[mythtv-users] MythTV box setting its input source on a Samsung TV over IP

[John Pilkington]

On 19/05/2021 19:20, Stephen Worthington wrote:
> On Thu, 20 May 2021 06:04:06 +1200, you wrote:
> 
>> On Wed, 19 May 2021 18:45:44 +0100, you wrote:
>>
>>> On 19/05/2021 18:23, Stephen Worthington wrote:
>>>> On Wed, 19 May 2021 17:41:56 +0100, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone here tried using the Samsung IP interface to control their
>>>>> Samsung TV over the network?
>>>>>
>>>>> My MythTV hardware doesn't support CEC but I'd quite like to be able to
>>>>> turn the TV on and set it to the correct input for MythTV using my MythTV
>>>>> remote - I don't want to have to pick up two remotes.
>>>>>
>>>>> I know I could use a programmable or a 4-in-1 universal remote.  I have an
>>>>> old Harmony (525) but I don't really get on with it. It chews through
>>>>> batteries and uses soft-keys on a small LCD screen which I can't read very
>>>>> well.  So I use an old Media Centre Edition remote which I've got to quite
>>>>> like and I'd rather not buy another for what is really just a 'nice to
>>>>> have' feature.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've learned how to bind remote key presses to scripts on my MythTV box and
>>>>> I can turn the Television on by pressing a button which triggers a script
>>>>> to send the TV a Wake-on-LAN packet.
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem comes in setting the TV to the HDMI1 input.  It can't be done
>>>>> directly using the original Samsung remote.  You have to press the 'Source'
>>>>> key and then use the arrow keys to navigate around an array of buttons
>>>>> representing the various input sources. Samsung make this harder by
>>>>> re-arranging the buttons each time depending on history.
>>>>>
>>>>> However it can be done directly using my Harmony remote.  There are HDMI1,
>>>>> HDMI2 etc soft keys on the little LCD which take the TV directly to the
>>>>> specified input source.  So I was hopeful that I'd be able to do the same
>>>>> thing using the IP interface.  I've installed the python based samsungctl
>>>>> application on my MythTV box and got it working.  I can send KEY_VOLUP to
>>>>> turn the volume up, and KEY_SOURCE to bring up the array of source buttons
>>>>> on the TV and lots of other fun stuff.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sadly though, the key commands KEY_HDMI1, KEY_HDMI2 which are listed in the
>>>>> documentation don't seem to do anything.  I can send KEY_HDMI, which steps
>>>>> around the available HDMI ports and I guess I should be happy with that,
>>>>> but I just believe Samsung must have provided an HDMIn command, if only I
>>>>> knew what it was.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any ideas?
>>>>
>>>> If the Harmony can do it, it may be that the code it sends via IR will
>>>> also work over the IP interface.  So is it possible to get the source
>>>> code of the table the Harmony uses for your TV?
>>>>
>>> As I recall, programming the Harmony remotes (I have a 525, no longer in use) involves replicating
>>> keystrokes as though you are using the TV's remote; and everything being in known states.
>>>
>>> For your source, have you tried just hitting 'source' more than once? For my use that also stepped
>>> through the different sources just as your HDMI button does. Of course that relies on your source
>>> list being static and being in a known position at the start. Harmony knows that as it did the
>>> previous source selection and so on.
>>>
>>> For your setup I think that, unless you can find the HDMIn codes, you are SOL.
>>
>> This looks to be the table of IR codes for Samsung TVs:
>>
>> http://www.awe-europe.com/documents/Control%20Docs/Samsung/Samsung_Discrete_IR_Commands_tested.doc
> 
> And this looks like it is the official Samsung TV API reference:
> 
> https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/legacy-platform-library/api00004/appcommon_175.html

I have been wondering if I ought to respond to this thread, because I 
have encountered problems, which are not yet resolved, in the 
interaction of my old 'smart' Panasonic TV with MythTV master branch 
frontend, HDMI inputs and an Amazon FireTVstick 4K.  The current state 
of play is that I have one TV that is effectively 'bricked' and on a 
second 'identical' TV I have only used Myth in DLNA playback mode.

'Myth-connected TV does not reliably wake from standby'
https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/issues/325

It could well be that TV1 is just 'old', and there are known problems 
with related models.   I have made 'consumer' enquiries and tried 
googled 'cures' without success, but have not really attempted a 
thorough debug.   Maybe there is API documentation somewhere out there...

John P

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