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My rule for modern TVs:
1. Never connect the TV panel itself to the internet. Keep it air-gapped. Treat it solely as a dumb monitor.
2. Use an Apple TV for the "smart" features.
3. Avoid Fire TV, Chromecast, or Roku.
The logic is simple, Google (Chromecast) and Amazon (Fire TV) operate on the same business model as the TV manufacturers subsidized hardware in exchange for user data and ad inventory. Apple is the only mainstream option where the hardware cost covers the experience, rather than your viewing habits subsidizing the device.
My new rule for modern TVs is don't have a TV at all. The social role of having a TV is rapidly dwindling. First off, the number of movies and TV shows that merit even being watched is dwindling. Secondly, even if you find something worth watching, the odds that anybody else will want to watch it is small; everybody has been atomized by recommendation algorithms, everybody gets shown a different set of ads and media, there's no longer and shared culture when it comes to media. It used to be that everybody went home and watched NBC or one of the two other channels, all saw the same ads for the same movies and shows, so if you mentioned one the next day everybody knew what you were talking about. This is no longer true, if you try to bring up some Netflix show you heard of last night, probaby nobody else has heard of it. Now let's say you actually talk somebody into watching something with you despite that... What are the odds that both they and you get through the show or movie without reaching for their phone? Almost zero, in my experience.
It's done. The cultural significance of TV is toast. Our culture is too atomized, too personalized for shared experiences. Large TVs, centerpiece of the living room, are becoming an anachronism that date people as being from a previous era when television was still a shared cultural experience.
It frustrates me that this is where we have come too.
I refuse to connect any of my TV's to the internet but I have to wonder how long until a few different things happen:
- The TV's just connect to unsecure Wifi and collect the data anyways (I think there were reports of at least one manufacture already doing this at one point?). Or just make a deal with xfinity to use their mesh network that seems to be everywhere.
- The TV's don't work without being connected to the internet.
- The manufactures find out that the cost of adding in a cellular modem is justified by the increase in data they can collect.
I would love the idea of buying a modern TV without any of this crap shoved in, I happily use my Apple TV for everything that isnt video games.
It bothers me though when it seems like to fix an issue with HDR or something I need to update the firmware. I have wondered on occasion if this is intentional to "force" people to connect. If I have to do this I will run an ethernet cable to temporarily connect.
OG Chromecast is specifically being phased out because it doesn't offer the same level of control as the current crop of "smart" TVs/devices.
What do you think of Nvidia Shield? I haven't tried it, but I think it should also belong to 2). It's clearly much more expensive than a FireTV, but as you say it shouldn't be subsidized by ads. As an Android device it should be more open than an Apple TV. While I recognize the near flawless UI and high hardware quality of most Apple devices, I disagree with their "golden cage" or walled garden approach.
Chromecast hardware wasn't ever sold at a loss, AFAIK. These things were/are pretty pricey for being long-outdated SoCs equivalent to low range smartphone SoCs and a HDMI driver chip.
I got one of those Google TV Streamer boxes, put a different launcher on it (Projectivy Launcher), and it's been great, no ads or anything.
Maybe this is what I need to do.
I disconnected our living room LG TV from the internet and got a Fire Stick 4K Max, but I hate it; 90% of the screen is advert, and you get a tiny sliver for the 5 apps it lets you see, and you have to go digging for the rest, not to mention the home-screen advertising isn't always appropriate for young children.
I hadn't considered Apple TV because I've never been an Apple user, but perhaps this is what I need.
Though I'm an Android user, all of the Android TV devices seem to be junk or ad-ridden junk.
Is Apple TV the way to go (asking other opinions).
What's wrong with Roku? They have a few ads here and there but I've always found the interface to be super slick. And they aren't Google, so not as harmful to share my data with? (a big assumption, I know)
This works until eARC breaks and you have to update (LG C6, never connected to the internet, only using AppleTV). And then of course the next LG update will break eARC again.
Surely if Copilot was so useful and great, it wouldn't be free and they wouldn't be trying to force it down unwilling people's throats at every opportunity.
I'm beginning to think this AI stuff isn't all it's cracked up to be...
I wonder if it is possible to install a standard Linux distro on LG TVs. There is KDE Plasma Bigscreen for a TV-like experience on such distros.
If not, there are some webOS exploits on this wiki page:
https://wiki.debian.org/Exploits
Hopefully the Vizio lawsuit will mean the right to repair software comes to TVs more easily.
Of course it can't be deleted.
They need to force induce AI demand to pump up the dashboards for shareholders. Thus they are converting every possible input line in the world into AI inputs. Do you think they redesigned Windows Run dialog[1] out of the blue just for fun?
[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1pe93r2/after_30...
For similar reasons many years back when I broke the bank for a G2, I decided to disconnect it forever. Besides the always-on spyware, every update broke something, which is incredibly frustrating considering the amount I spent. For instance, I got a GX soundbar for free with the TV which worked fine for 1–2 months until some update borked it and made it glitch out randomly. To date, none of their updates seem to have fixed it. I now only connect it back to the web — if needed — once a year or so but even this needs plenty of careful research across the web to see if the update package breaks something else I take for granted.
Hooking up an Apple TV 4K to this thing was the best decision I ever made and the sheer performance of this thing puts every TV vendor to shame. I would recommend everyone to do the same if they're already in the Apple ecosystem.
Makes me more and more glad that I never let my TV on any network and only use it as a display for Apple TV, the Blu-Ray player, and playing media from USB drives...
> Additionally, LG has a setting called "Live Plus" that Reddit users highlighted. When it's turned on, the TV can recognize what's displayed on screen and use that viewing information for personalized recommendations and ads. LG describes it as an "enhanced viewing experience,"
Ah. So it's not "AI." It's an "opportunity to spy on every single thing you do."
Old Microsoft learned from the Clippy debacle, and more recently from the Windows 8.1 modern UI debacle.
I'm not sure new Microsoft will learn this time...
Put your "smart" TV behind a Linux HTPC or a free/libre Android ROM and never, ever allow it to communicate over the Internet.
I've had an LG tv for a couple years. I was previously able to use LG's THINQ app on my phone like a remote to operate the tv. A couple days ago I went in the app to use the remote and the feature had been totally locked behind the "access local networks & devices" permission... This permission was never needed in the past 3 years yet now it's necessary for the same functionality.
So, I disconnected the TV from the internet, uninstalled the app, and bought an Apple TV 3rd gen. LG TV quality is great but their software is unbearable.
I'd pay triple for an LG "dumb" TV. This is outrageous.
I don’t think Microsoft realizes that this is not a positive for their brand.
As a reminder if you own an LG TV, turn off the sneakily named "Live Plus" thing. This "option" makes your LG TV spy on you, tracking and reporting what you watch based on the image that is shown on the TV.
You need to go to Settings -> All Settings -> General -> System -> Additional Settings to make sure the "Live Plus" option is OFF.
Check it periodically, as it sometimes turns itself back on again after updates.
The enshittification of our world is beyond words.
What a shame, they run webOS is which is really interesting on these, though LG continues to implement the most anti consumer things they can think of.
I have an LG TV purchased about 3 years ago. It had a bunch of "AI" features from day one, but mostly related to improving the picture quality dynamically based on what's on the screen. I disabled all of that stuff, so I guess I'll be disabling this too.
The LG software is horrible on this TV. Great picture quality, but I would never recommend an LG TV just because of the software.
The worm propagates without human interaction.
I only wish my systems to defecate its corpse soon.
Is it always listening? If not now, can it be changed to always be listening by a remote update? Can that update be selectively sent to certain users? Who controls which users?
It sees you when you're sleeping.
It knows when you're awake.
It knows if you've been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake.
I have an OLED from them that’s 5 years old or so now, I have never once updated it or used any of the software beyond switching inputs and screen/color settings. It’s sad if it sounds like it’s getting to the point where you can’t just use a screen as a dumb screen as an option, I never minded smart features… as long as I never had to use them.
I recently bought a $250 Zojurishi rice cooker because I wanted quality, durability and no "trade offs" I am going to start buying more and more Japanese electronics if US and South Korean companies keep colluding with each other in inserting garbage.
Samsung is already preloading intelligence service software and "365 copilot" into their phones to trick old people into paying for a subscription to open a PDF (it sets itself as a default app).
At this point it's a war against the consumer.
And it's not just this, they are slowly phasing out consumer hardware (GPU price increase, RAM, non NVME SSDs, etc.) in an effort to make hardware ownership impossible thus creating a "Market" for the post bubble burst of AI where they will be renting out PC hardware (all these datacenters that they are building which will be useless).
This is US led and also conveniently both the US and South Korea are involved, as they shut down China (both GPUs and RAM manufacturers in China were blacklisted).
It's not a coincidence, I Imagine the threats of potential tariffs if they do not comply does not help with their "independent thinking".
Huge shame. I have an LG running WebOS that I bought in 2012 and is still going strong and receiving updates (well, it received one last year, but not this one).
I was always impressed with how unshittified it was, and knew that when I got another TV it would be a WebOS LG.
Now this :(
Why? If they want to even embed copilot, they could have atleast been strategic about it!! Copilot has this image that has something to do with coding, average person doesn’t care be bit about it and see ut as an invasive pest
The customer era is over when advertisers are paying more than customers. The advertiser era is over when any corporation wants to buy AI trained on each customer like a harness on each horse.
Google Meet comes by default on some Samsung TV, cannot be deleted, or disabled, and neither can the microphone permission be remove from it.
Smart TVs, more like Spy TVs today.
My decision never to buy a smart TV just keeps paying off.
Oh this is perfect, one less vendor to ever consider.
And this is exactly why I never connect my TV to wifi
I never connected my smart tvs to the internet. I buy the cheapest TV (at the size I want) and connect an old laptop, lid closed, and a cheap mini keyboard. It does everything I want, never updates itself with unwanted features and never shows me ads. Been doing this for 10 years, why would anyone actually want a smart tv.
Small data point: I brought a Sony Android TV in 2023 which doesn't have any of the annoyances I keep reading about here. Made in Japan for the Japanese market, haven't seen a single ad and it predates my use of AdGuard DNS. Whether this is a regional or Sony thing I'm not sure.
FFS. When I bought LG OLED TV, it was quite snappy. A year later, it asked to update webOS. OK. Now we are crawling through molasses...
All TV software seems appears to be an absolute fucking scam.
Thankfully I've yet to see a 'smart projector.' Highly recommend as a replacement for a standard TV; much bigger screen size, more portable, more 'cinema feel,' plus it can't connect to WiFi even if you wanted it to.
I can't wait for my refrigerator to come preinstalled with chatgpt. Imagine all the possibilities!
This is clippy’s revenge on the world.
It could be worse. You could have Alexa on your Samsung OLED TV that triggers in response to something random you say while watching your TV then self-cancels but leaves the TV in a no-audio state until you power-cycle it (standby to live will not suffice).
So what does it do? In the discussion yesterday no one covered that.
From what this article says it is an app (which fits with how it is displayed in the screenshot), which suggests you would need to choose to open it to actually have it do anything.
My TV only gets internet access when there is a firmware update I care about
Never connect a smart TV to the internet. That's how they get you.
Smart TVs are maybe the dumbest product innovation of my lifetime. Ruining a perfectly good appliance with the addition of software. In 2025 it's literally a luxury experience to deal with computer bs less.
Does LG have a customer feedback page or anything similar?
[dupe] Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46255335
I am still using my ancient Pioneer plasma and dreading the day it dies.
Any recommendations for a ≈42 inch dumb screen replacement for when that day arrives?