Samsung produces excellent TVs for commercial usage in Sports Bars and Restaurants.
myServer 6 provides easy integration into the control system for reliable control.
There are two drivers to covers most of the Samsung IP controlled TVs (install the correct driver for the TV):
- Tizen (does not support Video Source discrete selection but "guesses" at the right HDMI input)
- TVs that have ports 1515 / 1516 open (non Tizen and most of the commercial TVs - supports discrete Video Source selection)
Prep the TV(s):
On newer Tizen OS TVs (about 2018 and newer), you need to enable "External Device Manager"
Settings -> General -> External Device Manager
-> Device Connection Manager
-> Device List
You have to click on iPhone/iPad item to choose Allow
You should confirm that the authenication notification is set for "First Time Only".
For myServer to turn On the TV, you have to enable Wake On Lan support. Go to Settings / General / Network / Expert Settings and turn on "Power on with Mobile". Restart the TV to ensure all settings are active. (NOTE: WOL will not work via WiFi if myServer is on ethernet so no Power On will work)
On some Samsung TVs:
Go to Control Panel > System > Power > Wake-on-LAN (WOL). Select Enable or Disable.
If you see "External IP Control" (or some words like that), then the TV might support the non Tizen driver - use that and uninstall the Tizen driver. Enable IP control.
Driver Installation (Only applies if you are doing the myServer 6 configuration. Typically Allonis does this for commercial installations):
Download the Samsung Tizen TV driver or the standard Samsung driver from the myServer 6 Software Updater. The driver will self install.
Go to the Drivers section and select Configure for the Samsung Tizen driver.
The supported commands are listed in the Commands drop down list.
The easiest way to add a TV to control is to enable External Control on the TV, and then click the Discovery button in the driver. You will see in the driver myServer scanning all IP addresses on all active NIC (ethernet and Wifi ports) for any TVs that the driver should support. This will then auto add discovered TVs to the driver's list of configured TVs. Once added, you can edit the TV device's Alias Name for easy identification. For installations that have many TVs, use a logical naming convention like "TV1, TV2, TV3....". You should also name the TVs in the order they are to be displayed, which should also be the order the TVs are installed into the video matrix switch (if used).
You can also use the manual AddTV command to add an Samsung TV to the network. Enter the TV's IP address, MAC address including colons between value pairs (for Wake On Lan), and the friendly name of the TV (your choice).
Once the TV is properly added, next run the PAIR command for each TV. This will request an authentication token from the TV.
Soon, you should see a Device management popup on the TV. Accept the connection from "Allonis" using the TV remote control device.
You should now be able to send commands to the TV from myServer. Note that some commands only work when the TV is on certain screens or activities.
To control power to individual Samsung TVs in the Sportsbar template:
Add to the api call on the scroller object in myDesigner 6:
/api/getpowercontrols?driver=samsungtizen,lgwebos (omit lgwebos if only samsung TVs are uses)
Commercial Samsung TVs:
Conflicting information from Samsung advises to use the BET-HU driver.
Experience has show that the Tizen Driver works fine for the BET-HU series.
You may not be able to select discrete HDMI ports. You may have to use the HDMI command to rotate through the available Inputs (TV Tuner / HDMI1, HDMI2 etc.)
Older Samsung TVs:
For 2016+ Samsung IP TVs, they support the "SamsungTVDriver" on port 55000.
Draft content below:
Older Samsung TVs (~2015 back) can be controlled via RS232. There will be either a DB-9 or a minijack depending on TV model. Both should use the same protocol so other than wiring differences, the myServer 6 Samsung driver should support both.
When a serial controlled Samsung TV is used with a matrix, the TV can be addressed using 1-99. The Samsung Driver can then address the command that the appropriate TV will respond to. The TVs are wired with their "serial Out" jack wired to the next TV's "serial In" jack in a daisy chain. Only one serial com port is then needed for up to 99 TVs. If each TV is wired to the central equipment rack (and not daisy chained), then you will need a serial com port for each TV which adds additional hardware.