I am developing an Android TV application and I want to access the live video coming from an external set-top box connected to the TV's HDMI port.

My setup is:

Set-top box → HDMI cable → Xiaomi Android TV (HDMI 2) → My Android application

The set-top box does not run my application. My application runs directly on the Android TV.

My requirement is to get the HDMI input video into my Android application so that I can display it and potentially process the video.

Device information:

• Xiaomi A Pro QLED 32"

• Model: MiTV-AXFU0

• Codename: arctictale

• Android 14

• Amlogic SoC

• Build: UKG3.241124.001

• Firmware: V816.0.26.5.27.1.UXFAATV

I have confirmed that the TV exposes its HDMI inputs through the Android TV Input Framework.

For example, HDMI 2 appears as:

com.droidlogic.tvinput/.services.Hdmi2InputService/HW6

I first tried using TvView with the HDMI passthrough input. TvView.tune() succeeds and the Surface becomes valid, but the Surface remains black and my application does not receive the HDMI video.

I then investigated TvInputManager and found this API:

TvInputManager.acquireTvInputHardware()

I tried calling it from my application, but it currently fails with the following exception:

java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException

Caused by:
java.lang.NullPointerException
    at com.android.internal.util.Preconditions.checkNotNull(Preconditions.java:147)
    at android.media.tv.TvInputManager.acquireTvInputHardware(TvInputManager.java:2472)

I understand that acquireTvInputHardware() may be restricted to system/privileged applications, so I am not sure whether this is the correct API for my use case.

I am trying to understand what realistic options exist for getting the physical HDMI input into an application running on the same Android TV.

I have considered the following possibilities:

1. Android TV Input Framework / TvView

2. TvInputManager / TvInputHardware

3. A vendor-specific Amlogic HDMI-RX API

4. Amlogic/DroidLogic framework APIs

5. Native Amlogic libraries

6. Linux device nodes such as /dev/hdmirx0

7. V4L2 or another Linux video capture interface

8. Making the application a system/privileged application

9. Root access

10. A custom system image or firmware

11. Accessing or communicating with the existing DroidLogic HDMI input service

12. Any other vendor-specific mechanism

I am willing to use a system/privileged application or root access if that is technically required.

I am not looking for a USB HDMI capture device.

I specifically want to use the TV's built-in HDMI receiver:

External HDMI source → TV HDMI input → Android application

My main question is:

Is there any way to get the live video frames from a physical HDMI-IN port into a custom Android application running on the same Android TV?

If this is possible on Amlogic/DroidLogic TVs, I would appreciate information about the relevant API, service, native library, device node, permission, system-app requirement, or example implementation.

If it is not possible, I would also like to understand why. For example, is the HDMI video completely handled inside the vendor TV-input/video pipeline and never exposed to applications?

I am mainly looking for the correct architecture or API, rather than specifically asking how to fix the NullPointerException above.