TL;DR: People are using coding agents to give existing TVs simpler home screens, fewer unwanted background apps and more personal features. Several owners have shared working examples this month. The useful development is affordable customisation; the speed and privacy claims still need careful reading.

Three TVs, three different goals

• Gathin, October 17: His parents' Xiaomi TV showed a sponsored ad before they could reach Netflix. He says Claude Code helped disable 25 packages and build a replacement home screen. That experiment became the open-source CleanYourTV project.
• Ryan Doyle, October 16: His version adds a screensaver with weather, a calendar and business notifications. He describes giving Claude his TV's product listing and having it guide the changes. The appeal here is a screen fitted to its owner, beyond simply removing clutter.
• Benjamin, October 23: After seeing other people try this, he worked on an older TCL set that had become unpleasant to watch. He reports disabling 32 services and replacing the home screen with landscapes, a clock and four favourite apps. His before-and-after figures put idle CPU use at 61% → 12%, and free memory at 451 → 720 MB. Those are his measurements on one set, not a general benchmark.

Original accounts, including their pictures:
x.com/gathint/status/2111379569030939102
x.com/doooyle/status/2111196679680540724
x.com/mazaki_eth/status/2113737610610831765

What is actually being changed?

CleanYourTV uses Android's existing debugging tools to save settings, disable selected packages and install a small launcher—the app behind the home screen. Its documented approach does not require root access or flashing replacement firmware. It records changes so they can be reversed.

The platform matters. Its main route targets Android TV and Google TV. The documentation limits Fire TV to the cleanup portion, with exceptions even there. Samsung's Tizen and LG's webOS need different approaches. A successful TCL makeover is not evidence that an arbitrary television supports the same changes.

Project and current compatibility notes:
github.com/Gathin23/cleanyourtv

The response has become more interesting than one makeover

The project's showcase links to separately maintained home screens and adaptations: a walnut bookshelf where apps become books, a prayer-times display, and launchers shaped around local weather or particular remotes. These are concrete signs that people are adapting the work to their own homes. They are also separate projects with their own limitations; inclusion in the showcase is not a code review.

Browse those variations:
github.com/Gathin23/cleanyourtv/blob/main/SHOWCASE.md

Where the evidence stops

Owner reports and photographs establish something narrower than the most enthusiastic headlines suggest. They do not establish a universal speed increase, durable compatibility after every update, or the absence of all tracking. A cleaner launcher alone cannot demonstrate what the underlying TV firmware and streaming apps send over the network.

For anyone considering a similar change, the useful questions are model-specific: what was disabled, what still works, and how the recorded changes are restored. The exact hardware and recovery notes matter more than a sweeping “hack any TV” promise.

My read: this is a compelling example of AI-assisted work because the result is so ordinary and useful—a familiar device arranged around the people who use it. The longer-term story will be whether those personal improvements stay maintainable after the initial afternoon of tinkering.