Your Samsung Smart TV Has A Hidden Menu — Here's How To Access It

Smart TVs with access to internet services have been around since the late 2000s, and have paved the way for on-demand streaming platforms like Netflix. Fast forward a couple of years, and 4K televisions have never been more affordable. As long as you stick with the options that are recommended by trusted sources and verified customers, it's really difficult to buy a bad TV in modern times. In fact, some of the best-selling companies, like TCL and Hisense, are known for being affordable television brands.

Modern smart TVs are packed to the brim with features — some more accessible than others. There are a few hidden things your TV can do, like connecting to a pair of wireless headphones, or controlling your smart home devices. You may also have heard of secret menus that give you greater access to your television's settings. This menu is commonly referred to as the service menu, since it's largely used by technicians for diagnostic purposes.

These advanced menus are often difficult to access, which is by design. They contain useful information about your TV, but also feature settings that may mess things up if tweaked the wrong way. If you accept the risks and know what you're doing, accessing this hidden menu can come in handy. Like other brands, Samsung's smart TVs have their own way of getting to this service menu — here's how.

To access the hidden menu on most smart TVs, you have to input a command by pressing a specific button combination on the remote. This keeps you from accidentally entering this mode and potentially messing up important settings. Samsung has made and sold hundreds of TV models over the years, so finding the right combination of buttons that gets you to the service menu can be a trial-and-error process at first.

If you own a Samsung TV with one of the newer, smaller remotes, try these steps:

1. Turn on your TV.
2. Head to Settings > Sound Settings, and ensure the "Sound Output" option is set to "TV Speakers."
3. With your TV still turned on, press these buttons on the remote in quick succession: Mute, Up, Down, Enter/OK, Mute.

If you own a Samsung TV that comes with a full-sized remote, follow these steps to enter the service mode:

1. Enter standby mode on your TV. To do this, turn it on, and then turn it off by quickly pressing and releasing the power button.
2. While your TV's screen is off, press these buttons on the remote in this order: Info, Menu, Mute, Power.

You should now be able to access the service menu on your Samsung smart TV. If neither of these procedures works, try Googling your TV's model number followed by the term "service menu." Good internet Samaritans often have your back with specific queries such as this one.

So you've figured out how to access the hidden menu on your Samsung TV — great, but what practical uses does it offer? For starters, and for the majority of consumers, the service menu can provide some useful information about your TV. Notably, you can find out the total usage hours of the panel — which is one of the most important things to look for when buying a used TV.

You will also find a variety of options here that you can't tweak via the regular settings menu on your TV. This includes advanced picture settings, such as white balance or gamma levels, and several hardware options like Bluetooth radio configuration and tuner region settings. The service menu is also where you might find the Hospitality Mode. This option is often turned on for TVs in commercial environments, such as hotels. If your Samsung TV was mistakenly configured with the Hospitality Mode turned on, disabling it will help you regain access to the TV's full feature set.

As we've mentioned before, modifying any options you don't fully understand within the service menu on your TV can cause issues that may be difficult to rectify on your own. These settings are not designed for casual experimentation, but as long as you're accessing the service menu to view diagnostics information, you should be safe.