So this is how I solved it for my particular TV (A Bravia KJ-65X8500D running Android 5.1.1)
First off I found a 3rd party homescreen program called HAL Launcher which I installed. It works as an app but it's not the app the home button on the remote goes to. It has the option to make it so but that option stopped working android 5 something.
To solve that problem I downloaded and installed Android Studio from Google.
Then I followed these instructions for connecting my computer to the TV. They can be summarized as follows
Enable Developer mode
- Press Home and select Settings.
- In the TV rowselect About.
- Scroll down to and click on Build seven times until "You are now a developer" appears. (note: at 5 clicks a different message will appear. Keep clicking
- Press Home (do NOT skip this step)
Enable ADB Debugging
Select Settings
In the System Preferences row, select Developer options
Select Debugging
Select ADB Debugging
Select On.
Get the IP address of your TV
Press Home
select Network Settings.
Pick wifi or wired and note the IP address
Connect ADB
Make sure your TV and your computer are connected to the same local network.
On your computer type
adb connect <TV IP address>:5555
For example my TV's address was 10.0.0.13 so I typed
adb connect 10.0.0.13:5555
The TV will ask if it's ok for your computer to connect. Select Always allow from this computer and select OK.
Hide Leanback
Now that adb
is connected you can hide the launcher
This part I got from here.
On your computer type
adb shell pm hide com.google.android.leanbacklauncher
If you want to undo it type
adb shell pm unhide com.google.android.leanbacklauncher
NOTE: if adb
is not in your path find in on your computer (it's installed with Android Studio) and cd
to that folder then use ./adb
or .\adb
on windows
At this point HAL Launcher
comes up when I press the HOME button on my remote which means the offensive ads are gone! YAY!