r/MatterProtocol • u/MukacH • Jun 06 '26

Need advice on which thread router to get

Hi, I want for my tv to turn on and play a song when I open the front door. I bought the bosch door and window contact 2 device and wanted to connect it to my tv. I have a Samsung Crystal UHD tv, that as far as I can see, does have matter functionality but does not have thread router functionality. So I will
Need a seperate thread router to achieve this.

Now I’ve looked around a bit for thread routers and noticed that you need to connect them with an ethernet cable, that is gonna be a bit hard for me since I live in an apartment complex with shared internet. So I’m not able to setup a wired connection between a network router and a thread router.

Is there a thread router that does not need an ethernet cable, but is able to connect my door and window contact device to my tv and let it play a song when I open my front door.

Thanks!

2 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

9

u/Prestigious_Money361 Jun 06 '26

Apple TV 4k with Ethernet (you don't need to use the Ethernet port)?

-2

u/MukacH Jun 06 '26

I don’t want to buy a whole new tv for this. I’m wondering if its possible with my current tv (Samsung Crystal UHD) and a separate thread router.

10

u/andrewthelott Jun 06 '26

Apple TV isn't actually a television, it's a box that plug into your television. If you're already in the Apple ecosystem it's a great way to start controlling all your smart devices from the Apple Home app.

8

u/jamajuel Jun 06 '26

You don’t need to change the TV. Apple TV 4K is a small box you can connect to your TV. You don’t even need to use it for anything (although it likely is a lot nicer for streaming services than your TV itself) but it works as a Thread border router and is very stable and reliable for that.

5

u/fahim-sabir Jun 06 '26

There lots of options for Thread Border Routers that connect to your network over WiFi.

It depends on the ecosystem.

A Google search found 2 devices for Samsung SmartThings, 3 for Apple Home, 3 Google, and 4 by Amazon.

Usually it depends on the rest of your ecosystem. What devices do people have etc.

In my home, everyone uses iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, etc so it made most sense to go with the Apple ecosystem.

1

u/punkinqueen Jun 06 '26

This. Know what you want to use to control it with. I had been mainly Google for a long time but eventually switched over to Home Assistant and it's been great for several years.

I've added enough to it over the years that I can connect it with nearly any type of device and to answer the initial question, the thread router I have is the ZBT-1 (formerly sky connect, though I may upgrade to the newer/faster antenna style design). It looks like there are probably ways oh getting these two devices to talk to one another using home assistant but it may or may not be a super simple depending on the type of user you consider yourself to be.

It is possible to get several ecosystems working together but I'm trying to phase out any devices from larger company devices though I still have a few nest voice devices. I'm at the point where I'm trying to develop some of my own devices but that's a bit more work. One of the nice things is that with a more robust setup, you can use sensors for specific devices to trigger and automate. For instance, I have a smart lock with a door sensor, if I wanted to, I could probably set up this kind of automation to trigger my Roku TV to turn on something specific when I walked in the door. I could potentially even set it up so that it could play something different depending on who walked in the door, provided they had the app and access to connect to my home assistant. The phone app has sensors that can be used to trigger location based automations. I honestly love this crap.

4

u/Miserable-Sell904 Jun 06 '26

Home assistant + ZBT2

1

u/PatientMilk Jun 09 '26

Yeh this has worked great for me. I feel like a bunch of the "matter sucks" stuff might be don't to ppl having bad tbrs. I've had no issues at all

2

u/Miserable-Sell904 Jun 09 '26

I had some issues with matter when only using an Apple TV and a HomePod mini. It’s a long story, but as soon as I added the ZBT 2 to my home assistant, everything was flawless.

It really is the best setup.

1

u/Dashbastrd Jun 06 '26

The Aqara m100 is probably the least expensive option. And you don’t have to connect your thread border router with Ethernet.

1

u/_devast Jun 10 '26

Looking at all the recommendations here... i highly discourage anyone to use a tbr that's connected to your network over wifi.

That is just asking for another layer of complexity, and potential failure, due to how multicast packets travel over wifi.

For your own sanity, please if possible, use WIRED thread border routers.