Confused with smart TV Purchase

Hardware Home Automation
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1

Hi all,

I’ve been using Openhab for a few months to manage my smart lights and thermometers, and I’m really invested in the platform.

I’m struggling to find a Smart TV worth buying that will definitely work with Openhab. The main thing I want is to be able to change channel and volume via openhab.(So I can eventually connect it with say Amazon Alexa etc).

The binding for Samsung TV is very unclear on if it works with current TV’s being sold, same with the panasonic binding. I was wondering if anyone could suggest a smart 40’'ish TV that I can control in this way binding wise?
Any pointers would be great!

2

I wish there was a generic Android TV binding that would allow me to do simple tasks like volume control, on/sleep or run an app.

I personally don’t own a smart TV - and probably won’t. I bought a Xiaomi Mi Box 4K instead.
I can plug it into any TV or projector.
So far the only openHAB integration with it comes through the Chromecast binding and Kodi binding.

On the other hand it would be great if openHAB Android app supported Android TV user interface.
I’ve raised a ticket on this:

3

I have an LG TV with WebOS and it works great with openHAB with the ConnectSDK Binding!

It also works perfectly with Alexa (e.g. “Alexa, turn on the TV” or “turn on Netflix”).

Here’s my TV widget for HabPanel:

IMG_9508

4

What about taking the smart out of the equation and putting in an RM3 so the tv could be anything?

5

Hi,

Could you possibly share your widget code? It looks great.

Thanks

6

Hi!

I think you can’t really find one which will be good enough (I think). Android TVs are really good, but it is just an ‘addon’ on top of the TV.
If you even find one, you will not know when the software will change, how it will change and it might lose the option to control it from OH or even lose other function later (because the firmware is not updated by the manufacturer - this happened with several devices).

I would suggest that you buy a TV which screen looks great, fits perfectly in your setup and buy additional devices to control it from openHab.
I have an older Panasonic TV (and also an AVR, so controlling the TV is not enough) so I have the following devices:

  • Google Chromecast (usually new Android TVs support this, so not really needed for that)
  • Raspberry Pi (with Kodi installed on it).
  • Harmony Hub with Remote Controller (so I can control all devices from openHab and from one remote controller - really convenient, everyone likes it in the family that you don’t have to mess around with additional remote controllers and selecting the right input, etc…)
7

I use https://github.com/vkorn/pyvizio for control of my TV.

I second the idea of using an IR hub to avoid updates that might break your control, because they will not change to IR codes going to the TV.

If Alexa is what you want to use, then I would suggest the Firestick on top of the TV that is right for you. I know one thing I wish I had after I bought my TV was Picture in Picture so I could have my security cameras pop up when there was an alarm without interrupting what I was watching.