Playing External Music In The 'Art Mode' On The Frame TV

[Steve FrameTV]

I just purchased the 65" Art TV with a 5 speaker in-ceiling surround system.  When I select the Art Mode on my Frame TV, my connected stereo receiver turns off. Ergo there's no way to listen to my music while enjoying the art. Very disappointing and expensive. Someone previously wrote a poorly written response to the same  question in an earlier post suggesting there's a way to use the Smart App, (on my phone and or iPad?), to play music via bluetooth to the TV while in the Art Mode. I've tried this in multiple ways but obviously I am doing something wrong. If this is a legitimate  fix could someone please write a better written reply to this problem? Thank you.

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[Jeff P]

I have the exact same problem with my new 55" Frame.  This seems like an easy software fix and I would love to see this overside corrected.

I have tried virtually everything, including tech support and no solutions could be found.

Samsung.  What is the point of not being able to enjoy the art I had to purchase while listening to music on a receiver that in no way affects the TV output. 

[Jeff P]

I found the following article on of all places the Best Buy support site.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/questions/samsung-65-class-the-frame-series-led-4k-uhd-smart-tizen-tv/6...

What I did was pair my phone with the Frame TV while in Art mode.  My audio receiver was on and then on my iPhone I started playing music via bluetooth on Spotify to the Frame TV.  The Art stayed on and I was able to enjoy my music.

Why Samsung hasn't incorporated this option is with poor or lazy programing.

[Steve FrameTV]

A Patch Not A Fix. (But thank you)

Yes! Yes! Yes! Was my reaction when I first tried the 'use bluetooth’ answer offered in Jeff P's post above. Thank you!  I was briefly able to enjoy my expensive new Art TV and listen to music on my expensive new surround stereo - at the same time. Imagine that Samsung - at the same time!   But this method is a patch not a fix.  It only works for a short durations due to bluetooth drop outs between the tv and my devices or when either system off gets turned off. Consequently I have to reconnect to Bluetooth multiple times each day. Painful.  So shame on Samsung for not including this method in the users manual at least and for not taking the time to build the system right in the first place. Please fix this Samsung, I think we deserve better. Or please tell us if there is a better way to enjoy your Art TV and our music at the same time. Please!

[Shaunp1]

👆+1… I am having the same issue where the Bluetooth is dropping after about 30 seconds and the feature is unusable. Would love a fix for this ASAP

[GeeDub61]

Setting up my new Frame 55" and discovered this horrible shortcoming. Using the instructions in this thread, I was able to stream from my phone and to my AVR. Thanks for the help!

To be clear, the Best Buy link discusses streaming through the TV speakers rather than the AVR. So here's how I do it. If my AVR is powered on, switching to art mode turns it off. But after turning it back on (can't use the Samsung remote), Bluetoothing my phone to the TV, and turning the AVR back on, the sound gets routed to the AVR speakers. In fact, when I repeated this process, upon starting my streamer, the AVR powered on automatically and played the sound.

That solves the problem for streaming, but not for playing CDs through my Blu-ray player. Connecting the player to the AVR or to the TV made no difference. When the player is powered on, the TV kicks out of art mode.

I can understand why Samsung programmed the TV this way. If the Blu-ray player is turned on, they're assuming you want it as a video source, thus come out of art mode. (And since Blu-ray players output video even when playing a CD, the TV doesn't know that video isn't needed.) But there's a way Samsung could fix this: allow the user to override the external video source to go into art mode while not powering off the AVR and Blu-ray. There could be a setting for this option. They already route sound to the AVR from the external Bluetooth source while in art mode, so why not from the Blu-ray as well?

Come on, Samsung! Give us this capability to enjoy art and non-streaming music at the same time. (I already told you how to do it. Haha.)

[GeeDub61]

Has anyone thought about using a HDMI switch for this problem. Since the problem is that the TV powers off the AVR when art mode is selected, if you unswitched the TV-to-AVR connection, it would stay on and you could play music. Of course, your music source (e.g., Blu-ray player) would need to be plugged into the AVR, but it probably is anyways. The other port in the switch would be empty, so you'd essentially be switching the HDMI connection to the AVR on and off.

Might this work? Switch isn't very expensive. Probably need one that's ARC capable, I would think.