturers nowadays. To be honest, it is tricky to tell the differences between them if you are not an expert in the field of television. To meet the more refined needs of consumers, the TV industry appears to have caught up with the rocket, making it difficult for people to decide which one will grace the living room or bedroom for years to come.
The Android TV and smart TV are so similar that you could argue that an Android TV is essentially a smart TV. Nevertheless, not all smart TVs are Android TVs. There are still some differences between a smart TV and an Android TV, which may influence your decision.
A Smart TV, often known as an Internet TV, is any television that can access additional programming via the internet. It is the equivalent of having a computer embedded in your television. Most Smart TVs have built-in apps that let you play games, watch videos, and stream movies, including Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, and others. However, the operating system on a Smart TV cannot be upgraded, so you cannot access the most recent apps. As a matter of fact, any TV that provides online content, no matter what operating system it runs, can be regarded as a smart TV. In this sense, Android TV is indeed a smart TV.
Smart TV and Android TV are inclusive relationships, meanwhile, Android TV has almost all the functions of smart TV but with the Android operating system powered by Google. Some TV manufacturers also have their own built-in operating system when launching smart TV. Similarly, if the operating system of a smart TV is Roku, we can call it Roku TV. TCL has cooperated with streaming media manufacturers such as Android and Roku; therefore, it is not surprising to hear about TCL Android TV and TCL Roku TV.
Although Android TV and smart TV support a number of popular applications, their numbers differ. Thanks to the support of the Android App Store, which contains more than 10,000 apps, it gives Android TV an absolute advantage in the application program. The considerable application library allows Android TV users to download and use a variety of applications, just like on smartphones. For example, everything from YouTube to Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video can be used on TCL Android TV.
As the development of Android TV is very active and the developers regularly push new updates to various applications, Android TV is superior to a smart TV in terms of updating applications and streaming media resources. In addition, connected with WiFi, Android TV offers the automatic update of applications, while it is difficult for smart TVs to get updates in this regard.
The advantage of the built-in Google assistant makes Android TV so outstanding in the function that users of Android TV can switch channels and search programs easily through voice control without any input device. In contrast, users of smart TVs have to enter content with a full-size keyboard. Even though many smart TVs support voice control, they have to be paired with a device such as Alexa to achieve this function.
Screen mirroring your favorite application directly to Android TV from an Android phone is possible due to the Google Assistant and built-in Chromecast (also known as Google cast). However, it is impossible to happen on a smart TV without other projection equipment, which means an additional cost and effort.
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