webOS · wake, power, input, volume, app launch
LG TV remote app: control your LG webOS TV with your phone or tablet
LG webOS televisions are among the most capable sets MediaPond talks to, because the TV exposes a proper network control interface. That lets the app do considerably more than push arrow keys at it, so on supported models it can wake the panel, move it to a named input, and open a specific episode inside a specific app.*
How MediaPond connects to an LG TV
MediaPond looks for the television on your local network and asks it for permission to send commands. The TV puts a prompt on screen, you accept it once with the LG remote, and the pairing is remembered from then on, so there is no account to create, no LG cloud login, and nothing to type into a browser.
Everything after that is a direct connection between your phone or tablet and the television, which is why the remote carries on working when your internet connection does not.
Waking an LG TV that is fully asleep
Recent LG sets behave differently depending on how deeply they sleep. Some stay reachable on the network in standby and answer straight away, while others leave the network entirely and can only be woken with a wake-over-LAN packet, so MediaPond handles both cases. It sends that packet to the network interface the television is actually using, which matters because LG panels have separate wired and Wi-Fi hardware addresses and aiming at the wrong one tends to do nothing at all.
In practice that means you can usually start the evening from the sofa with the television cold, and the room comes up without anyone walking over to press a button, although a set that has been unplugged or has wake-over-LAN disabled in its own settings will still need a hand.
Opening a title rather than an app
Pick a show in MediaPond and, where the television and the streaming app both allow it, the TV opens that title inside the app instead of dropping you on the app home screen. Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube are among the apps in scope, and your per-service preferences decide where a title should play when several apps carry it.
Because the television is also the thing switching inputs, a launch can span devices: MediaPond can move the set to the HDMI input your streamer sits on, power that streamer up, and then hand the title over to it.
At a glance
What LG TVs supports
- Power on from deep standby using wake-over-LAN, and power off
- Input switching across HDMI and the television’s own apps
- Volume and mute, routed to the TV or to the room’s speakers
- App launch, and deep links into a specific title where the app accepts them
- An adaptive remote carrying the keys webOS accepts on that model
- Playback state in the Now Playing dock, from the foreground app on sets that report it
- YouTube sent to the television’s own signed-in YouTube app
Support covers the LG models and firmware families MediaPond currently works with, under typical home network conditions. Manufacturers can change, restrict or discontinue the interfaces these features rely on, so what a particular unit accepts can change over time.
Do I need the LG remote to set this up?
Once. You accept the on-screen pairing prompt with the television’s own remote the first time MediaPond connects, and after that the phone or tablet takes over.
Will it turn the TV on if it is completely powered down?
On supported sets, yes. MediaPond sends a wake-over-LAN packet down the network path for the interface the television is using, which is what wakes an LG panel that has dropped off the network, provided the set still has standby power and its own wake setting enabled.
Does it work over mobile data or away from home?
No. MediaPond controls devices directly over your local network, so the phone or tablet needs to be on the same Wi-Fi as the television.
Also worth reading
- Sony Bravia TVsGoogle TV · wake, power, input, volume, app launch
- Sonos speakersTransport, volume routing, audio format
- YouTubeYour feed, sent to the room’s signed-in TV app
Devices and services MediaPond supports · How a room comes up · Questions and answers
Not every device or streaming app supports direct launching. MediaPond makes a good-faith, best-effort attempt to open content in the right app, and falls back to opening the app itself where a direct link is not available. Availability varies by device, app, region, and your subscriptions.
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