For projects with a high design appeal, Samsung’s The Frame television can be a great option. As the name implies, it looks like a picture frame. Better, it has an art mode that displays professional art and photos, allowing it to enhance a room’s decor when not being used as a TV. Better still, it works with Control4 Smart Home OS.
My wife recently had an extra bedroom converted into a walk-in closet and private bath. Her design concept needed something like The Frame, so here’s what I learned from installing one.
Integrating The Frame with Control4
You have to enable Simple Device Discovery Protocol (SDDP) on The Frame. The driver name uses an unguessable Samsung model number, like tv_ip_Samsung_QN43LS03RAFXZA.c4z for the 43” model. So enabling SDDP as soon as you finish setting up the TV saves you the guesswork.
Here are the steps
- Connect the TV to Ethernet and complete its setup according to the manual.
- I had to outsmart the device in order to get past the Wi-Fi setup and have it use Ethernet. Good luck in the maze.
- Update the TV’s firmware.
- On TV’s remote, hit the Menu button.
- Go to the TV’s Settings menu.
- Find and enable the setting called Enable IP Remote.
- In Composer, select the System Design tab and then select the room into which you want to install the driver.
- Select the Discovered Devices tab and then double-click the Samsung TV listed there. (It only shows after you have enabled Enable IP Remote.)
This gets the driver installed, but there is still one more step before you can control the TV.
Controlling The Frame with Control4
- After installing the driver for The Frame, you need to pair it with Control4. Have these at ready:
- Composer Pro with the TV driver selected in the System Design tab.
The Samsung remote that comes with The Frame.
Here are the steps
- With the Samsung remote at ready, select the driver’s Actions tab.
- In the Actions tab, click the Pair with TV button.
- Watch for the pairing notification on the Frame TV. Use the Samsung remote to accept the pairing.
At first The Frame was slow to respond to Control4 commands. Give it a few minutes. Once it settles out, it should be fast and reliable, just as you would expect from an IP-controlled device.
The Frame’s Art Mode Mini Driver
The Frame has a mini driver for Art Mode, similar to the Netflix and Prime mini drivers that you can connect to a Roku. Adding the Art Mode mini driver and connecting it to the TV allows you to program events that activate Art Mode.
Search the online driver database for “Art Mode.” A Samsung driver will come up. Install it in the same room as the TV and verify in the Connections tab that you connected it to the TV properly. And don’t forget to Refresh Navigators to have Art Mode show up in the Watch menu.
Using with a Control4 4K Video Matrix
During initial setup of the TV, the auto-discover devices step had trouble sorting out the only device connected to an HDMI port on the TV, an HDbaseT receiver for my LU862 switcher. I set the switcher’s driver in Composer to send a signal to the balun and the discovery worked fine on the next try.
Programming Art Mode
Samsung was pretty smart in making this TV. Before you overcomplicate things with Control4 programming, explore the TV’s native settings. The TV can detect motion in the room, and you can configure that to activate Art Mode. You can also configure when to turn off the TV after motion stops, and whether motion should activate Art Mode if the room is dark.
With those settings in mind, consider this: should you ever see art activate, The technology is too noticeable. You can restore subtlety with a NYCE motion sensor and a little programming. Art Mode should never interrupt an entertainment session, nor would you want it if the room is dark. So you might program something like this:
One Thing I Wish The Frame Had
Unfortunately, Samsung’s driver doesn’t expose The Frame’s motion sensor events in their driver. The driver is built on Control4’s TV proxy, and until now televisions haven’t really included motion sensors.
Where to Get a Samsung The Frame
You can of course purchase Samsung The Frame televisions at Magnolia/Best Buy or Amazon.com. But as a pro, you probably value making some margin by buying from a distributor, so I remind our North American dealers that SnapAV has a growing number of local stores. I picked up my The Frame from one of our Volutone stores in California.