Getting Started with Samsung TV Development

Adapting your game for Samsung Smart TV is much like porting your game to any other platform with Unity. If your game already runs on mobile devices, you are halfway there! The hardware in the TV is very similar to mobile devices (ARM CPU + OpenGLES GPU), so you can expect similar performance metrics.

TV Models

There are several different TV models released each year. Unity works on the following models:

2013 Models:

2013 Standard 6000 Series (Mali–400 MP)
2013 Premium 7000 Series (Mali–450 MP)

2014 Models:

2014 Standard 6000 Series (Mali-T604)
2014 Premium 7000 Series (~Mali-T624)

2015 Models:

2015 Standard Series
2015 Premium Series (Mali-T760)

2016 Models:

2016 Standard Series
2016 Premium Series

Premium models have a faster CPU and higher end GPU.

Input Devices

The input mechanism is different depending on the model of TV.

2013 models have large touchpads on the remote where swiping is the main input mechanism.

2014 models have a tiny touchpad with an accelerometer in the remote, where you use gestures to control the TV.

2015 models have no touchpad. They have an accelerometer in the remote as well as air mouse capabilities.

2016 models have an IR remote and gamepad support

Unity makes dealing with different input devices easier by providing input modes. See the Input section for more details on input modes.

Platform Specific Code

To selectively compile in code for Samsung TV, use

#if UNITY_SAMSUNGTV
    // Samsung TV specific code
#endif

Note that this is also active for the editor.

To check at runtime if you are running on Samsung TV, use:

if (Application.platform == RuntimePlatform.SamsungTVPlayer)
{
    // Samsung TV specific code
}

You can obtain the model like this:

SystemInfo.deviceModel

Possible return values include:

STANDARD_13
STANDARD_14
STANDARD_15
STANDARD_16

This allows you to differentiate between tv years.

Samsung Documentation

Documentation is provided by Samsung on the topic of developing for Samsung Smart TV on Samsung’s developer forum. A lot of the information on this site does not apply to Unity users (it’s primarily supporting web / flash applications), but you may still find some of it useful.

Principles for Designing Applications for Samsung Smart TV (2014)

Submitting your application to the Samsung Apps TV store

In order to distribute your application to Samsung Apps TV store, you need to register your application and it must go through a certification process provided by Samsung or its Affiliate at Seller Office before being launched on the store.

Samsung TV

Samsung TV Setup