Heck, I\u2019d give Samsung 50 bucks just to let us disable the volume indicator. Failing that, let\u2019s see if shame works.<\/p>\n
Let me be clear: One of the final deciding reasons I chose the Samsung S90C over the LG C3 was that LG had failed me before. My LG E7 OLED, purchased from a not-long-for-this-world Fry\u2019s Electronics<\/a> in 2018, eventually developed a large heat blemish (not your typical burn-in) that sometimes discolored the picture. Before that, my previous Sony TV developed a line of dark pixels shortly after the warranty expired.<\/p>\n But both Sony and LG had unobtrusive onscreen volume indicators, just little icons near the edge of the screen. Samsung believes that anyone who ever needs things a little louder or quieter is willing to tolerate this aberration:<\/p>\n This eyesore stretches nearly a third of the way across the screen, vertically and horizontally, obscuring the incredible moving art I\u2019m trying to watch underneath. And if you\u2019re using a receiver, it consumes all this screen space to convey basically zero information. Not the current volume level, unless you\u2019re using the TV\u2019s built-in speakers, and not whether I\u2019m getting a stereo or surround or Dolby Atmos signal.<\/p>\n It is the Samsung equivalent of Microsoft Clippy, but worse: \u201cLooks like you\u2019re trying to adjust the volume!\u201d<\/p>\n We watch plenty of movies that contain both too-loud action and too-quiet dialogue, at an hour when kids are supposed to be in bed, so we\u2019re adjusting that volume all the time.<\/p>\n In 2023, user \u201c1544CT\u201d on the Samsung Community forums complained that<\/a> \u201cas a person that watches a lot of Movies and shows I can no longer recommend Samsung until this annoyance is fixed.\u201d But they didn\u2019t seem optimistic. After all, the company hadn\u2019t yet acted on a 26-page thread<\/a> about the annoyance from 2020, one that now has over 130,000 views.<\/p>\n 1\/13Gallery: 12 places on the internet I found people complaining about the volume OSD.<\/p>\n There are numerous Reddit threads and even a Change.org petition to fix it<\/a>. Though a Samsung moderator promised to deliver the complaint to the company\u2019s engineers, it\u2019s been three more years and nearly 50,000 more views without a resolution. Some users reported getting a v2203 update that reduced the size of the overlay, at least, but it appears that update may have been paused in December<\/a> due to issues. Will we ever get it?<\/p>\n Problem number two: Samsung has no proper concept of an HDMI input, so I\u2019m fumbling with a remote every time I plug a new gadget in.<\/p>\n Here is how my Samsung TV works in 2026:<\/p>\n Step 1: Plug a game console into an HDMI port.Step 2: Wait for the Samsung TV to autodetect the game console. And if it doesn\u2019t have good HDMI-CEC, which I\u2019ll explain in a sec:Step 3: Press the home button on the remote to see a forest of colorful Smart TV app icons, none of which are my game console.Step 4: Press left on the D-pad to ignore those icons and instead summon the vertical sidebar. Press down, and then right, to summon a different horizontal bar of Connected Devices. If it\u2019s an unknown one like the Analogue 3D, hope it\u2019s the one I labeled \u201cPC\u201d last time. Step 5: Set that \u201cPC\u201d to game mode for the umpteenth time by summoning a basic settings menu, then an advanced settings menu, then scrolling to the game mode toggle.Step 6: Play. Step 7: Repeat steps 2\u20135 each time I unplug and plug in a new device.<\/p>\n I suspect not everyone\u2019s always plugging in new gaming handhelds<\/a> and Analogue 3Ds<\/a> and mini-SNESes<\/a> over HDMI like me. But on my LG TV set, and every HDMI-capable set I\u2019ve ever owned before, I could just press a button to cycle through HDMI inputs until the right picture showed up.<\/p>\n Thankfully, my PS5 and Switch 2 have pretty decent implementations of HDMI-CEC, the communications protocol that lets them send commands to my TV. When the kids want to watch Netflix or fire up Astro Bot, the power button on the DualSense pad or Switch 2 Joy-Con will do it. But weirdly, they won\u2019t turn my TV and receiver off.<\/p>\n I used to get around most of this by setting up complicated Logitech Harmony Hub routines<\/a> that\u2019d fire when I said \u201cAlexa, turn off the TV\u201d or \u201cAlexa, turn on the Nintendo Switch.\u201d But since that infrared Wi-Fi remote stopped syncing to Amazon and Logitech\u2019s servers properly this year, I\u2019ve had to use Samsung\u2019s software and remote more than ever.<\/p>\n I sure miss when this li\u2019l dude just worked.<\/p>\n One day, I had the idea to try Home Assistant, when the Samsung TV and Samsung\u2019s SmartThings showed up in a list of possible integrations. Maybe I could switch HDMI devices from my phone? But Samsung doesn\u2019t expose individual HDMI ports there, either; I could only tell my screen to switch to \u201cTV\u201d or \u201cHDMI,\u201d no other sources or channels.<\/p>\n Those other HDMI sources do exist in Samsung\u2019s API, because a homebrew third-party integration<\/a> made my other Connected Devices like \u201cPlayStation 5\u201d and \u201cAV Receiver\u201d appear in Home Assistant \u2014 but only after connecting my TV to Samsung\u2019s cloud and generating a custom API key. Yes, I have to reach out over the internet through Samsung\u2019s cloud and back into my home to change HDMI inputs. And it\u2019s still not reliable, because Samsung\u2019s cloud sometimes tells me I\u2019ve made too many requests, and sometimes needs a whole new token before it\u2019ll accept commands again.<\/p>\n I\u2019m about ready to go looking for an old-school infrared universal remote at this rate and teach my kids some pointing skills. But hey, Samsung, how about $50 for a fix? I have PayPal, Venmo, hell, I\u2019ll type my card number into the TV itself if you\u2019ll let me.<\/p>\n I asked Samsung a couple days ago about possible updates, but it didn\u2019t have an answer by publish time.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Sean HollisterClose Sean Hollister<\/p>\n Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All by Sean Hollister<\/a><\/p>\n ColumnClose<\/p>\n Column<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Column<\/a><\/p>\n GadgetsClose<\/p>\n Gadgets<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n See All Gadgets<\/a><\/p>\n TechClose<\/p>\n Tech<\/p>\n Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.<\/p>\n FollowFollow<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/how-do-i-make-this-box-go-away-samsung-tv-v0-hck3ew1jrjdf1.webp.jpeg\"\/)
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