Preparing Your TV
Samsung Smart TV Menu
Preparing Your TV
Moving in to a new home that lacks cable tv RG6 in the walls means I have my work cut out for me running cable. Unfortunately though the little woman can’t wait. It would appear she can’t sleep without tv playing in the background. I decided a small Samsung smart TV was needed and the Samsung Smart TV model UN24H4500AFXZA with it’s built in WiFi seemed like an easy choice.
Preparing Your TV Try Again Later
Upon powering up the TV I was greeted by a setup wizard and upon completion the tv notified me of a firmware update. I let the tv do its thing and reboot.first thing I did was head straight for the apps from Amazon and HBO Go. I was greeted with a message “Preparing your tv” and “try again later”. Immediately I had that feeling, you know the one “Here we go I’m about to lose hours of my life figuring this out”.
As is always the case I am not the first person to face this. I followed much of the online advice or turning the tv on and off and resetting it. Nothing worked. After a bit of time and reading “Preparing your tv” one too many times I decided to walk away for a minute. Upon my return I tried the Samsung Amazon app and the app worked. That got me thinking and what I determined is that there is nothing wrong with the tv it just takes a long time to acquire everything it needs from the internet before the apps are usable. Unfortunately this is not a good realization.
Knowing enough to be dangerous I decided to look at the internet settings. Immediately something stood out and that was the DNS Servers. I changed it from whatever the tv had acquired on its own to the google DNS server of 8.8.8.8. I rebooted the tv. The improvement was was remarkable. While the apps are not instantly available they are available in about 30 seconds (be patient as your location might take longer). See my screenshot below of the DNS setting, try it for yourself and say goodbye to the dreaded “Preparing your tv” message. You may also download the Samsung Smart TV Manual 2016 in it’s entirety.
Samsung Smart TV Using Google DNS Servers
There you go we SOLVED THAT!
Read the updated Preparing Your TV post
I used the settings you indicated and it would not connect to my internet provider. Not sure what to do now. I had to put it back to auto.
I also used these settings. No change. Same issue and error
I been dealing with my 65 inch samsung dumb tv for over a year and I am fed up with this issue, I can understand when you first open netflix app and it has to prepare but every 2-3 shows I watch well it streams for the next one and it gets to 24 percent and the tv shuts off and restarts and the I have to wait again for it to prepare. It does this about 10 times in one day.
I can’t stand it and wish I could it fixed.
lisa
It’s crazy, I wrote this 3.5 years ago and Samsung still hasn’t improved the situation. I have found a few things since writing this. If you want a smart tv LG’s operating system works better than Samsung. However 3rd party add-on devices like apple tv, Firetv, Chromecast and Roku are far superior, especially if you buy the premium offerings. Im running all of them as I am testing them along with Google home hub. Today if I could only have one it would be the Amazon FireTv Cube. I like it so much I’m incorporating it into some home automation. Lastly since writing this post I lost my 65″ Samsung about 3 months out of warranty and my 42″ and 27″ are both quirky. All are less than 4 years old. I ended up getting a stupid expensive LG 65″ OLED and it has performed flawlessly for 18 months.
Hey bro! Just read your advice. No go. I have a 2016ish Samsung. I then made a “Samsung Account” under Menu. Tried it again, every app worked! So Samsung just wants all your identifying info first…figures. Give it a try
Holy crap, you may just be a genius! I have been struggling along with this stupid problem along with everyone else for several years. It is working much better now. We’ll see if it lasts…. Thank you!
Lol ironically I just threw away the TV that this post pertained to. It developed another issue that some Samsung tv’s are prone to experiencing. Anyhow glad this worked for you!
2020 still have this same issue.
Went through chat support, changed DNS multiple times.
(Your support is like trying to speak to monkeys I’ll add. Just to see how much IT knew, I asked who’s DNS is 8.8.8.8 she said “oh DNS gives you internet connection is all)… not what I asked the answer is Google but thanks.
Either way factory reset the tv, uninstall/reinstalled apps. I mean its just shit. And the tv WASNT always this way. So something buggy was sent out with one of your update.
It worked! Took me less than 5 minutes to fix. Thank you!!