With a new 2020/21 Samsung TV, if SmartThings is configured to work with Alexa, can SmartThings, via voice commands, change channels & volume while watching LIVE TV (Cox Cable) on a tv cable provider that does not support Alexa? Right now, Hands-free control (channel and volume changes, change apps) works well for streaming content via Amazon Fire Cube w Alexa, but not when the source is live Cox Cable tv. Cannot change channels nor control volume using Alexa. Cox live TV does not support Alexa. Will SmartThings be able to change channels when the source is live TV from Cox? (has to be hands free control)
I don’t know for sure with regard to the specific configuration you listed, so hopefully others will chime in.
Hands-free television control is very important to me because I am quadriparetic, so I have looked into a lot of the options.
For what it’s worth, I believe that the second generation fire TV cube (not the fire TV stick or the original cube) will work with a Cox cable box. So as long as your live TV is coming in via a cable box, not just a cable direct to the TV, I think you would be OK.
You should confirm that with your own Cable company, of course.
But if that is true, it will give you hands-free control of the television by voice, and there are some integration options through Alexa routines that can also make it integrate partially with smartthings.
The 2nd Gen fire TV cube has a number of capabilities that the stick does not. For one thing, it has an IR blaster. It’s also smarter, you could say things like “go down” or “scroll right” to move the cursor around the screen on many screens. Those commands are not available with just the fire TV stick.
So, as always, the first rule of home automation applies: “the model number matters.“ Even for the fire TV device you are using.
You may already have known all of that and have a 2nd Gen fire TV cube, but I just thought I would mention it. I got a lot more hands free functionality once I switched from the fire TV box to the second generation cube.
If you have an existing fire TV 1st Gen cube or stick you would like to upgrade to the 2nd Gen cube, the product page usually offers a trade-in option which gives you a discount on the new device as well.
Anyway, as I said, you may already know all of that, but I just wanted to mention it. 
If you are referring to the built in SmartThings integration that Samsung has included in their SmartTVs then no.
Forgetting hands free at the moment, the control options via the SmartThings App are limited to the TV itself. You can control volume, change input, and even change channel of cable/antenna/TV plus stations. If the TV recognizes your cable box then you might be able to change channel but I don’t recall at the moment (will test later with FiOS see below).
Back to hands free, so in theory SmartThings can control a portion of what you want, but the integration with Alexa is lacking. The TVs do appear in Alexa as SmartThings devices, however I believe the control options are limited to ON/OFF ( and ON is dependent upon type of connection and TV model/firmware).
As @JDRoberts , the fire TV cube (2nd gen with IR blaster) might be your most complete option.
Update: I can confirm that with FiOS and 2020 TU8000 TV, I can control changing the channel with remote and smartThings App, but still no Alexa control.
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