I am finally having to resort to ‘percussive maintenance’ to keep a stable image on my old TV, so I think a new purchase is on the horizon.
Obviously I would like any new TV to integrate with HA to provide simple operations like On/Off/Volume/Channel Select/Source Select and if possible to relay the current settings back to HA.
Each brand seems to use its own technology platform these days (Samsung=Tizen, LG= webOS, Sony = Android TV, Panasonic = My Home Screen etc.)
What are peoples views on how well the various TV OS’s integrate with HA for the basic tasks?
Are there any other useful features that they offer? (i.e. being able to detect if Netflix is running? Notification overlay display? Picture in picture control? anything else I have not event thought of?)
I’ve looked through the components relating to TV, and from those, the LG WebOS seems to offer more features while Google TV has good notifications.
It’s just hard for me to visualise what level of control/reporting the various platforms offer without actually playing with the TV’s themselves.
Have tested WebOS, and it works good and is easy to configure.
But, actually many people use a decoder, so you can power on your tv, chose decoder or netflix, chose a defined volume, but not change channel or film because thats made directly on decoder or netflix.
Thanks for the suggestion @Vincent, I will probably use a combination of both.
I currently have the following connected to the TV
a YouView STB for terrestrial TV,
a FireTV stick for Netflix and streaming
a RaspPi running Kodi for local media and streaming from a SolidRun Tuner.
an XBox
an AirTame (for streaming my PC to TV)
I haven’t really looked at automating those as yet since the standalone TV without control is the bottleneck.
Once I can power on the TV and select source part of that problem goes away, although I’m not sure the YouView box has a control API, so I’d probably use the TV for terrestrial signals, and YouView just for recordings.
Also if notifications can be displayed on the TV irrespective of the source would also be handy.
with webos, you have an integrated netflix application, so it’s possible to directly power on your tv on netflix without any other hardware, but you need the remote control of your tv to pilot netflix.
i think there is a kodi component so maybe you can control it with hass ??
I’m a Sony guy. Got 2 TVs. Philips also makes TVs with Android, but for my personal taste they don’t seem as “snappy” as the Sony ones.
The notifications are great (I did the integration for HASS ), it can receive Satellite and Terrestial TV without external receivers, and being Android there’s a gazillion Apps for all kinds of streaming services. So the main benefit is that this is a good all-in-one device. Which most other vendors offer too I guess. But without the flexibility of Android. I’d be frustrated if exactly that one app I like wouldn’t get published in the App store of Samsung if I had a Samsung TV. Or LG or whatever.
By the way: you can use the component for Android TV notifications with your FireTV stick. It too is Android based, and the app required to display the notifications is also published for Fire devices. So with that you could see for yourself if you like the notifications that are possible.
Oh and for completeness: What the Android TV integration is not so good at currently is switching the current source or opening Apps. I can turn on my TV right now, but can’t switch away from HDMI (which it defaults to). Also switching the TV channel doesn’t work. It used to do that. But since I don’t use that I never noticed this feature is broken right now.
Just used another browser and there it’s possible to switch between HDMI sources, start/stop media etc…
I’m only just getting my toes wet with TV in HA, up to now I’ve mainly been concerned with lights and power.
While researching I did notice the notification component (if you excuse the pun) for Android/FireTV so I’ll definitely be investigating that.
It’s interesting that the two responses I received were for Sony and LG, which are the brands which I felt had better integrations. I shall probably concentrate on these brands.
I haven’t tested notification yet, but i think i will test it soon.
if you are on the way to choose a new TV, here why i have buy a LG with WebOs.
Before i had a Expensive Philips TV with Ambilight, and a Expensive Philips Home Cinema, with a realy good sound. Both are death after 3 years, so i said … ok, i want a 4K TV, i want a 48" TV, i want a TV with a good sound without home cinema but i dont put more than 1000€ in a TV. The only choice (with my criteria) was the LG.
At this time, i haven’t yes home assistant, so for me, WebOS is a bonus, compatibility with Homeassistant is a bonus.
I think sony TV are really good also but more expensive, (Sony have really amazing oled TV).
On my set you can view the source being viewed (e.g. Netflix) and for Freeview Play you see the Channel. You can also change the input, control the volume and change the channel, and launch apps.
The one minor issue is it can take a while for the smarts to boot up fully and for Home Assistant to realise it’s turned on.
My “Hey Google, I want my MTV” routine therefore runs like this…
“Okay, activating the I want my MTV”
TV Turns on, and returns to the last non-app source (e.g. starts playing BBC News Channel HD) within about 3 seconds
~15 Seconds Later Home Assistant realises the TV has booted up
TV then switches to HDMI3
OSMC is told to play the Music Video playlist
Music Videos start playing.
I also have another routine that sends a WOL Packet to turn my Blu-Ray player on when the Blu-Ray input is selected on the TV - however there can be a 10 second lag on that kicking in.
For use in the UK you’ve got all the main apps covered - BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4, Demand 5, UK TV Player, Now TV, Sky Store, Rakuten, Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play Movies, Box+, Freeview Explore. The only reason I still have my Fire TV Stick is for Vimeo, and of course there’s no Sky Go. All of the apps are quicker and more responsive then their equivalents on my Fire TV Stick (2017 one) or Roku Express.
I confirm, there is a little “time” between the turn_on and the return of the playing status, but, i think we can’t do better.
If you power on you tv manually, and after you push the netflix button (for exemple) it almost take the same time, but it’s transparent because you do it manually in 2 action (2 button).
If you do it automatically with a script, you are just waiting all is done so you find the time too long.
Yeah, wasn’t expecting Home Assistant to be any better - even the Netflix button on the TV Remote doesn’t help - you press it and get “Waiting for smart tv services to start” or works to that effect!
No where near as bad as the Sony TV’s we have at work - about 30 seconds for their remotes to be usable, and another couple of minutes for the TV to be responsive.
Thanks @kevjs1982 and @Vincent for the detained information. (sorry I looked away from the forums for a while so didn’t thank you sooner).
Whilst I like the idea of Android TV, I think LG is definitely edging ahead at the moment.
Now I just have to hope my dying TV survives until I can replace it in the November sales.
An other cool think i discover yesterday, (on my LG tv but i suppose it’s the same on other tv) is that there is an integrated YouTube app in the TV, and when you choose Youtube app, it’s noted as attribute source in hass.
So, we can make a script to launch youtube directly on the TV (i didn’t make it at this time, but it will work)
That’s interesting, I wonder if you can change settings such as playback speed and jump forwards/backwards?
I generally watch most YouTube at 1.5x or 2x, it would be great if I could setup a playlist, and change the playback speed/seek from a simple remote tied to HA.
You’ll need to find the TV’s entity id, but the following should work.
- id: tv_power_on_to_netflix
alias: Select Netflix on TV Power On
trigger:
platform: state
entity_id: media_player.kevs_bedroom_lg_tv
from: 'off'
to: 'playing'
action:
- service: media_player.select_source
data:
entity_id: media_player.kevs_bedroom_lg_tv
source: "Netflix"
By far, Hisense Tvs. They have their own mqtt broker which can do pretty much anything but they barely promote it. Sony Tvs with android are decent for ha but the Tvs are generally slow.
Tempted to replace my 65 Samsung with hisense as I can’t do anything on thst now.
Looking to buy new TV, since no significant differences in picture quality in entry/medium segment will decide on HA compatibility.
LG with WebOS 6.0 is primary choice, but would like to hear how latest Samsung and Hisense TV’s work with HA.
Personally would like to steer away from Android, already have Google TV with Chromecast so covered in that regard.
), it can receive Satellite and Terrestial TV without external receivers, and being Android there’s a gazillion Apps for all kinds of streaming services. So the main benefit is that this is a good all-in-one device. Which most other vendors offer too I guess. But without the flexibility of Android. I’d be frustrated if exactly that one app I like wouldn’t get published in the App store of Samsung if I had a Samsung TV. Or LG or whatever.
