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TV control for Samsung UE40NU7120

  • 3 November 2018
  • 11 replies
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I have set up my Samsung TV UE40NU7120 with Sonos beam but cannot get the "turn off tv" control working.
Whenever I say "Alexa turn off the TV", the response is just "ok" then nothing happens....
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Best answer by Ken_Griffiths 4 November 2018, 23:58

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11 replies

The source input is usually a button on your remote ... so you would switch that to the HDMI-ARC port number, (Example HDMI-3 or whatever one you have plugged your Beam into) before then giving the instruction 'Alexa, turn off the TV' ... although the source is also accessible via settings ... I would try that.

If that fails and you do look at the Harmony Hub.. it will do the following;

Turn TV on/off
Adjust volume up/down/mute
Pause/Fast Forward/Rewind TV if your TV supports that.
Change TV channels .. upto 50 favourite channels can be chosen
Change input sources
Launch Apps built into the TV (Netflix etc.)
Control other devices attached to the TV (Apple TV, PlayStation and many others)
Adjust Hue lights in the TV viewing room.

All above can be done via Alexa by adding the Harmony Skill to the Alexa App... all the TV setup is done on mobile devices via a free downloadable Harmony App... see the two screenshots from my own setup.

The Hub also works with Google Home and with Sonos speakers direct using the Sonos API .
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Hi

Please Disable the Sonos Skill in the Alexa App and then Enable again. Once completed, please ask 'Alexa, Discover Devices'
Still no effect unfortunately. It seems the Alexa discovers the device straight away once I've re-enabled the Sonos skill, so when I ask 'discover devices' the response is 'no new devices found'.
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How are you connecting the TV to the Beam? Control of the TV won't work if you have used the Optical connector.
I am connected through HDMI ARC.
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Is this the only command that doesn't work? I don't have this particular TV model but can you have a look at the HDMI ports and make sure they have ARC written next to it. Not all ports on all TV's support ARC.
jonno25,

My LG TV is the same.. I contacted their support desk and they tell me it’s intentional. Apparently only the LG TV remote, in my case, can switch off the TV and it was done to prevent the TV peripherals (DVD Player etc.) and their remotes turning off the TV so that the viewer can watch a DVD movie and turn off the player with its remote, but then the user can continue watching the TV channels. So it appears my CEC command for switching off the TV is not included. Everything else works fine though.

I should add LG support said this was not the case for all their TV models, just ones from the past 2013-2014 (I think?)

So perhaps it’s a similar thing for this Samsung model, maybe worth asking their support desk.

A workaround to it, is to get a Harmony Hub to control the TV via infrared, if it’s in their compatible device list.

Two final things to mention, some TV's will only switch off when their input is set to the actual HDMI-ARC port, before issuing the command... so maybe try that and it’s also advisable to check your Amazon Alexa Device/Group/Scenes lists to ensure that there is no 'other' entry that is named TV, that has been introduced by another installed Alexa Skill.

Hope the above info helps.
UkMedia - the sonos beam is connect by hmdi arc. I've tried uninstalling all the apps and reconnecting to the wifi, tv etc (eventually after some issues). And yes "alexa turn off the tv" is the only command that doesn't work. Turning on and volume works fine.

Ken_Griffiths - I have spoken to the Samsung help desk, they weren't very helpful and suggested I speak to Amazon/Alexa. So I spoke to Amazon/Alexa and they said that they can only help with echo devices and I should speak to Sonos about sonos devices so I've now done a full circle! The tv is a brand new model so i'd like to think it would work ok with alexa.
In terms of tv input settings, I have been through the TV settings and can't see any option to change the input to HDMI ARC port. The sound output options are TV speaker, Receiver HDMI or Optical. This is set to Receiver HDMI.
There are no other devices connected, and so none could be called TV too.
I may try the Harmony Hub - would this enable me to turn the TV off with voice commands or just through my phone/tablet?

Thanks!
Thanks ken_griffiths, I might give that a go. Appreciate the help
I have the opposite problem with a TCL TV, all commands work for volume and turning off TV, but when I ask Alexa to turn on TV I get 2 soft tones response and nothing happens. Any ideas?
Hi to All, I believe I have found a workaround for Samsung TVs which solves the “turn off” command with Alexa on Samsung TVs.

First of all you need to install the Samsung app SmartThings and then add your TV as a Device. Then you need to add the SmartThings skill in the Alexa app and discover devices. For detailed steps on how to do that please check here:

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/samsung-smart-tv-alexa-how-to,news-29557.html

After you do that you need to rename your TV in the Alexa app to something simple like Samsung TV for example. Then if you say “Alexa turn off Samsung TV” TV turns off. To turn TV on you must use the name your TV is recognized with the Sonos Beam so avoid naming both devices as TV since this will not work. All other functions like adjusting volume work fine as before.

In essence what this trick does is that it overrides the issue with the Samsung CEC for turning off the Tv. On the other hand the SmartThings skill has the issue that it cannot turn on the TV by voice command so this is solved by the Sonos Beam feature.

In my case I have used “TV” as the name for the TV with Sonos Beam and “Samsung TV” for the SmartThings TV. So to turn tv on I say “Alexa, turn TV on” and to turn off “Alexa, turn Samsung TV off”. It works perfectly fine and the good thing is the SmartThings will enable in the future other capabilities like changing channels or source.

Hope this helps.