New Apple TV wont work on Samsung TV

jamesco said:

so I called Samsung who informed me that Apple TV is NOT compatible with any of their TVs.

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Thats the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. The Apple TV is doing nothing but sending an audio and video signal to your TV via HDMI. I have 3 Samsung TV's in my house (my primary one being a 2011 model UN55D7000), my parents have 2 more, and my in-laws have an other 3. Not one of them have ever had an issue.

I would check your HDMI cable to ensure it is working and try it in a different HDMI port as well. The type of TV has absolutely no bearing on whether it will work or not, unless of course it doesn't have an HDMI input.

I have an Apple TV, about 6 months old, hanging on a Samsung TV about 12 months old. No problem.

Maybe Samsung disabled it to spite Apple deliberately? Could they do that with firmware?

larmende said:

Maybe Samsung disabled it to spite Apple deliberately? Could they do that with firmware?

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No, it is not possible to disable a device over an HDMI cable (not to mention if you could, it would be HIGHLY illegal). There must be some kind of problem either in the settings of the unit or with the hardware of either the unit itself, the cable, or the TV.

As already said check your hdmi cable - think it has to be version 1.4. The proprietary apple hdmi cable worked best for me.

My ATV2 has been working fine for years with my 32" 720p Samsung TV and monoprice HDMI cable.

Try updating the firmware on your tv. I work for Comcast and we have issues with some of our newer boxes connecting through hdmi. A firmware update usually fixes it.

Topfry said:

The proprietary apple hdmi cable worked best for me.

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A cable is a cable - just ensure it is certified and good quality.

I think it might be time to get a new TV...

I'd try a different HDMI cable. It doesn't make sense how the Apple TV specifically could not be supported. It's output should be standard HDMI; did you try changing the resolution settings of the Apple TV and then connecting it to the Samsung TV, that could be an issue too.

jamesco said:

Ok, I have tried other cables, which are irrelevant as I have tried it on a phillips TV right next to a new Samsung 50 inch Smart tv - the Samsung wouldnt pick up the Apple TV but the Phillips did.

I have spoken with Samsung UK who said that Apple TV is no longer compatible, and like I said Apple do not have an answer, both in store and via the Apple helpline.

I tried 7 Samsung TVs and the only one it worked on was a 2011 30 inch TV.

I know this is strange and everyone is saying its not possible, but if you dont believe me try calling Samsung, explain the problem and they will tell you the same.

The guy in the TV store didnt believe me either until I pulled the Apple TV out and made him plug it into all the TVs - same message on all TVs saying "source is not connected"...

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I think your AppleTv is having issues, HW or SW, if there was a problem with ATV wouldn't you think there would be a lot more noise on the internets?
How many people have an AppleTV and a Samsung TV, I bet there are 1000's if not 10.000's, and they don't have the problems you have.
Return the AppleTv, and then buy a new one, if this has the same problems which I doubt return it again or buy another set.

As others have said, HDMI is HDMI, and do you really think Samsung would make it incompatible with AppleTV, if anyone finds out they are "history".

jamesco said:

I know this is strange and everyone is saying its not possible, but if you dont believe me try calling Samsung, explain the problem and they will tell you the same.

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Well this can be easily explained by the fact that 90% of people on customer phone tech support are complete and utter morons making $10 an hour (max) on their day to day paycheck job. None of these people have proper certifications or training to even begin to help you with an actual problem.

They go through prompts on a screen telling them to ask certain questions, then the computer spits out a response. If it is something the computer doesnt understand it immediately defaults to "its unsupported, so please go $%@! off".

Pyromonkey83 said:

If it is something the computer doesnt understand it immediately defaults to "its unsupported, so please go $%@! off".

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Based in India - Tech service will kill device if they steer you to odd key strokes.
Now Dead - They say, that's funny - that's what the last caller said.

Philscbx said:

Based in India - Tech service will kill device if they steer you to odd key strokes.
Now Dead - They say, that's funny - that's what the last caller said.

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The OP seems to be from Spain, Europe does not have such a problem, at least not as big as English speaking countries.

justperry said:

The OP seems to be from Spain, Europe does not have such a problem, at least not as big as English speaking countries.

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He actually said he called Samsung UK support... Also Spain's tech support goes through mexico just FYI, it is actually worse than India. Sure, you can understand them, but their average IQ is somewhere around -60.

Pyromonkey83 said:

He actually said he called Samsung UK support... Also Spain's tech support goes through mexico just FYI, it is actually worse than India. Sure, you can understand them, but their average IQ is somewhere around -60.

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As I said not as much as English speaking countries, there will be similar Customer services from elsewhere but there are so many different languages that most of Europe have local Customer Support.
Spanish happens to be another world language, not so much finnish,Danish,Dutch,Polish and so on.

I agree with others. It is not possible for a fully functioning apple tv to not work on a samsung tv. There is either something wrong with the apple tv, or something wrong with the tv. I would do a restore of the apple tv because chances are there is a resolution issue.

There is loads of stuff about it on the net, google is your friend

found this

"Plug the Apple TV into the HDMI input that is labelled HDMI 2. In the TVs menu, find the option that allows you to assign a name to the input. From the list of suggested names, select 'PC'.

This will make the TV think that the Apple TV is a computer and its HDMI processing will be done slightly differently and your Apple TV should now work with a stable picture."

"Both of my Samsungs have major issues. There are two fixes that work for this - either the simple method I outlined above about using HDMI 2 and labelling the input as PC (this method has a drawback of disabling the TVs colour and sharpness controls) or you go into the TV's service menu and turn off an option called HotPlug. (A Samsung engineer told me about this fix - he said he often is called out to people with various HDMI devices that don't play properly with various Samsung models and this is a near-universal fix for them.)

If you Samsung works 'out of the box' with the Apple TV you are either very lucky, have one (or two) of the rare unaffected models or connected via an AV amp that is sufficiently massaging the HDMI signal before it gets to the TV.

My first day with my Apple TV was a nightmare as I was unaware of this issue. My friend Mr. Google sorted it out."

Take it to an Apple genius or try it on someone else's TV. Do a factory reset. Could be a busted unit, it happens.

Mr-Kerrse said:

There is loads of stuff about it on the net, google is your friend

found this

"Plug the Apple TV into the HDMI input that is labelled HDMI 2. In the TVs menu, find the option that allows you to assign a name to the input. From the list of suggested names, select 'PC'.

This will make the TV think that the Apple TV is a computer and its HDMI processing will be done slightly differently and your Apple TV should now work with a stable picture."

"Both of my Samsungs have major issues. There are two fixes that work for this - either the simple method I outlined above about using HDMI 2 and labelling the input as PC (this method has a drawback of disabling the TVs colour and sharpness controls) or you go into the TV's service menu and turn off an option called HotPlug. (A Samsung engineer told me about this fix - he said he often is called out to people with various HDMI devices that don't play properly with various Samsung models and this is a near-universal fix for them.)

If you Samsung works 'out of the box' with the Apple TV you are either very lucky, have one (or two) of the rare unaffected models or connected via an AV amp that is sufficiently massaging the HDMI signal before it gets to the TV.

My first day with my Apple TV was a nightmare as I was unaware of this issue. My friend Mr. Google sorted it out."

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Hm, a fix.

Be very careful with the text in Bold, if you mess up the TV becomes a brick and the only way out is a new Logic board.
I have two LG and have them hacked so that I can record TV but other's have bricked their TV by fiddling with the wrong settings, change something and it's active immediately.

This makes me want to test my 3rd Gen AppleTV with my 32' Samsung Smart TV when I get home. Mine is currently plugged into a 55' LG 3D TV.

I have a 3rd gen ATV running on a Samsung ES6900 Smart TV. I found the HDMI port on the Apple TV is pretty unforgiving when it comes to cheapo HDMI cables, just give is a waggle if the pic flicks on there you go, or try another cable.

justperry said:

As others have said, HDMI is HDMI, and do you really think Samsung would make it incompatible with AppleTV, if anyone finds out they are "history".

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Well, HDMI only works if there is not too much noise in the total connection chain. You want to transmit a perfect digital signal. The connector on the AppleTV adds noise. The cable adds noise. The connector on the TV adds noise. If the total noise is too much, it doesn't work.

Hypothetically it would be possible that the AppleTV connector was rubbish (lots of noise), the cable excellent, and old Samsung TVs were excellent, so the sum is not too bad to stop it from working. And if a new Samsung TV had a rubbish connector, then it would work with a Bluray player with a good connection, but not with an AppleTV with a rubbish connector. Just hypothetically.

On the other hand, there are noise limits which no connector and no cable must exceed to be called "HDMI". Two connectors and one cable close to but below the noise limit will work. One bad item and two good ones will still work. One item above the limit and one or two close to the limit won't work.

jamesco said:

Hi all,
I have just purchased a brand new Apple TV from Apple in Marbella, Spain. I own a Samsung TV (2011 model) and for some reason it will NOT work on my TV. I took it back to Apple who said the Apple TV is fine, so I then called Apple help who said they had no idea why the TV wont recognise the problem, so I called Samsung who informed me that Apple TV is NOT compatible with any of their TVs.

So I took the Apple TV into a department store and tried it on every TV in there, and it does work on the odd Samsung TV but wont work on most. It is fine with every other make of TV though.

The message I get is that nothing is connected, liek the TV wont recognise anything is plugged into the HDMI port.

Can someone help as Im about to take it back to Apple for a refund unless theres a fix...

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Thats ridiculous, like others have said.

I run an Apple TV on my Samsung 55D8000 and it works just fine.