PSxxC7000


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The PSxxC7000 is Samsung's series 7 3D Plasma. It comes in 50, 58 or 63 inch sizes (PS50C7000, PS58C7000, and PS63C7000).

If you are thinking of buying this TV, downsides you need to be aware of are that the TV always makes a low buzzing sound while the screen is on, and it gets quite hot, and wastes lots of electricity (so make sure you are using 100% green electricity if you don't want to destroy the planet). If you stand close you can also see the pixels flashing, which is how all Plasma TVs work. Also 3D only works over HDMI cables or digital 3D broadcasts, not VGA, component, or AV cables. There is no S-VIDEO input. There is some ghosting in 3D high contrast scenes. Other than that, it's a good, cheap, 3D TV.

You can install SamyGO on this TV, but there are no games, emulators, web-browsers, or other applications written for this TV yet (as of February 2011). Installing the SamyGO extensions will let you watch movies on your PC's shared network drives though.

Checking Firmware Version

Do NOT upgrade to firmware 3006 or above yet, or you won't be able to hack your TV and install SamyGO the easy way.

There are several different firmware versions for this TV. You can check what firmware version you have from the menu:

  • Turn the TV ON
  • Press MENU on the remote control
  • Go down to the (?) icon (Support) at the bottom of the list by pressing down on the remote a few times
  • Press either right or enter on the remote to access the submenu
  • Go down to the "Contact Samsung" option at the bottom of the submenu by pressing down on the remote a few times
  • Press either right or enter on the remote to see the "Contact Samsung" screen
  • Press down on the remote to view page 2/2 of the "Contact Samsung" screen
  • Make a note of the "Model Code" and "Software Version"
  • Optional: If you are curious and want to see a list of all the Open Source software used on your TV, press the red A button on your remote. You don't need to write any of that down. Just notice how your TV is basically a linux computer.
  • Press EXIT

The Model should say PS50C7000, PS58C7000, or PS63C7000. If not, you are on the wrong Wiki page.

The Firmware should always be T-VALDEUC- followed by a version number. Any version up to 3005 should be OK for installing SamyGO. Versions 3006 and above disable the Internet@TV hack, and need to use the Hotel@USB hack instead.

The Service Menu

Before we hack our TV, we need to make sure we can fix it again if something goes wrong. For that, we need to change a setting in the service menu, and take photos of, or write down, some of the service menu options. This whole section is just to protect us if something goes wrong.

Warning! The Service Menu is dangerous, and can brick your TV. Be very careful about what you change. Some settings can't be undone easily.

Your TV has a secret service menu for TV technicians to fix your TV. To access this menu:

  • Switch your TV OFF
  • Press INFO on the remote
  • Press MENU on the remote
  • Press MUTE on the remote
  • Turn your TV ON

You are now in the service menu. If you want to get out of the service menu, just turn your TV off.

You should take a picture of the information it displays, or if you don't have a camera, write it down, just in case.

On the right is some information about your TV, and on your left is a menu.

Warning: The only safe buttons on the remote control here are up, down, and RETURN. Pressing left or right will change settings.

We need to change a setting to enable the serial (aka COM or RS232) port on the back of the TV. Actually it's the VGA port, but in an emergency you will later be able to get or make a special adapter to convert it to a serial port.

  • Press down on the remote to go to the "Control" menu.
  • Press enter or right on the remote.
  • In the Control menu, press down on the remote to go to the "Sub Option" menu.
  • press enter or right on the remote.
  • Take a photo of the "Sub Option" menu, or write down the settings if you don't have a camera.
  • The first option on this menu is "RS-232 Jack". Press left twice on the remote to change it to "Debug" (instead of the default UART).
  • Press RETURN on the remote

Another setting some SamyGO pages recommend is turning "Watchdog" off. The Watchdog is a feature that automatically restarts the TV's main exeDSP program whenever exeDSP is terminated or interfered with. I don't know whether it's good to change this setting or not, but I switched it off. You can always switch it back on again later.

  • Press down on the remote to go to the second option "Watchdog"
  • Press right twice on the remote to change it to "OFF"
  • Press RETURN on the remote

Now we just need to take photos of a few more settings, just in case!

  • Press RETURN on the remote to go back to the "Control" menu.
  • Go down to the "SOUND" menu, press right, take a photo, press RETURN
  • Go down to the "Config Option" menu, press right, take a photo, press RETURN
  • Press RETURN on the remote to go back to the main menu.
  • Go up to the "Option" menu, press right, take a photo, press RETURN
  • Go down to the "SVC" menu, press right, take a photo, press RETURN

Leave the other menu options alone.

  • Switch your TV OFF again.

When you turn your TV back on again, you will not be in the service menu any more.

Internet@TV

This TV does not have wireless networking (unless you pay a hundred dollars for a Samsung Wireless adapter)! Sounds like false advertising to me. You will need a long network (ethernet) cable (not included) to plug your TV into your modem or router.

  • Connect your TV to the internet using the network cable or the wireless adapter. You might need to go into the menu and change your network settings. You will be able to find other tutorials on the internet about how to connect your TV to the internet.
  • Make sure your TV is ON
  • Press "INTERNET @TV" on the remote
  • If you haven't used Internet@TV before you might need to click OK on a few dialog boxes and/or wait a while for it to install and update properly. It's safe to update Internet@TV, just don't update your firmware.
  • On the main "Internet @TV" screen, press left, down, right on the remote to go to the "Settings" button.
  • Press enter
  • In the Settings menu, press down to go to "Internet@TV Login ID"
  • Press right
  • Press enter on "Create Your Login ID"
  • Now you need to type in "develop". This is a special username that allows you to access a secret menu option to create your own widgets.
  • press enter
  • You need to choose a PIN number and type it in twice. I recommend "0 0 0 0"
  • If it shows you a message, press enter for OK
  • When it gives you a list of services you can connect to, just press RETURN on the remote
  • It should say "Creating Account Complete", so press enter for OK
  • Press RETURN a few times to get back to Internet@TV
  • Press the red A button to login
  • Press right until it says "develop"
  • Press down, then type in your PIN number (0 0 0 0)
  • wait a second then press enter
  • You are now logged in as "develop", so when you go back to the settings menu, it will have extra options.
  • Press left, down, right, to go back to the "Settings" button and press enter
  • Press down until you get to the last menu item "Development" (which wasn't there before). If you don't see that menu item, then it means you are not logged in as the user "develop", so go back and try again.
  • Press right
  • On "Setting Server IP" press enter
  • You now need to type in the following IP address: 188.126.44.135
  • Press enter, NOT RETURN (the instructions on the screen are wrong). If you pressed RETURN you will need to set the IP address again.
  • Now press down to go to "User Application Synchronization" and press enter.

It will now load the hack widget from your webserver on your computer.

  • press enter on the message

Hack your TV

  • Go back to the main Internet@TV screen, then use the arrows to choose the empty hole in "My Applications" where there should be a button. It should say "Hack your TV".
  • Press enter
  • In the Hack your TV widget, choose "Hack Your TV" and press enter
  • When it says your TV has been hacked, insert a USB memory stick and choose "Check Hack". It should tell you if it was successful.
  • You can now remove your USB stick and press EXIT on the remote.

Note: the Hack your TV widget will be automatically deleted each time you use Internet@TV, but your TV will stay hacked. To uninstall the hack, you need to install the widget again, run it again, and choose to remove the hack.

The hack will be removed when you upgrade or downgrade your firmware. The Service Menu setting "RS-232 Jack" to "Debug" will also be reset after you upgrade or downgrade the firmware. So repeat the whole process whenever you change firmware.

On your USB stick...

  • Format a USB stick with FAT32 or NTFS
  • Download SamyGO Extension Pack and extract to root directory (choose the right pack matching your TV's firmware, for example: T-VALDEUC)
  • Download run_sh.zip and extract to root directory

Starting the SamyGO Extensions...

Turn on TV and plug USB stick, then wait for the message box to disappear, wait some more time (~20 seconds), then try to login via SSH.

IP: You must know it
User: "root"
Pass: "SamyGO")

You can use PuTTY for this. If it does not work, the file "rcSGO_out" on your USB stick could help identifying the problem.

Mounting NFS shares...

In this example a folder "share" is created on the USB stick. Then a NFS share called "videos" is mounted to it. You must know the IP address where the NFS share is located.

mkdir /dtv/usb/sda1/share
/bin/mount -o nolock <IP>:/videos /dtv/usb/sda1/share -t nfs

Linux supports NFS by default, Windows does'nt. For evaluation purposes you might try Hanewin NFS Server, it will work for 30 days as a trial.

Things to keep in mind

  • When editing scripts, always make sure line breaks are done with unix style "LF", NOT Windows' "CRLF"!