Chrome app to control a Samsung TV over LAN/Wi-Fi. Should work on most modern Samsung TVs (those that are either plasma, LCD or LED, and were manufactured around 2010 or later) that are connected to the network. Get it on Chrome Web Store, or watch a short video on how it works.
Not maintained.
Chrome Apps are deprecated on non-ChromeOS platforms, so this app won't run on Linux/Mac/Windows anymore. In addition, since I don't own a Samsung TV anymore, I can't even test this app.
Feel free to fork this project, study it, modify it. You may also be interested in SamRemote for Android.
- Open-source!
- Multiple button layouts: choose the one that is most suited to you!
- Flexible size: the window is resizable and the contents will adapt to any size.
- Macro support: a single button can send a sequence of key presses to the TV (e.g. raise the volume 4 times).
- Option to keep the window always on top.
- Option to display the window on all workspaces (on platforms that support it, i.e. anything but Windows).
- Chrome sync: the options are saved in your Google account.
- Tabbing navigation.
This is the list of planned features, but there is no schedule to when they will be implemented. In fact, there is not even a promise.
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Allow custom layouts written by the user.
- A
textareawhere the user can input a JSON (or JSON-ish) definition of the button layout. - Write documentation regarding the JSON layout definition.
- A
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Allow inline SVG data in the layout definition.
- This will allow embedding a custom SVG inside the JSON data entered by the user.
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Split the code into two parts: the UI-handling code and the protocol-handling code.
- This is the first step towards writing a Chrome extension.
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I18n, multiple languages.
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Keyboard-input mode, where keyboard keys are mapped to Samsung TV keys (e.g. using keyboard arrows to navigate menus at the TV).
- Is this useful enough to justify the added complexity in the UI and in the code? Personally, I don't think so.
Q: Why does it require permission to Exchange data with any computer on the local network or internet?
- Because that's exactly what it does. See also the next questions.
Q: How does it work?
- Most modern Samsung TV can be connected to the network. Such TVs also implement a proprietary protocol to receive commands over the network, such protocol is used by Samsung mobile apps to let the user control the TV with a mobile phone. There is no official documentation on this protocol. The implementation in this project is based on the reverse-engineering efforts by other people. Not all payloads were previously documented, and I had to do some (minor?) reverse-engineering by myself to understand what they mean; but without an official documentation it is impossible to be sure I got the meaning right. The code has been written from scratch in JavaScript.
Q: Why is this packaged as a Chrome app? Couldn't it run directly from a web page in the browser?
- The protocol to communicate with Samsung TVs is proprietary, the remote control application must have access to a TCP socket to implement such protocol. A web page is restricted to HTTP requests, there is no support for sockets with arbitrary protocols. The so-called WebSockets are not a real socket: they have a specific protocol that is based on HTTP.
Q: Why is it a Chrome app instead of a Chrome extension?
- Because Chrome apps have access to additional APIs (such as
chrome.sockets.tcp) that are not available to Chrome extensions.
Q: But I want an icon on the Chrome toolbar!
- Chrome includes APIs to let extensions/apps communicate with each other. Thus, it should be possible to write a Chrome extension that handles the user interaction (i.e. shows the buttons to the user), but ends up calling a Chrome app to handle the protocol in the background. This split architecture (app + extension) requires more code to be written, as well as refactoring the current code. This is why it is not implemented (yet).
Q: Why can't this remote control automatically detect the IP address of the TV?
- Because such feature is not implemented (yet). It will require studying how to implement it, and probably will require either implementing UPnP or doing a network scan. And, of course, also building the user interface for such feature.
Q: This remote control was working before, but now it is not working anymore!
- Check if the IP address of your TV has changed. You may want to set a fixed IP address for your TV (you can configure it at your router).
Q: How do I authorize/revoke network remote controls?
- At the TV, go to Menu → System → Network Remote Control.
Q: I don't like the existing button layouts, can I make one?
- For now, if you make a new layout, you have and submit it to this project and I have to deploy it to everyone. In the future, I want to allow custom layouts written by the user.
Q: Why is the window rectangular? I wish it had rounded corners. Or that it had the exact shape of the SVG drawing of the layout.
Q: This is awesome!
- Thanks! If you are feeling generous, consider making a donation. You know, it is a virtual equivalent of "buying me a beer".
The packaged app includes public domain drawings by FrancescoPallucchini and AshKyd.
Promotional images include public domain clipart by hellocatfood, Keistutis, Ehecatl1138, mightyman.
The options window uses http://purecss.io/ as the base CSS.