LG TV IP Driver - Released

[livitup]

5 minutes ago, annex⁴ said:

I can guarantee annex4 has never told any dealer that LG has removed WOL for wired connections.  I can't speak to the rest of your network.

Bizarre. Either my dealer misunderstood the communication from Annex4 or I misunderstood him.

6 minutes ago, annex⁴ said:

In your whole description you mention the router and the WAP but not what switch you have.  With the number of installs that are currently working and the fact we have heard about no failures after the fact on any installation except yours.  There is something in your network causing you issues.  I would swap out pieces and see which one makes everything start working.

I'm sorry if I sound frustrated, but I agree 100% it's something with my network causing issues.  I have never pointed the finger at anyone else, and I have never tried to blame Annex4, the driver, my dealer, or anyone except LG and Cisco. Please stop telling me it's my network, because I agree!

My network looks like this:

		    E1|---> Switch -> LG TVs
		      |
Internet => Router => |
		      |
		    E2|---> Firewall -> Switch -> EA-5
					|
					|-------> WAP

The router is an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite
The Firewall is a Meraki MX-64
The Switches are Meraki MS-22P
The WAP is a Meraki MR-33

The TVs and the EA-5 were originally on different subnets with the WoL packets forwarded to the TV Subnet.  Putting them on the same subnet, still using wired connections didn't help. Only when moving them to WiFi did it work. I didn't spend much time messing with the wired connectivity because the dealer had already proven them working on the non-Cisco WiFi.

I'm going to switch back to wired and mess with it some and see if I can't get it working or get some more useful debugging information.

I appreciate your help, everyone, and again - I'm not pointing fingers at Annex4!

[annex⁴]

We are trying to help you in where to look in your network and where you should troubleshoot.

Why is there a firewall in between the TVs and the Controller and WiFi.  Remove and likely problem solved.

Not sure of the purpose of the unorthodox setup but a more simplified typical network setup would likely give better results.

[SurfNTech]

47 minutes ago, livitup said:

Bizarre. Either my dealer misunderstood the communication from Annex4 or I misunderstood him.

I'm sorry if I sound frustrated, but I agree 100% it's something with my network causing issues.  I have never pointed the finger at anyone else, and I have never tried to blame Annex4, the driver, my dealer, or anyone except LG and Cisco. Please stop telling me it's my network, because I agree!

My network looks like this:

		    E1|---> Switch -> LG TVs
		      |
Internet => Router => |
		      |
		    E2|---> Firewall -> Switch -> EA-5
					|
					|-------> WAP

The router is an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite
The Firewall is a Meraki MX-64
The Switches are Meraki MS-22P
The WAP is a Meraki MR-33

The TVs and the EA-5 were originally on different subnets with the WoL packets forwarded to the TV Subnet.  Putting them on the same subnet, still using wired connections didn't help. Only when moving them to WiFi did it work. I didn't spend much time messing with the wired connectivity because the dealer had already proven them working on the non-Cisco WiFi.

I'm going to switch back to wired and mess with it some and see if I can't get it working or get some more useful debugging information.

I appreciate your help, everyone, and again - I'm not pointing fingers at Annex4!

Why is your network setup so odd?

It sounds like you are frustrated but it seems people here are trying to help and you are dead set on getting defensive.

It amazes me after following this forum for years how people want to blame everyone but themselves. Sure we are customers but if we trust our dealers we need to let them do their job.

I handed over the keys to my network years ago and my dealer has done great, I know what I'm doing as I'm in the tech sector but I have better things to do.  It's not worth wasting my money debating with my dealer.

I have run the LG on 8 TVs for a year and zero issues.  Works awesome.

Sounds like you are in a bad situation and just want to have things work, but cut everyone some slack and get back to a basic network setup.  My wife made me take my hands off the wheel, as I travel too much and instead of micromanaging the system any issues her or I call the dealer and done. Everyone is much happier.

[SurfNTech]

I love this driver, wasn't sure about paying for it when my dealer suggested it but it has been great. We use the pop-up messages all the time.

Started with 4 TVs and we liked the features of this driver so much the wife made me upgrade the other 4 TVs in the house to LG.

You know things are worth it when the wife tells you to replace all the TVs in the house to be the same brand.

Loving the LG integration!!!

[Crustyloafer]

Out of interest, what do you use the pop up messages for? Only just started using this driver and like it a lot but have not used any of the toast message functions or know how to go about configuring them.

[livitup]

4 hours ago, SurfNTech said:

Why is your network setup so odd?

It sounds like you are frustrated but it seems people here are trying to help and you are dead set on getting defensive.

It amazes me after following this forum for years how people want to blame everyone but themselves. Sure we are customers but if we trust our dealers we need to let them do their job.

I handed over the keys to my network years ago and my dealer has done great, I know what I'm doing as I'm in the tech sector but I have better things to do.  It's not worth wasting my money debating with my dealer.

I have run the LG on 8 TVs for a year and zero issues.  Works awesome.

Sounds like you are in a bad situation and just want to have things work, but cut everyone some slack and get back to a basic network setup.  My wife made me take my hands off the wheel, as I travel too much and instead of micromanaging the system any issues her or I call the dealer and done. Everyone is much happier.

 

4 hours ago, annex⁴ said:

We are trying to help you in where to look in your network and where you should troubleshoot.

Why is there a firewall in between the TVs and the Controller and WiFi.  Remove and likely problem solved.

Not sure of the purpose of the unorthodox setup but a more simplified typical network setup would likely give better results.

Like I said, not defensive, not blaming anyone, no need to cut slack - because I am not pulling the rope tight!   I'm only frustrated because everyone keeps reiterating what I already know: my network is not working right!

I've said from the first post that I put most of the blame on Meraki for disassociating WiFi clients when they go into low power mode, and some on LG for removing wired WoL support.  Since starting this conversation, I have learned that my information about LG wired WoL support was erroneous, and now I've shifted most of the blame on to myself for a possible network configuration issue, and partially on Meraki because the way it's set up now should work, even if it's sub-optimal.  It's Meraki not implementing the 802.11 protocol rules correctly that's causing my current problem.

My network is unorthodox.  There's a good reason.  I have Gigabit internet, but my firewall will only process 250Mb/s of traffic.  The equivalent firewall to the one I have that will process 1 Gb/s of traffic is $10k list.  I have a Kaleidescape, 8 TVs with smart apps, 3 AppleTVs, DirecTV Video on Demand, and 2 teenagers with mobile devices that could be streaming at any point in time.  I made the conscious decision to set up an "outer network" that is not behind my firewall for any "appliance" that does streaming.  They are still somewhat protected by virtue of being behind the router's NAT.  But those devices can get full speed access to the Internet, without chipping away at the 250Mb/s throughput limit of my firewall.  Everything with Windows, OS X, or iOS installed on it goes to the switch or WAP that is behind the firewall.  All my streaming devices get the outside network.  I figure if the Chinese can bore through my NAT set up and rootkit my Kaleidescape, well then they can have my movies.

I do this stuff for a living day in, and day out.  I've been a network engineer/architect for 20 years.  I'm not saying that to get into a "mine is bigger than yours" debate, but just to let you know that handing the keys to my network over to my dealer would probably not increase the level of expertise on this particular part of my install.  I freely admit that my dealer knows a ton more about Control4, AV equipment, automation system design, et al. than I do.

Like I said last night - I need to do more investigation on why it wasn't working with the wired setup. I took my dealer's word for it that WiFi was the answer. I'll report back anything I find out!

[livitup]

For purposes of troubleshooting I connected an Ethernet cable from the TV to the same network switch as the EA-5 is connected to.

I assigned it the same IP address it was using when it was on WiFi, which is the same IP address that is configured in the driver.

I rechecked everything in the driver documentation:

• In the "Mobile TV ON" there is only one option, "Turn on via WiFi". This setting is turned on.  (This is what made me and my dealer suspect Wired WoL was depreciated in the first place.)
• "Quick Start+" is turned on. (The driver doc says "Quick Start" but I do not have that option, only Quick Start+.)
• "LG Connected Apps" is turned on.

With the TV Powered on, I can click the "Pair" button, and get the popup on the TV, which I accepted.

I can click "Display Version" in Composer and the Toast message appears on the TV. (3.14.309)

If I manually power off the TV,  originally nothing could turn it back on.  Not Control4, not my standalone Wake on LAN tool, not my network gear's built-in WoL capability. Running debug on the driver shows the driver sending the WoL packet and timing out.

To be clear, the TV and the EA-5 are now on the same physical switch, on the same subnet, on the same VLAN, etc.

The TV is running WebOS 04.70.10.

The TV remains "online" from the perspective of my switch (the switch port is still connected) when the TV is off.

I started doing packet capture on my LAN to see what was happening.  During testing, the TV randomly, but consistently started powering on with commands issued by my PC. (Random as in I don't know what made it start working, consistent, as it has worked ever since it started working.)

My PC is 10.168.0.15, the Controller is 10.168.0.35, and the TV is 10.168.0.28.

Here is a packet capture of a WoL sent from my standalone tool on my PC that successfully wakes up the TV:

Frame 10: 148 bytes on wire (1184 bits), 148 bytes captured (1184 bits)
Ethernet II, Src: Pegatron_d7:6c:15 (20:25:64:d7:6c:15), Dst: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff)
    Destination: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff)
    Source: Pegatron_d7:6c:15 (20:25:64:d7:6c:15)
    Type: 802.1Q Virtual LAN (0x8100)
802.1Q Virtual LAN, PRI: 0, DEI: 0, ID: 1
Internet Protocol Version 4, Src: 10.168.0.15, Dst: 10.168.0.255
User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: 65245, Dst Port: 40000
    Source Port: 65245
    Destination Port: 40000
    Length: 110
    Checksum: 0xf12d [unverified]
    [Checksum Status: Unverified]
    [Stream index: 0]
Wake On LAN, MAC: LgElectr_8e:fc:ab (38:8c:50:8e:fc:ab)
    Sync stream: ffffffffffff
    MAC: LgElectr_8e:fc:ab (38:8c:50:8e:fc:ab)

Packet capture from my switch when I try to do a "Watch" action from C4:

Frame 21: 148 bytes on wire (1184 bits), 148 bytes captured (1184 bits)
Ethernet II, Src: Control4_90:01:65 (00:0f:ff:90:01:65), Dst: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff)
    Destination: Broadcast (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff)
    Source: Control4_90:01:65 (00:0f:ff:90:01:65)
    Type: 802.1Q Virtual LAN (0x8100)
802.1Q Virtual LAN, PRI: 0, DEI: 0, ID: 1
Internet Protocol Version 4, Src: 10.168.0.35, Dst: 255.255.255.255
User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: 57502, Dst Port: 9
    Source Port: 57502
    Destination Port: 9
    Length: 110
    Checksum: 0x214a [unverified]
    [Checksum Status: Unverified]
    [Stream index: 1]
Wake On LAN, MAC: Arcadyan_d8:df:bf (48:8d:36:d8:df:bf)
    Sync stream: ffffffffffff
    MAC: Arcadyan_d8:df:bf (48:8d:36:d8:df:bf)

The only difference I can see is that my PC tool is sending the WoL magic packet to the subnet broadcast IP address (10.168.0.255) whereas C4 is sending the broadcast to the global broadcast IP address (255.255.255.255).  There are a few other minor differences in the IP headers: C4 sets the "Don't Fragment" bit and it sets the TTL lower, but otherwise they are identical.

Note that these captures were collected on the port that the TV is connected to, so both of these frames were definitely sent to the TV.

Ideas?

[THEORY]

Confirm you have the correct MAC address in the driver and not the old WiFi one.

[livitup]

Confirm you have the correct MAC address in the driver and not the old WiFi one.

Derp. I didn’t notice/realize the MAC was configured in the driver, but of course that makes sense.

I’ll have to get my dealer (or any dealer) to update them, since they can’t be edited in HE.

[lippavisual]

Why all the meraki hardware?  Is it because that is what you work with? you mentioned this is your job.

Your setup is what is killing you.  Also, Meraki can also flood your network when constantly trying to ping/access their cloud portal.  Trust me, I’ve witnessed it.

Used to like them when Meraki was Meraki.  But now that Cisco is involved, I’ve stayed away.

This network could easily be given full gigabit Access, separate Vlans and a solid firewall using a single $180 Mikrotik.

[livitup]

24 minutes ago, lippavisual said:

Why all the meraki hardware?  Is it because that is what you work with? you mentioned this is your job.

Your setup is what is killing you.  Also, Meraki can also flood your network when constantly trying to ping/access their cloud portal.  Trust me, I’ve witnessed it.

Used to like them when Meraki was Meraki.  But now that Cisco is involved, I’ve stayed away.

This network could easily be given full gigabit Access, separate Vlans and a solid firewall using a single $180 Mikrotik.

 

I generally like Meraki gear, even post Cisco acquisition.  I actually don't use Meraki at work, only traditional Cisco gear (now a-days it's mostly Nexus and ASR stuff). But I appreciate a lot about Meraki's model and 99% of the time it works flawlessly for me.  This is only the second time in the 2+ years I've had this setup that I've wished for CLI access because Meraki is missing a feature available in bigger Cisco metal.

Anyway, I was out for the last few hours and just got home. I checked and found that the MAC address is actually a HE user editable field in the driver's properties. I changed the MAC for one of the TVs, and it's working fine.

I suspect that the TV being on a different subnet was the cause of the original issue. I had set up the Meraki equivalent of directed broadcast - which should have forwarded the WoL packets to the subnet where the TVs are, but it must not have been. My dealer started making changes to my network before I had the chance to troubleshoot that.

I appreciate everyone trying to help. For now, I think this can be laid to rest. I'll update if I manage to get the two subnet setup working, just in case anyone cares.

[AidenL]

On 15/11/2016 at 9:54 PM, annex⁴ said:

We have released the LG WebOS Smart TV IP Driver for Control4 for LG 2016+ Web OS 3.0. Must have "Mobile TV On" Setting.

This is the most feature rich TV driver to ever be released for Control4!

https://annex4.link/drivers/lg-webos-smarttv

Those interested please have your dealer contact us to setup an account, this process does require a 15 minute phone call for initial account setup, which is a short walk through of our platform and how it works. 

The driver features the following and more

• IP Control of Built-In TV Apps with Mini Drivers
• Toast messages to popup on screen, ie. Door Open, Door locked, Door bell pressed, or any other message required.
• Button bindings for quick binding to Lights or Lighting Scenes upon TV power on or off
• Mouse Mode
• Auto Input Select if input changed outside of Control4, ie. LG Remote used to change app.
• Volume Level Feedback
• Mini Drivers - Vudu, Hulu, Amazon Video, Netflix, YouTube, Crackle, Google Play, Plex, and more
• Many More Features

 

I'd be interested in this, but its quite expensive - are there any special offers coming up? 

[Crustyloafer]

Bear in mind the cost is per site, so for a single TV it’s quite expensive but as soon as you have multiple LG TVs in the same project all using the same driver it works out very cost effective. 

That said, I have heard that Control4 will be releasing their own in-house LG Web OS drivers and mini drivers which will inevitably be free which may spur Annex.4 to make some changes to their pricing for that driver. 

[AidenL]

31 minutes ago, Crustyloafer said:

Bear in mind the cost is per site, so for a single TV it’s quite expensive but as soon as you have multiple LG TVs in the same project all using the same driver it works out very cost effective. 

That said, I have heard that Control4 will be releasing their own in-house LG Web OS drivers and mini drivers which will inevitably be free which may spur Annex.4 to make some changes to their pricing for that driver. 

I only have one OLED, so I best hang on and see what happens then.

[HOMECINEMAS]

This is the best and only LG IP driver!

It works 100%. 

[projekZERO]

On 8/20/2017 at 11:18 PM, annex⁴ said:

We have virtually no issues with the driver in over 24 countries. If you are having problems on multiple TVs it's likely something with your setup.  I would have your dealer contact us and we can help them troubleshoot.  We have people running the TV having paired once a year ago and it continues to work.

Sorry I never followed up on this. We updated the system when 2.10 first came out and that somehow fixed the issue. It has been many months now and all the LG TVs fire up and shut down instantly and consistently.

Believe me when I say the issues we were having before updating to 2.10 were real. We didn’t do anything to the TVs, all we did was update the controller and everything has been perfect. We weren’t expecting the update to change anything with the LG driver, but it was a nice surprise and I’ll take it.

[timbooo]

Sorry if I'm a dumbo but what's the procedure for connecting the mini apps?

[msgreenf]

This is the best and only LG IP driver!
It works 100%. 

It's not the only any longer

Sent from my BBF100-2 using Tapatalk

[timbooo]

42 minutes ago, msgreenf said:

It's not the only any longer

Sent from my BBF100-2 using Tapatalk
 

So where is the other one?

[msgreenf]

I'm the driver database

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Rexabyte]

6 hours ago, timbooo said:

Sorry if I'm a dumbo but what's the procedure for connecting the mini apps?

Bind the Mini Driver to the "WebOS App #" and "LG WebOS Mini Drivers" connections.

[Randylw21]

On 3/28/2019 at 9:48 AM, msgreenf said:

I'm the driver database

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
 

What driver are you referring to? What’s the driver name? Is this something new? Curious. 

[msgreenf]

Search for lg... There are dozens

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[rea]

56 minutes ago, Randylw21 said:

What driver are you referring to? What’s the driver name? Is this something new? Curious. 

https://drivers.control4.com/solr/drivers/browse?&fq=certified%3A"true"&fq=manufacturer%3A"LG"&fq=primaryProxy%3A"tv"&fq=controlMethod%3A"ip"&q=&start=0

[Gary Leeds UK]

We have a LG tv and the C4 driver is no longer working after a recent update 

waiting for dealer to sort 

we have used Wemo plug to get round the issue at the moment