proxy4plex

Proxy Server for older Samsung Smart-TVs (E/F/H - Series) which only support TLS up to 1.1

Installation

Preparing the Proxy

Download the corresponding binary for your system from the latest releases and run it. You might want to run the binary on system start. This is different for each system but in the future the proxy will install itself if needed.

Preparing the Smart-TV

Method A: Using proxy4plex as sideloader

Notice: this will only work, if the system you are running on, is on the same network as your TV and has not yet a service running on Port 80, because this is needed by the TV to download new Apps. I.e.: Sideloading will not work on non-rooted Android Phones, as the Port 80 is blocked. Running just the proxy on non-rooted Android phones does work. So the initial Setup for sideloading has do be done via another machine if your android device is not rooted - in that case just use your usual Windows/Mac/Linux Device and do the sideloading. Afterwards you can use your android device to run the proxy.

This process has only to be done once. So after the app has been installed via this method, it stays on the TV!

Proxy4plex will automatically download the the plex-app and modify it for network-sideloading. If, for whatever reason, you want to predownload the app yourself, and place it in the same folder as the executable for proxy4plex.

E/F-Series TV

1. Start the proxy4plex binary
2. Open Smarthub on your TV
3. Hit the Red button on the remote to login to an account
4. Use develop for username, password should fill automatically, if it does not, use 111111
5. Hit the Tools button on the remote and select Settings while within Smarthub
6. Select the menu-entry Development and accept the agreement after reading it
7. Select Server-IP-Settings and enter the local IP-Adress of your machine running proxy4plex
8. Select Synchronize and the app will be installed permanentely on the TV

H-Series TV

1. Start the proxy4plex binary
2. Press Menu on your TV-Remote
3. Navigate to Smart Hub / Samsung Account / Login
4. Use develop for username, password should fill automatically, if it does not, use any
5. Now open Smarthub / Samsung Apps on your TV to display all installed Apps (not just the small ribbon when pressing the Smarthub button on the remote)
6. Move the cursor to any of the already installed apps and press and keep holding the OK-Button on your remote for about 5 seconds until a new menu appears
7. Select IP Setting and enter the local IP-Adress of your machine running proxy4plex
8. Once again bring up the previous menu (see step 6) and select Start User App Sync. The app will be installed permanentely on the TV

Method B: Manual sideloading

1. Download the latest version of Orca's Plex-App for Samsung TVs from here https://www.dropbox.com/s/f17hx2w7tvofjqr/Plex_2.014_11112020.zip?dl=1
2. Install it using USB-Sideloading or via SammyWidgets
3. Check this thread if you need more information: https://forums.plex.tv/t/samsung-tv-cannot-connect-to-plex/650100/8

Putting it together

1. Run the app on your TV.
2. You will see that the app cannot connect to plex.tv and a popup will show up
3. Select the "Home" option and a new screen will appear that has a "Configure Proxy" option. Select it and press enter to show the proxy entry screen.
4. Enter the IP-Address of the server that is running the Proxy server and click "Add Server"
5. If the proxy server is reachable, you will get a message and the app will close down automatically.
6. Now restart the app, and it will use the Proxy to connect to plex.tv

Note that you can run the TV-App without the proxy after you logged in the first time. The app will then run in "Offline" mode. However you cannot switch users without the proxy though.

Using Android

On Android this package is currently not yet available as native app. Nevertheless it can be executed, albeit with a little tinkering. To do that, follow these steps:

1. Install termux on your device
2. Run termux, a terminal will open
3. Run the command pkg install git golang which will install the needed tools
4. Get the current repository by typing git clone https://github.com/kadrim/proxy4plex
5. Enter the directory cd proxy4plex
6. Compile a binary for your android device go build
7. Execute the proxy! ./proxy4plex

After that you can use the IP-Adress of your android device for your Plex-App on the TV. If you close termux or reboot your device you can simply re-run the proxy by starting termux and then starting the proxy via the command proxy4plex/proxy4plex

Beware: Sideloading (i.e. installing the app on the TV) does not work this way, because non-rooted Android devices are not allowed to use Port 80

Compiling

At the time of writing, this package needs at least golang v1.17

To compile a binary for your currently running system, simply run this command:

go build

To compile for all possible architectures you can run the command go-build-all.sh from a bash terminal (works also on windows in a git-bash terminal). The output binaries will be put into the directory build/

Docker

You can easily run this proxy as a Docker container:

• Pull docker image and run:

docker pull kadrim/proxy4plex
docker run -it -p 80:80 -p 3000:3000 --rm kadrim/proxy4plex

or

• Build and run container from source:

docker build -t proxy4plex .
docker run -it -p 80:80 -p 3000:3000 --rm proxy4plex

• Build and push container for multiple archs (only for developers):

docker buildx create --name crossbuilder
docker buildx use crossbuilder
docker buildx inspect --bootstrap
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64,linux/arm/v7 -t kadrim/proxy4plex:latest --push .

Docker-Compose / Portainer

If you prefer, you can run this via docker-compose or Portainer by creating a file called docker-compose.yaml and adding this content:

version: "3"
services:
  proxy4plex:
    image: kadrim/proxy4plex
    container_name: proxy4plex
    ports:
      - 80:80
      - 3000:3000
    restart: unless-stopped

Command-Line Arguments

The standard behaviour of the program can be altered using the following CLI-Args:

Argument	Description
-h	Display all available CLI-Arguments
-disable-sideloading	This Option will disable sideloading and prevent the use of Port 80 by the Application

TODOs

• detect OS and allow User to install the proxy as a boot-service
• porting to Android and iOS as native apps
• auto-update notifications

Thanks

• Thanks go out to @makeworld for the great makefile to build all platforms at https://gist.github.com/makeworld-the-better-one/e1bb127979ae4195f43aaa3ad46b1097
• Very specials thanks to @Orca for his work on the plex-app for smarthub devices. Without that, nothing here would exist!

Donation

I developed this package in my free time. If you like it and want to support future updates, feel free to donate here:

Donate via PayPal

Thanks in advance :-)

Disclaimer

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.