How to use ST with a TV?

The trouble is i tell alexa to turn on the TV which works fine but you still need to pick up the remote and select the input! there is no option on the TV to select it automatically.

The TV is a samsung but old. 7 years

I think the most popular solution is to add a Harmony hub. You can then either use the Amazon/Harmony integration (which works really well), or use a SmartThings/Harmony/Amazon integration if you want to include other smartthings – controlled devices.


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Your old TV is the issue… a FireTV Recast has tuners that Alexa can control. 2018 up TVs can be controlled fully…

+1 for the Hub. I even have an old Harmony One Remote that I absolutely loved because of the touchscreen macros, and I haven’t used that since I installed the hub. Heck, I don’t even use the remote that came with my hub…I use the app on my phone instead. All my Harmony One macros carried over to the hub. The best part is, my Directv, Roku, and media player are all on different inputs, so it’s extremely convenient to have the hub switch the inputs for whatever device I choose.

One thing to keep in mind…the “Turn up volume” command for the Echo basically becomes the command for the TV. And if you want to adjust how much the TV volume changes (smaller increments), you have to load the second Alexa Harmony App to control that…weird.

FTR, check with Walmart for pricing…they usually are on sale, and cheaper than Amazon.

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