Channels Carbon Theme

[speedingcheetah]

Yea. I really wish the devs would consider theme support.
Or at the least, a dark/ black mode that would make many OLED tv owners happy.

[AtoZ0to9]

UPDATED TO 502220233

HOW TO MANUALLY UPDATE THE LATEST BETA WITH THE CARBON THEME
Or maybe even get playful, and create something fantastic

Preparation:

Ensure you have a proper Java environment setup by downloading and configuring both Java JDK and JRE

WINDOWS:

Install the following apps:
APK Easy Toots 1.6 Portable
Beyond Compare (OPTIONAL)

LINUX:

You will have to setup a Java environment and use apktool.jar from the command line to decompile / recompile .APK files

Download the latest Beta .apk to your computer from:
https://cdn.channelsdvr.net/android/ChannelsBeta.apk

Download the modified files from the original post

Decompile the xxxxx.apk with APK Easy Tools by clicking the Decompile button:

You can find the extracted files in the /1-Decompiled APKs/ folder if you would like to poke around.
The files we are interested in are in some of the subfolders contained in the /res folder

Overwrite the original files with the modified files in the decompiled beta xxxxx.apk's /res/ respective subfolders manually or with Beyond Compare.

I use Beyond Compare because I open the left side as the previous version I modified and the right side is the new version, compare contents, then manually select the files with Ctrl-Click on the left side and merge them over by right clicking and choosing "Copy to Right Side"

NOTE: IF YOU ARE GOING TO USE BEYOND COMPARE, TRYING TO SELECT ALL FROM THE DROP DOWN MENUS AND COPY ALL AT ONCE DOES NOT WORK, YOU MUST MANUALLY SELECT THEM, THEN RIGHT CLICK, AND 'COPY TO RIGHT SIDE'

Recompile the .apk with APK Easy Tools by clicking the compile button:

Once recompiled, the APK will be found in the /1-Recompiled APKs/ directory.

Copy the newly compiled xxxxx.apk to your playback device's storage and install it by opening the file with a file manager.

PROFIT

[AtoZ0to9]

@tobycth3

I sent the Devs a list of colors and that were touched/ replaced back when I made my Metro Blue theme. That same list could be used to specify variables instead of colors for customization.

I really enjoyed your theme, and wish you would update it. The problem with the color names etc is it's Apple first, and must be portable to Android. Maybe you found a better way, but some of the color names, one color would control 2 elements I want to change to 2 different colors and ended up having to change more than just the colors file. Your idea would work for Android, but not iOS, and we aren't first

[jkr4m3r]

@AtoZ0to9

APK Easy Toots 1.6 Portable

I chuckled.

[tobycth3]

@AtoZ0to9

I really enjoyed your theme, and wish you would update it.

It has been a while. I think I'll need to dust off the ol apk decompiler this week.

I've been rocking the stock app recently but after my family made fun of my Barney TV during the super bowl, the purple has to go.

[speedingcheetah]

@AtoZ0to9 This may affect your mod

Alpha: modernizing the UI underpinnings of the Android app

In order to modernize our Android app and keep up with the latest Google requirements, we are working on a major upgrade to how the various UI elements in the app work. This should be a seamless change from the user perspective, but a lot of code has to be touched so there may be bugs introduced. We are publishing an alpha build which applies the new UI framework to the video player and some other views around the app. If you would like to help us test, please update to latest beta then install…

[AtoZ0to9]

@speedingcheetah

This may affect your mod

Probably. But it's all good. I'll theme that one too. I will probably wait until it's further along in development and if I ever get some free time. I messed up and took a job as a Comcast contractor.... My whole life is Comcast now...

[AtoZ0to9]

I'm hoping that the colors will be managed more independently, meaning that if each UI Element had a specific color associated with it, even if that color exists elsewhere, it would be waaay easy to change anything to any color you want, and someone more experienced than me can write a program to load the colors file from the decompiled .APK and have a nice interface to choose new colors, and descriptions of what is what UI element, etc.

I may have a look at it today some

[AtoZ0to9]

Updated to 3.13.1651

Also, I finally setup remote access to the computer I mod the app on, so updates will be more frequent.

[AtoZ0to9]

Bump to 3.22.1228

Filesynced is no more, it corrupts the download sometimes

[wmubronco81]

It appears the Google Drive link to the new .apk file is not working correctly.

[AtoZ0to9]

I'll have a look today, update it.

[wmubronco81]

Thanks! Appreciate your work. So much better than purple!

[AtoZ0to9]

Correct, the link is broken. I didn't delete the file from my Drive and this has happened several times before when I knew I didn't delete it. Google is removing it after some time for some reason. (perhaps the developers are requesting that it be) @tmm1

Also, something has changed. The latest beta will not decompile with the methods I have been using. Perhaps the android framework in the app has been updated, and my apktool.jar doesn't support it. Investigating.

EDIT - upgrading to apktool2.9.3.jar has decompiled it

[AtoZ0to9]

so much code has changed since I themed it last that I may be starting over, or at least backtracking some. I believe the developers are having my themed version removed from my drive, and purposely changed enough code to throw a hitch in our themes.

testers are welcome, DM me

[AtoZ0to9]

CONFIRMED

This is a decompile of the current beta .apk then a recompile changing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I don't care about your PC responses @maddox and @tmm1

You're going to blame me for not being able to successfully decompile then recompile the .apk with zero changes? I don't buy that. If anything, I'm wrong, and it wasn't on purpose, BUT, your code will not recompile. NOT MINE

Decompiling APK file... (Press ESC to cancel)
Command: java.exe -jar "C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\Apktool\apktool_2.9.3.jar" d -f --only-main-classes -o "C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\1-Decompiled APKs\channels-dvr-504251016" "C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\channels-dvr-504251016.apk"

I: Using Apktool 2.9.3 on channels-dvr-504251016.apk
I: Loading resource table...
I: Decoding file-resources...
I: Loading resource table from file: C:\Users\Motherfucker\AppData\Local\apktool\framework\1.apk
I: Decoding values / XMLs...
I: Decoding AndroidManifest.xml with resources...
I: Regular manifest package...
I: Baksmaling classes.dex...
I: Baksmaling classes2.dex...
I: Copying assets and libs...
I: Copying unknown files...
I: Copying original files...
I: Copying META-INF/services directory
Decompile successful.

Compiling APK file... (Press ESC to cancel)
Command: java.exe -jar "C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\Apktool\apktool_2.9.3.jar" b -f --use-aapt2 -o "C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\2-Recompiled APKs\channels-dvr-504251016.apk" "C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\1-Decompiled APKs\channels-dvr-504251016"

I: Using Apktool 2.9.3
I: Smaling smali folder into classes.dex...
I: Smaling smali_classes2 folder into classes2.dex...
I: Building resources...
W: C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\1-Decompiled APKs\channels-dvr-504251016\res\values\styles.xml:1449: error: expected dimension but got (raw string) -1.
W: C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\1-Decompiled APKs\channels-dvr-504251016\res\values\styles.xml:1758: error: expected enum but got (raw string) 0.
W: error: failed linking references.
brut.androlib.exceptions.AndrolibException: brut.common.BrutException: could not exec (exit code = 1): [C:\Users\MOTHER~1\AppData\Local\Temp\brut_util_Jar_180943365676384153248419474167225571761.tmp, link, -o, C:\Users\MOTHER~1\AppData\Local\Temp\APKTOOL11345980231001034739.tmp, --package-id, 127, --min-sdk-version, 22, --target-sdk-version, 33, --version-code, 504251016, --version-name, 4.6.7-v504251016, --no-auto-version, --no-version-vectors, --no-version-transitions, --no-resource-deduping, --allow-reserved-package-id, --no-compile-sdk-metadata, --warn-manifest-validation, -e, C:\Users\MOTHER~1\AppData\Local\Temp\APKTOOL6514666542113380398.tmp, -0, arsc, -I, C:\Users\Motherfucker\AppData\Local\apktool\framework\1.apk, --manifest, C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\1-Decompiled APKs\channels-dvr-504251016\AndroidManifest.xml, C:\Users\Motherfucker\Downloads\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\APK_Easy_Tool_v1.60_Portable\1-Decompiled APKs\channels-dvr-504251016\build\resources.zip]
Compile failed. Please read the log

[tmm1]

We have not requested anything from Google.

As you can see on the release notes we are upgrading Android Studio dependencies as required to continue operating in the Google play store. Probably apktool doesn't work with newer Android studio yet.

[AtoZ0to9]

Then this is probably dead, I don't have as much time to work on it. Close the thread please.

[AtoZ0to9]

not current, just the last easily accessible version. if anyone wants to try theming the app, instructions are in the first post

ChannelsCarbon.apk

@tmm1

please close this thread