Hello everyone,
I just published an external integration to control Samsung TVs (Tizen, 2016 models and later) from Gladys, entirely locally: no Samsung account, nothing going through the cloud. It should be available in the store within 1 hour.
What it exposes
- Power — turn off and wake-on-LAN
- Volume — a real 0-100% slider, with the level read from the TV
- Volume + / − and Mute
- Source — TV, HDMI, and installed apps when the TV declares them
The TV is found automatically: a scan from the Discovery tab and it appears under its name.
Technical
The technical choice that surprised me
I thought everything would go through the remote control’s WebSocket, like Home Assistant does. Problem: this channel only carries key presses. It can send « volume + », but it cannot set or read a level. Impossible to have a reliable volume slider with this.
The solution was elsewhere: these TVs expose a MediaRenderer UPnP whose RenderingControl service responds… without any authentication. Absolute volume and mute in read and write, without pairing.
So the integration combines three channels, each for what they do best: the TV’s REST API for the on/off state, UPnP for volume and mute, and the WebSocket only for key presses — the only one that requires screen authorization, once and for all.
Two settings to know on the TV side
- At the first command, the TV displays an authorization request: accept it on screen, it only happens once.
- For wake-up, you need to enable network wake-up (Settings → General → Network → Expert Settings → Enable with mobile). On Wi-Fi, the TV completely shuts down its network interface when idle and no packet can reach it. On Ethernet it’s reliable.
Feedback welcome
Tested on a UE55AU7025KXXC. Other Tizen models should work, but I’m open to feedback — especially on the list of apps, which my 2021 model refuses to communicate (only TV and HDMI appear, which remains usable).
