Tidal is ending support for Samsung TVs

(Image credit: Tidal)

Tidal has announced its music streaming app will no longer be available on Samsung TVs. The change will affect TVs running Tizen OS starting from 8th July 2024. Users have been informed of upcoming alterations via email.

The message from Tidal reads: “After July 8, 2024, Tidal will no longer be available on Samsung SmartTVs. To keep listening to your favourite tunes, log in to Tidal from your computer, download the mobile app, or discover other ways to stream.”

For many years Tidal has been available on a range of smart TVs with the streaming service arriving on Samsung TVs in 2018. Recently though, Tidal has been taken down from other TV ranges such as Amazon’s Fire TVs and Roku TVs. Tidal remains available via Apple TV and Google TV though we are waiting to see if any other major brands will lose support soon.

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If your TV is the only way you can access Tidal then this could be an issue, however, for many users, this shouldn’t be a huge loss. If you use an iPad, iPhone or Mac device, you can still cast to your Samsung TV via AirPlay 2. Or, if your TV is connected to an external audio system like a soundbar, you can most likely stream directly to it from any device supporting the Tidal app. Either way, using the app on a phone or tablet would be our preferred route over the TV app anyway.

Tidal has announced several other changes recently. Last week, the service announced it will be dropping MQA tracks in favour of FLAC format files for all its high-resolution and CD-quality music starting from 24th July 2024.

Tidal also announced changes to its price plan in April 2024. Previously its high-res, lossless and spatial audio content was only accessible via a £20/$20-per-month subscription. Instead, a single individual user plan now costs £11/$11 per month, cheaper than Spotify’s plan which was bumped up to £12/$12 recently.

MORE:

Tidal scraps MQA and spatial audio format – here's what that means for subscribers

Tidal's monthly price drop is now in effect, and it's good news for hi-res fans

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Ainsley Walker is a staff writer at What Hi-Fi?. He studied music journalism at university before working in a variety of roles including as a freelance journalist and teacher. Growing up in a family of hi-fi enthusiasts naturally influenced his interest in the topic. Outside of work, Ainsley can be found producing music, tinkering with retro tech, or cheering on Luton Town.

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7 Comments Comment from the forums

cryanhorner

Quick question for someone who knows a bit more about digital than me:

If my current method of listening to Tidal was via the Tidal app on my Samsung TV, which is plugged directly into my Node streamer via HDMI-eARC (then from there into my amp), so no Bluetooth or wireless anything, am I now going to be forced to only listen to Tidal via wireless signal, thereby losing the high resolution audio that is Tidal's main selling point, because music can't (yet) be transmitted over wireless signal at that resolution?

If this is the case, then I hardly see any point in continuing to pay for a streaming platform like Tidal. But if I am mistaken, please let me know.

Thanks.
Reply
manicm

Does your amp have streaming capability? If not then get a streamer that connects to your amp, and then you can stream in full high res.
Reply
cryanhorner

manicm said:
Does your amp have streaming capability? If not then get a streamer that connects to your amp, and then you can stream in full high res.
No, the amp itself does not have any digital / streaming capabilities. The Node that I have slotted in between the TV and Amp is what allows me to stream, but unless I'm misunderstanding (and I very well may be), the Node is not actually a source, it still needs the music to come from somewhere doesn't it?

Sorry I'm sure this is a silly question, but I find digital to be very confusing, I mostly just play LPs, but if I'm using the Node app on my phone to control that device and "play" something, say Tidal for example, is it actually playing tidal from the Node, via a wired connection to the amp, or is it playing Tidal from my phone wirelessly to the Node?
Reply
manicm

cryanhorner said:
No, the amp itself does not have any digital / streaming capabilities. The Node that I have slotted in between the TV and Amp is what allows me to stream, but unless I'm misunderstanding (and I very well may be), the Node is not actually a source, it still needs the music to come from somewhere doesn't it?

Sorry I'm sure this is a silly question, but I find digital to be very confusing, I mostly just play LPs, but if I'm using the Node app on my phone to control that device and "play" something, say Tidal for example, is it actually playing tidal from the Node, via a wired connection to the amp, or is it playing Tidal from my phone wirelessly to the Node?

Ok, first things first, does your amp have a DAC, or any digital inputs i.e. optical (toslink) or coaxial?
Reply
cryanhorner

manicm said:
Ok, first things first, does your amp have a DAC, or any digital inputs i.e. optical (toslink) or coaxial?
No it does not have anything like that, it's a fairly "old-school" tube-based integrated amp with only RCA inputs, so the DAC in the Node is what has allowed me to add streaming as a source option, and basically since the TV is already run through the Node into the amp, the TV became the obvious control center to actually access the streaming platform and choose music etc. (via the app for whatever streamer it may be, apple music, tidal, etc).

so just to try to layout where I'm getting lost:

I'm wondering, when I go into the BluOS app on my phone right now, I choose as the source "eARC" because that is the TV (running the Tidal app let's say) coming into the Node (streamer/dac). I think my confusion is that I am unclear on what happens if/when instead of choosing eARC as the source in the BluOS app, I chose Tidal or Spotify or whatever, would it be streaming from my phone wirelessly to the Node (lossy), or would it simply be using my phone as a remote control, and just streaming from the Node, which has a wired connection to the amp (although not to the actual internet signal, that's still coming to the Node and to the TV via wifi because the router is in a different part of the house), and would this stream potentially be in lossless resolution (assuming the source file is)? Or is the fact that the Node isn't hard-wired into the router already establishing a lossy connection?

And sorry if this sounds silly, I just need to get my head around it a bit.
Reply
manicm

Ok, I didn't read properly and realise you had the Node. No problem.

The Node has Tidal Connect. So, fire up Tidal on your phone. Choose the music you want to play, then near the top of the screen you'll see an icon, click on it and it should show up your Node as an option. Choose it and voila, your Node will now be streaming Tidal. Spotify will work in a very similar way, fire up Spotify itself and 'connect' to your Node.
Reply
cryanhorner

manicm said:
Ok, I didn't read properly and realise you had the Node. No problem.

The Node has Tidal Connect. So, fire up Tidal on your phone. Choose the music you want to play, then near the top of the screen you'll see an icon, click on it and it should show up your Node as an option. Choose it and voila, your Node will now be streaming Tidal. Spotify will work in a very similar way, fire up Spotify itself and 'connect' to your Node.
Got it, so ultimately either the TV or the Phone are acting only as a remote control device, and the Node is, for want of a better way to describe it, "doing the streaming" , which means I can get the full resolution of the file I'm playing reglardless. So that's great news actually.

And thank you for setting me straight on this, I appreciate the info.
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