Samsung TV Firmware Hacking

tv-firmware-hacking

[Erdem] is leading up the efforts to reverse engineer Samsung TV firmware with a project called SamyGo. Official Samsung firmware uses the Linux kernel, making it a familiar system to work with for many developers. So far they’ve implemented NFS and SAMBA for sharing files over the network, improved playback from USB devices, and unlocked the ability to use non-Samsung WiFi dongles.

In order to make changes to the system, you need to enable a telnet connection on the device. The SamyGo team accomplished this by changing an official version of the firmware in a hex editor to start the telnet daemon at boot time. This altered firmware is then flashed using Samsung’s built in upgrade system. Once telnet is enabled, non-official firmware can be manually flashed.

We’d love to see this project expand to other TV Brands in the future. In fact, we were looking for something like this back in June when we realized that our Sony Bravia runs a Linux kernel and can be updated via USB drive.  Be careful if you want to try this out. We can only imagine the fallout after telling your significant other that you bricked a high-priced LCD.

80 thoughts on “Samsung TV Firmware Hacking

  1. Grant me a hint how to wire my Dell notebook with Samsung HDTV? I want to connect my computer to my plazma HDTV (Samsung PN50B650 50-Inch Plasma HDTV) that has 3 HDMI Inputs. {What you can suggest|What are my selections & what do I have to find to plug-in my notebook to HDTV. Looking to plug it to the TV so that the videos I usually find in a net can be seen in my plasma tv.

  2. i own the new samsung led tv’s and it plays almost all video formats right from its internal memory,i also connected a 1 tb external usb harddrive and it plays them right from my on screen menu.i am also able to rewind forward and pause.

  3. Hi. Can anyone help me. I bneed to reload teh firmware on a failed update for a Samsung LA32A450.

    Is there a cold boot strap option? Unfortunately I can not access the menu system voa the on screen menus. Is there a default reemote code or process on power up that reads the USB p[ort and looks for a firmware boot file? Where can I get a owrking image file? Thanks in advance

  4. I have a LED samsung UE40C6700 with integrated tuner sat. so i want to say if i can use the intégrated sat receiver in may LED to do a sharing and to insert codes for crypted channels. and thanks

  5. Hello m8,
    I have a LE40B658T5WXXE with FW T-CHL7DEUC 3000.2, after update to this FW ANYNET+ stoped working with my Samusng BD3600 Player.

    Now Samsung want me to change my B658 to a LEC659T5WXXE, but there is a BIG BIG differance betewen them, MY B658 picture is CRISTAL CLEAR and the C659 is not even the half off it on this matter, they both have samsung S-Panel.

    Is there a way to FIX the BUG in T-CHL7DEUC 3000.2 so that ANYNET+ will work again OR is there a way to PUT in the FW from The LE40C659 FW T-VALDEUC 1014.3 INTO my B658??

    I see that SamyGO forum have FW but i cant register there just get som code and the email does not workin. Does some one have FW for this B650 series and wath is the benefits of this FW?

    In T-VALDEUC 1014.3 ANYNET+ works, Samusng its a SOFTWARE problem so why dont they FIX this probleminsted of changin the whole LCD TV

  6. Hi guys, great articles.

    I was wondering if its possible to write the firmware so that I can create a looping playlist for video files and control the power management all remotely via lan or wireless setup?

  7. hey all.

    First, great info on this site, some great ideas also. Dint know that the lcd’s are runing linux :)

    I getting tomorro a le32c630. I ame willing to try some things out, ofcourse, only when i ame 100% secure whit what i ame doing, so read a lot..

    The most intrested thing (at least for me) is to be able to play more codex. Not only the samsung supported formats. The other thing that can be intrested, is rooting the device.. But that is a complete other story.. Lets see what we find out… :P

  8. Hi guys, I just wondering if some one can make a video tutorial about this amazing hack SammyGo? and posted on this site or youtube? only for educational purposes. thanks

    samsung serie 6 lcd

  9. 2 things i wish the samsung hd 3d tv done, record anythin on screen and be able to edit it on a pc ie record xbox gameplay, and also would like to install an app to browse the net my tv has not got that option but im sure the new model dose :(

  10. hi. i hace a samsung c6000 edge led tv. the quality is good but the great problem of this tv is the imput lag. you can see it in games… is impossible to play good … and you can see it in fast film for example matrix and others.
    like the games in films and also in normal tv mode tou can see that the imput lag causes that the audio arrive before and the video after about 60ms… is a lot… but i know that it is a good tv and the fact that the retard is caused by the costant rendering of the image, the motion plus etc etc… in options there is not game mode and if you switch off motion plus and other effects the imput lag doesn’t change.
    whit a MODDED FIRMWARE i’m sure that this tv can be normal… anybody can mod it? anybody can give me some ideas to modify it? it’s hard for me…
    it is a great problem for everybody has c6000 c6500 and the majority of c models. help US thanks

  11. Thanks to you, i solved the problem of audio lag. in the menu there were the option to set audio lal.
    But the big problem isn’t it. the big problem is the IMPUT LAG for example when i play console the imput lag is orrible, when i put left the signal arrive in about 65ms so it’s very hard to play whit fast control game… it’s impossible to play…the tv function and media player avi mkv etc etc is very good but i can’t play, it’s orrible. in setting there is not “game mode” but i tryed manually to switch off all settings that works on image :result the lag is about 55ms…
    The samy go project is for pvr, internetTV and other function but here the problem is the firmware that is made for elaborate constantly the image. I set the xbox360 to 1080p to have the rendering in the console and not by the tv. I WANT ONLY THAT THE TV SHOW ME THE IMAGE, NOT ELABORATING IT, NOTHING… I NEED ONLY THE IMAGE ON THE PANEL :D …
    there is not a way to bypass everythings???
    thanks to you very much…you are great and you solved my audio lag…now i hope you understood my great problem whit my bad english :) GREAT SITE

  12. Any updates for firmware on a LA46C750R2R. The “LA” version of the “LE46C750R2R” made in South Africa has most of it’s features locked down (like Recording) and it would be great if there is a way to unlock it. Unfortunately the default system do not allow us to just upgrade to the LE46C750R2R firmware as it does some sort of check for the local supported firmware only :( .

  13. Hello folks!… Skype is disabled on my Samsung LED TV. Some on the Internet say its dependent on the model, but I don’t know. Anyone know a backdoor way to enable Skype with? Would much appreciate some help!

  14. those asking about XBTV or MYTH should look into the ability of the Samsung Smart TV to run the PLEX client Ap, and play all the media from your PLEX server. That’s why I bought this TV. I think it work great. I am running a Plex Media Server elsewhere in the house (on a Mac Mini), serving up about 1000 movies, 2000 TV episodes, and all my music. BTW, the Plex Client Ap is free at the Samsung Ap store; also the Plex Media Server is a free download.

  15. i am curious, does SamyGo help a tuner that does not decode h.264 to be able to do so?
    My samsung is a 2009 b series, i believe. my encoder/modulator encodes h.264 and the tv says not support.

  16. Recovering a bricked tv would be easier than most other devices. I believe tools are not uncommon for this purpose. A few years ago I worked on a project that had me upgrading firmware via USB on all TV’s in a hotel. A few TV’s did not upgrade the first time and were giving problems. Support was ready to send tools to flash chips on the board. $5k TV’s don’t get bricked, they get fixed.
    I never got to try it out. We were able to get all problems solved.

  17. SamyGo bluetooth drivers for wireless headphones…
    BROADCOM-bthid : Broadcom Bluetooth HID drivers (keyboards, mice, game controllers)
    BROADCOM-btusb : Broadcom Bluetooth USB drivers (keyboards, mice, game controllers)

    that would be nice to use my JBL50BT at night

  18. Samsung 40 in. 4K Smart TV – service mode?, hack the firmware?
    I have a UN40MU6300. I was forced to clear the cache memory and do a setup on the TV. When purchased the setup for an OTA program guide did not operate correctly, I got the channel ID but no programming. The salesman/tech was very knowledgeable and asked me if I wanted it fixed, I said yes. I now realize he hacked into the cached firmware and put in the proper OTA program guide provider, and 4-5 entries that were between “‘s and hash marked. His hack gave me a real time program guide on the TV as advertized by Samsung, that worked perfectly until I cleared the cache. Now I have no station recognition and program guide info. I have been able to get at the firmware to try to recover the lost info – very likely this is the service mode. How do you get into the service mode? I am Unix medium smart and feel pretty confident I can recover his changes. Samsung and BestBuy support has been pretty useless and very difficult to get a callback.

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