@matt1 Binding ? Cool! URL please ?
Not sure what it allows you to do.
I would’t select my TV based on this as I doubt you’ll really need or benefit from these features, they’re hard to reliably find out, subject to change, and most noteworthy, a number of (better) alternatives exist for zapping, browsing and notifiying.
It diverts you away from focusing on the more important aspects and severely limits choices.
[ I actually speak from my experience as I, too, had a bunch of “important” criteria for my new TV that really turned out not to be that, while underrating other “classic” ones such as HDR, HDMI ARC and CEC compatibility and personal(!) assessment of picture quality.
Now with streaming contents, I’m happy to have these. HDR makes for a real difference. ]
My Samsung has an Ethernet jack that works with WakeOnLAN, allowing for remote ON.
This is really the most important feature IMHO when it comes to home automation.
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Thanks guys. I forgot that another important one is to be able to open a browser to view a camera stream. But I think this is supported by all modern TV currently; am I correct?
The other things is the TV OS. LG and Samsung have their own TV OS. The rest runs Android. I am not sure how often the TV android OS is updated. Would you guys pick say Sony with Android OS over LG WebOS?
@rpwong I didn’t know about the Harmony Hub and the Rm Mini until you mentioned. Very nifty functionality. The Rm Mini has 360 degree IR transmission. The only thing is that it’s Chinese made and require cloud. If I am to use it, I will have to figure out how to get that working while disabling its Internet access. Definitely is cheaper than the Harmony though.
Fyi - sony binding does all you need (with the exception of text overlay) - check out Sony Devices Binding
This is in the process of being reviewed for a merge btw…
EDIT: make sure you get one with an ethernet port. You’ll be able to setup the TV to wake on lan (which the binding supports). Do not go with wireless only (that is powered down when off)
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In fact my TV does turn on over wifi from “Video and TV SideView” app.
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I have two 2018 (I think) LG TVs. Quite happy with them
- Wake on lan to turn on. You can turn it off too
- Able to change channel, launch specific app, or set to input (hdmi 1/2/3)
- able to change volume
- You can launch a browser url
tv = actions.get("lgwebos", "lgwebos:WebOSTV:living")
tv.launchBrowser("https://www.openhab.org")
- You can overlay text / display a message for several seconds
LG_TV0_Toast.sendCommand("Hello World")
or
actions.showToast("Hello World")
- no chromecast on mine (2018). Maybe the newer ones have it?
- has ethernet port (100mbps), wifi, bluetooth, usb port
- hdmi cec
Checkout the binding https://www.openhab.org/addons/bindings/lgwebos/
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Thanks @JimT. My only concern is that ConnectSdk which the binding depends on is no longer maintained. It looks like LG has dropped this effort. It is possible that a future WebOS update will break more functionality.
I wasn’t aware of that issue with connectsdk. Perhaps try asking @sprehn about the future of the binding.
lol - I heard they started that in the newer TVs (is yours like 2019+?). If it works in the sideview app, it will work in the sony addon as well…
I love that LG often tries out interesting new ideas. I hate that those ideas are often half-baked and quickly abandoned. This sentiment applies mostly to their phone business, but it makes it hard for me to trust their products. That being said, they’re producing some really fantastic displays.
When you say “able to change different channel”, do you mean using the TV’s built-in tuner or an external cable/satellite box?
If OH commands are sent to the RM Mini 3 over your local network (which I believe to be the case), you can probably block its Internet access in your router after setting it up. However, you might need the cloud in order to configure it (as is the case with the Harmony Hub).
The Harmony Hub Companion goes on sale pretty frequently in Canada (I live in Victoria). The Companion remote is excellent, and runs for a long time on a coin-cell battery. I also have a Harmony Hub Elite, and the large remote is uncomfortable to hold, clumsy to use, and has to live in its charging base.
The downside of an IR remote is that it’s one-way, so OH doesn’t get any feedback from the TV. In practice, I’ve never found that to be an issue. Since my hubs sit right next to the TVs and blast them with powerful IR beams, commands never fail. For better or worse, there’s a reason that IR is still widely used.
@rpwong It’s a more than just TV tunner channel. Could be input source (HDMI) as well as browser.
Here’s one use case I have in mind:
- Motion sensor in the Porch area is triggered.
- Monitor rule will kick in to alert of activity outside the house.
- If the TV is currently on, overlay a message. User can switch to the camera stream manually.
- If the TV wasn’t on, and if there is someone close to the TV (presence), turn it on and switch over to the camera stream. 5 minutes later, turn it off.
Right now, I send an alert and play TTS over a Google Home audio device. But above is what can be done to automate the viewing of the camera stream on the TV.
I have in mind.
Although you can’t specify overlay messages on sony without installing an app (and using it’s API). The sony one could…
- Motion sensor in porch triggered
- Rule kicks in
- If TV is on, switch to picture-in-picture mode and switch the PIP window to showing the camera stream (you could even specify where to popup the PIP window [so maybe upper right for normal PIP and upper left for camera alert PIP])
- If TV is off, turn it on and switch to camera stream
EDIT: if you really wanted some weird stuff, you could also strobe or pulse the power led on the TV as well or any number of other things (play some tune, etc)
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Yes, it is 2019 model. Sorry, too lazy to look at its back and name the exact model. Too bulky to move.
It actually works not only with Sideview, but they (like other vendors) have some fun with implementing mouse input in a non-standard way, so common Android TV remote control apps can’t feed in pointer input. Sideview can.
I asked about an external TV tuner specifically because that’s more challenging than changing the input source or the built-in tuner. It’s mostly just to clarify your original requirement so that you don’t have any surprises.
From what @tmrobert8 is saying, I think a Sony TV would be interesting to play with (knowing you could add an IR solution if need be). It’s great that they appear to have made Android their default OS, so there’s no premium for adding it.
For your example above, one thing to consider would be how long it takes for the TV to turn on or for the user to change to the web browser manually. In this specific scenario, you might be better served by a wall-mounted tablet running HabPanel.
I’ll be curious to hear where you land on this!
BTW, another cool feature of Sony TV. They still supply normal remote control with numeric buttons on it. I don’t know about LG, but at least Samsung stopped packaging these remotes with TVs; they just think it’s not cool any more. And controlling the TV with only menus completely sucks.
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@rpwong, the user would only manually change to the cam stream if they’re already watching something (they get an overlay notice message, and can choose if they want to act on it). I could also change the logic to automatically switch to the cam stream. If the TV is off, then it could be programmatically turned on and immediate switch to the cam stream.
@Sonic Good point on the remote. You and others do make me think about Sony now. They don’t seem to have mid-range TV though. I rarely watch TV so I don’t want to pay too much for it. LG has some mid-range ones at close to $1K. I am still thinking… 
This is exactly what I do right now with my LG TV. I also play a little chime on my google home. I don’t have a camera so I haven’t done anything related to a camera stream.
The PIP on Sony sounds great though. I don’t know if LG can do it.
LG remote has a numeric pad which can be used as shortcuts to launch app, e.g. press and hold 1 to start Plex, 2 for youtube, 3 for disney+, 4 for browser, etc. My most favourite feature is the magic cursor / wand thing. Helps a lot for typing
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LG Wand is the best way to control a pointer on the TV screen, i agree. Unfortunately they have apparently patented it, so nobody else can do it. 
But they still have a crappy closed HTML-only OS, which is not DIY/hack-friendly.