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Samsung Smart TV integration for Gladys Assistant

Samsung Smart TV integration for Gladys Assistant

Control your Samsung Smart TVs (Tizen) over the local network: power, volume, mute and input source.

Control your Samsung televisions (Tizen, 2016 models onwards) from Gladys, entirely over the local network: no Samsung account, nothing going through the cloud.

What the integration exposes

FeatureDetail
PowerTurns the TV off, and wakes it up with Wake-on-LAN
VolumeA 0 to 100 % slider, showing the level actually read back from the TV
Volume up / downOne volume step, like the remote
MuteSet or cleared, never toggled blindly
SourceTV, HDMI, and the installed apps when the TV reports them

Setup

  1. Turn your television on, then open the Discovery tab and run a scan. It shows up under its own name ("Samsung AU7025 55 TV", for instance). Create it.

    A TV in standby shuts its network interface down: it answers nothing and no scan can find it. A scan that comes back empty is almost always a television that is off — switch it on and scan again.

  2. Run a first command, Volume up for example. The TV then displays an authorization prompt for "Gladys": accept it with the remote. This happens only once, the token is kept afterwards.

If the TV asks nothing and commands keep failing, check that Settings → General → External Device Manager → Device Connection Manager still allows new devices.

Turning the TV back on

A TV that is off answers nothing on the network: the only way in is Wake-on-LAN, a packet Gladys emits towards its MAC address. This requires the wake-on-network option to be enabled on the TV, under Settings → General → Network → Expert settings → Power On with Mobile (the wording varies across models).

Over Wi-Fi this wake-up depends on the model and is not guaranteed by every television. If turning on does not work while the option is enabled, an Ethernet link makes it reliable. Turning off always works.

To find out where you stand, turn the TV off, then run ping <TV IP address> from any machine on the network:

  • the TV still answers: its network interface stays alive in standby, and Wake-on-LAN has every chance of working;
  • the TV answers nothing at all: it shut its network interface down, no packet can reach it any more and the wake-up will fail. That is the symptom of a disabled wake-on-network option — enable it, then run the test again.

Sources and applications

TV and HDMI are always offered: they are remote-control keys, present on every model.

The list of installed applications is requested from the TV during the scan, but several recent models (2021 and later) ignore that request. When that happens only TV and HDMI show up — that is expected behaviour, not a failure. Run a new scan after installing an app: if your model answers, it will be added.

How it works

Three channels, each for what it does best:

  • the TV REST API (port 8001) reports the power state, read on every refresh;
  • UPnP RenderingControl (port 9197) reads and writes the volume level and the mute state, with no token involved;
  • the remote-control WebSocket (port 8002) carries key presses, the only part needing the authorization.

The pairing token is kept in the integration's /data volume: it survives restarts and container updates.

Configuration settings

These are the settings Samsung Smart TV asks for in its configuration screen in Gladys.

SettingTypeRequiredDescription
Finding your TVsectionNoTurn the television ON before running a scan from the Discovery tab. A TV in standby cuts its network interface off: it answers nothing, and no scan can find it. If the scan comes back empty, switch the TV on, wait a few seconds, and scan again.
Before you startsectionNoTwo settings on the TV itself matter. The first time Gladys sends a command, the TV asks you to authorize it: accept on screen, this happens only once. To turn the TV back ON, Gladys sends a Wake-on-LAN packet, which requires the wake-on-network option to be enabled on the TV (Settings > General > Network > Expert settings).
Refresh intervalselectNoHow often the power state, volume and mute are read back from the TV.

How to install Samsung Smart TV in Gladys

  1. In Gladys, open Integrations: Samsung Smart TV appears in the catalog, next to the native integrations, with a community badge.
  2. Click Install. Gladys pulls the Docker image (ghcr.io/cicoub13/gladys-samsung-tv:1.0.1), starts it in a sandbox isolated from the core, and generates the integration's interface (devices, discovery and configuration).
  3. Open the Configuration screen of the integration, fill in the settings, and save.
  4. You can also install it directly from its repository URL: https://github.com/cicoub13/gladys-samsung-tv.

Samsung Smart TV requires Gladys >=4.86.0. The catalog inside Gladys refreshes every hour, so a new version becomes available at most one hour after its release.

Not running Gladys yet? It is free and open source: follow the installation guide to get started.

About external integrations

Samsung Smart TV is an external integration: a community integration packaged as a Docker container and published on GitHub, that Gladys installs in one click and runs in a sandbox isolated from its core. It is published and maintained by cicoub13, not by the Gladys core team.

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