A couple of days ago I saw Ryan Doyle’s post about using Claude Code to customise his TV and thought I’d see what I could do with mine.
https://x.com/doooyle/status/2111196679680540724
My TV is a 2024 Samsung 'The Frame', running Tizen.
I hate Samsung's Smart Hub or whatever they call it and wanted a simpler home screen focused on apps I use.
For now, I’ve called my answer to that Clean Frame.
Since posting a few screenshots, I’ve had questions about how I got it working on Samsung, whether it still works as a Frame for art, and whether I’ll share the repo. A couple of people had already tried with Claude and got stuck.
I don't have a lot of time to write this up personally, so I got Codex to review our threads, dictated to it for a few minutes, and it published what you'll read below.
A quick disclaimer:
I’m absolutely not an expert. There are almost certainly risks here, and changing these settings could cause problems or leave your TV unusable. If you try this, proceed at your own risk.
Getting an app onto the TV
I started pretty conservatively before worrying about how it looked, I wanted to see if I could even get my own app onto the TV.
I used Codex with Astra to work through the Samsung setup, starting with Developer Mode on the TV and a connection from my computer. Tizen has developer tools for installing your own apps, so that was where we started.
The app itself is just HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Samsung’s tools package that up so it can run on the TV. Tizen still runs the TV, and Clean Frame opens the streaming apps already installed on it.
The first version was very basic. I could move between a couple of apps with the remote, press OK, and open Netflix or YouTube. That was all I needed to try at that point.
The first version I tested and installed on the TV.
Once that worked, I could start thinking about what I actually wanted to put on the screen.
If you’re trying this yourself, here’s the setup:
- Put the computer and TV on the same local network.
- Open Apps → App Settings on the TV and enter 12345 with the remote’s number pad.
- Turn Developer Mode on and enter the computer’s local IP address in the Host PC IP field.
- Restart the TV, then connect from the computer using Samsung’s development tools.
- Use Samsung’s certificate tools to create an author certificate and a distributor certificate. Add your TV’s device ID (DUID) to the distributor certificate, then package and install your app.
The addresses are easy to mix up. You enter the computer’s IP on the TV, then use the TV’s IP to connect from the computer. Samsung’s connection guide and certificate guide walk through it.
Once you’ve installed Samsung’s SDB tool, these are the commands to connect and check that the TV shows up. Replace TV_IP with your TV’s local address:
1sdb connect TV_IP:261012sdb devices
I had to turn my Frame off at the wall and back on before the computer would connect. Pressing Power on the remote was just putting it into Art Mode.
We also had an app rejected because of how we’d signed it. Using Samsung’s own packaging tools sorted that out.
What prompt did I use?
Someone asked for the prompt because Codex was flagging their attempt. Others said Claude had told them this wasn’t possible on Tizen, or had only got as far as building a custom app. I don’t know what was different in those sessions. Codex with Astra got it working on mine, and I approached it a step at a time.
This is an example of where I’d start, rather than the exact prompt from my session:
1Help me build a simple launcher for my own Samsung Frame.2Check my model and firmware against Samsung’s developer docs.3Start with a basic signed Tizen app that can open an existing4streaming app. Leave Home and startup settings alone until5we’ve got that working on the TV.
Working out how it should look
I used Codex and Claude Opus 5.5 to try a few designs. Some were simple lists with big app names. Others had a dock or a grid over a photo. Seeing them side by side helped me work out what I liked.
Shore Tiles, an early glass-grid design I tried in the browser.
From there, I kept tweaking the layout, the type and how it felt to use with the remote.
I also had a little appearance builder in the browser where I could try different backgrounds, fonts, layouts and glass effects together. That made it easier to see what worked before putting it on the TV.
The appearance builder, where I could try the different options side by side.
I ended up keeping a list and a dock, with settings to choose the background, fonts and icons. I can also choose which apps appear and put them in the order I want.
The list layout, shown in the browser.
People have asked whether it’s fast. It didn’t start that way. The glass effect looked good in the browser, but moving around felt sluggish on the TV. Two things fixed it: optimising the images and preparing the glass effects beforehand, rather than making the TV draw them on the fly. It’s super responsive now. The streaming apps themselves still take the same amount of time to open.
The app list needed cleaning up, too. When I asked Tizen for the installed apps, it returned hundreds of entries. A lot were background services, account tools and system apps. We added a filter that checks each entry’s name and app ID, keeps the streaming apps I use, and leaves those internal bits out of the picker. They’re still on the TV doing their jobs. This just cleans up the list in Clean Frame; it doesn’t uninstall or disable them.
I made the app names bigger and gave them more space so they were easier to read from the couch. I also wanted it to be obvious which app I’d selected, and to come back to the same place after closing Settings. There was a fair bit of going back and forth on those smaller details.
Making it the home screen
Once I was happy with how it worked, I wanted to be able to press Home and come back to it.
We tried Samsung’s startup settings first. I turned off Start with Smart Hub Home and turned on Autorun Last App. That brought Clean Frame back when I turned the TV on, as long as it was the last app I’d used.
Getting Home to bring me back after watching something took a bit more work. Installing Clean Frame gave me an app I could open, but the TV still needed to be told to use it as Home. We used a small helper program that runs once on the TV through the developer connection. It changes the TV’s Home setting to point to Clean Frame and enables automatic launch for that Home app. We saved the original settings first and checked that we could restore them.
I tested that with Netflix. Once it was open, I pressed Home on the normal remote and came straight back to Clean Frame. So I could open an app, then get back to my own home screen with the same button I’d normally use.
If you’re trying to do the same, this part goes beyond Samsung’s documented app setup. Mine is an LS03D Frame running firmware 2130.0. The reference we used was for a different Samsung model, so we checked it against my TV before making the change. The helper only needed to run once, so I don’t need to leave my Mac connected for it to work.
It ran through the developer connection and didn’t need root access. I’d still treat this part carefully. It changes the TV’s Home settings, and a different model or firmware may behave differently.
Where it’s up to
It’s installed on my TV and working well. I can change the layout, fonts and background, and keep the apps I want in the order I want them.
The normal remote works, pressing Home brings me back to Clean Frame, and I can still use the TV for art.
Here are a few combinations I’ve been trying. I can change the background, layout, font, focus style and how the apps and Home controls appear. These screenshots are from the current app running in the browser.
The Focus settings, with a preview of how Glass and Clear tint look on Home.
Blue Peaks with the list layout, Mori typography, Type focus and icons for the Home controls.
Text only on black, with Mori typography and Type focus.
Mountain Valley with the dock layout, Clear tint material and Glass focus.
At the time of writing, quite a few people have asked for a link to the repo. I’m still working through a few things and may add it here later. In the meantime, this guide should get you most of the way towards making your own, starting with your TV’s model and firmware and taking it a step at a time.
A few questions from the replies
Can I still use it as a Frame for art?
Yep. That still works. The backgrounds in Clean Frame are separate from Samsung’s Art Mode.
What happens when Netflix or the other apps update?
They’re still the apps installed and managed by the TV. Clean Frame just opens them. I’m not maintaining separate versions of Netflix or YouTube. A Samsung firmware update is a different question: I haven’t tested how the Home setup holds up through one of those yet.
Did you replace Tizen or install Android?
The TV still runs Tizen. Clean Frame is a Tizen app, and I changed the Home setting so it opens when I press Home. I didn’t install Android or replace the TV’s operating system.
Will this work on other TVs?
People have asked about older Samsungs, LG, Hisense and Vizio - I have no idea about those. But there's seems to be a growing list people doing this across a lot of models. and as far as I can see, Tizen seems like one of the more difficult ones, so there's a good chance your TV would work.
Is the interface in 4K?
The interface is built at 1920 × 1080 and scales to fit the screen. I haven’t built a native 4K version. That’s separate from the video quality inside the streaming apps.
Does it work with Home Assistant?
There isn’t a Home Assistant integration in Clean Frame at the moment. So far, I’ve focused on the home screen and using it with the normal remote. that said, at the end of the day it's just a web app and you could fairly trivially incorporate a lot of other functionality, so this is very likely possible.
