If you're considering buying a new Frame TV and use an external HDMI device (Xbox, Playstation, Apple TV, Nintendo Switch, Chromecast, etc...) the TV will not work correctly with them. Be warned.
Firmware 1520 update has broken CEC for Samsung Frame 2022 models (and possibly more). This means that Frame TVs returning to Art mode after using a device is functionally broken.
Devices that should be powering off the TV via CEC are no longer recognized by the Samsung TV, there are multiple threads about this but they tend to specifically mention devices (Apple TV, Chromecast, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PS5, etc...).
The common denominator here is that ALL CEC power off events for ALL devices are now broken with the latest firmware update, they used to function correctly before this update.
If you hard power cycle the TV, the very first CEC power off event will work correctly, but then it never functions correctly again. Instead of powering the TV down or returning to Art Mode (whichever you have configured) the TV now sits in "Check device power" screen. This effectively breaks the entire functionality and purpose of having a Frame TV...which is that it returns to Art mode after you're done with whatever you're doing.
Samsung techs are blaming Microsoft, Apple, Google, Nintendo, and Sony and telling people to call their tech support. The common denominator here is Samsung, not every other device manufacturer.
The latest firmware update has broken Samsung Frame TVs, and there is no way to downgrade firmware. We all just get to wait while Samsung is blaming everyone else and not working on a fix. The tech that I spoke to was super nice, but told me that "my scenario is very uncommon" and that their firmware is not broken. This is objectively not true. This firmware update is broken. Please fix it, please let me downgrade.
In the meantime, hopefully your device supports power-down and volume controls via IR. This isn't a long term solution though. Samsung needs to acknowledge this and roll back or hotfix whatever change broke this.
Really getting tired and frustrated about this. It's worse now with this one. Also whoever decided to overlay the settings when going to art mode needs to be taken off the team. What a ridiculous thing to do. Who needs to see that when using art mode. Sometimes that message gets stuck and you have to exit art mode, or shut down the TV and start it again. RIDICULOUS!
There are a lot of poor decisions wrapped up in this TV, and pushing firmware updates without properly testing them is what we're seeing here. This is just a poor software development lifecycle and planning, yeeting firmware to customers without verifying that it works and then gaslighting them via support when we find problems that engineering teams could have easily noticed if they did any testing whatsoever.
One thing is clear here though having used multiple of these TVs - Samsung does not care about your external device or whether the TV works correctly with it (basic TV functionality). The priority is their own proprietary smart TV functionality - which I personally have no interest in using.
One of the most egregious examples of this is how the home screen takeover (which tends to automatically open itself randomly) attempts to try to get you to open whatever the Samsungs proprietary Xbox app is - of which there seem to be two - instead of changing to the input that an actual physical Xbox that is plugged in and running. This was so confusing to one of my guests that they accidentally unpaired the Xbox controller from the console and paired it to the television in an attempt to use it. We're either dealing with gross incompetence or these types of bugs that break external devices are intentionally trying to keep you within Samsungs walled garden.
I wouldn't have a problem with the Smart TV functionality if it was worth using. It is not.
I have spent an enormous amount of time trying to figure out what happened. I’ve got a frame at home and it started doing this several weeks ago. I’ve spent at least 8 hours trying to figure out the correct setting, because the same set up in my other house was working perfectly.
I reached out to Geek Squad and they suggested it was due to an update. I figured it was an AppleTV issue because the one in my other home was working perfectly. Once the other TV updated to 1520, it unraveled that system as well.
Super frustrated and really disappointed that Samsung doesn’t just take ownership and fix the problem. Hopefully they’ll get enough calls and complaints that they’re fix it with another update ASAMFP.
A Reddit post got Samsung to replace the board which had the old 14xx firmware. It's working as expected again for that user. If your under warranty, it may be worth the hassle for the service call. Then again, the tech may just swap the board with the already corrupted firmware 15xx. So what do we do? Get the service call and deal with the hassle of taking it down, taking off work, and getting the right board with firmware 14xx or waste of the entire process getting the same damaged firmware. Samsung has really put us users into a frustrating experience here. If they don't fix this soon. I swear I will let every single person I know to never get this product. Look elsewhere. I may be one person than can reach a few hundred, but multiply that with all of us and hopefully tech media will pick up on this.
I woke up three days ago to find my Samsung 75” TV art not displaying and the HDMI audio option missing. So my HDMI arc device will not work. I spent 3 hours with Sonos support confirming the devices are working then called Samsung support.
I am in IT, so maybe a little more savvy than the average customer. I asked about any issues with a possible update, as auto update was enabled and there weren’t any new updates available.
I spent a very frustrating hour on the phone with a technician following a script. She eventually had me do a hard reset. I snapped a pic of the TV info, including the firmware version, before resetting. She told me the reset would return firmware to the version when I took it out of the box. 🤦🏼:female_sign:
Obviously the firmware did not revert. She then told me a technician could come out and look at the firmware. Ummm… seriously??
She then said no one else is having this issue. I found this thread while on the phone with her. Now on with her supervisor who is trying to convince me I am an unusual case. Killing me!!
I’ve also now have an issue where the TV is no longer recognizing my Apple TV as being a HDMI connection - it still recognizes my PC as a HDMI input, not sure what’s going on but super frustrating as using Apple TV was my workaround for the crappy Samsung interface 😞
Am also experiencing this issue and thought I had broken something with my appletv, turned it it was the software update. Please Samsung—fix this! It used to work fine.
They will not fix this. Some people who have called in were told its Apple TV issue and contact Apple. LOL. Well take out the ATV and guess what the dumb thing will still leave Art Mode on its own and start playing Samsung Live TV channel to whatever is default. Then if you disable that, you get the blue screen asking to connect to a source... so no Samsung its NOT THE APPLE TV!
