42% of all 3rd party apps? Maybe don’t make android TVs at all. They are not secure.

It really clearly says WebOS.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebOS

It doesn’t matter what brand smart TV I have, I never connect them to the internet. I manually download updates to flash drive and install them off the flash drive.

For smart features, I rely on Nvidia Shield TV Pro devices (living room & master bedroom) or Onn 4K (for other bedrooms).

I currently trust Nvidia, and yes, Walmart, more than Sony, LG, Roku, etc. For anything I don’t trust on these devices, that’s what I have PiHole servers for.

Apparently, TVs don’t give a shit. They have mesh networks that’ll search and connect with other TVs, until a TV with internet has been found. That TV can belong to anyone.

edit news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25275350

Do you have any articles about this? Would like to read more about it.

I got that as a reply a few weeks ago. I didn’t research it further but when true, that’s just hacking a network - and it should be illegal. If true.

edit news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25275350

This type of information is irresponsible to repeat without verification. While I agree it would be scary, the current likelihood of a TV OS activating its own wireless systems without user permission and connecting to unpermissioned sources for updates or instructions is slim. At least without some type of malefactor hijacking.

Sorry, I thought the /privacy folks knew what they were talking about. Luckily I started with ‘apparently’ and didn’t double down. Thanks for having me confirm your suspicions ;)

Whose TV is it?

LG’s or the resident?

Who is TV is it

Who TV innit?

Whose*

Thanks

LG TVs sound like a nightmare. They spy on what you’re watching, listen to what you’re saying and doing, open a doorway into your home network for malware, and put you on the hook for whatever some pedo decides to download through your IP address via one of these proxy-infested apps. Plus their monitors have been silently installing highly privileged adware that is also probably spyware on people’s PCs, and popping up big unwanted ads for McAfee etc. that users can’t turn off.

I have one. It’s not connected to the Internet, and it doesn’t complain about it. Works great for me.

Yep! My C3 is never on WiFi and we love it. Ad free Home Screen and we just use a different device to run all our applications.

Same thing here, I really don’t understand point of connecting that thing to the internet any android box or pc gonna handle things better for multimedia living room

Especially when all of the media is streamed locally from our own server. Why would I need external connection outside the network? So LG can spy on me? I’m good.

Samsung are the same, and even more aggressive with the adware. There’s really not a lot of decent consumer hardware these days that aren’t just obnoxious ad pipelines.

Just an FYI to anyone looking, you can still actually buy mostly-dumb TVs.

I was looking for a TV to buy for my parents last year and it seemed like the only options available were “smart TVs,” and I begrudgingly ended up buying a Philips ambilight unit. I was pleasantly surprised by how dumb the Titan OS on it was. Sure, it had WiFi, and the usual Netflix and other streaming apps, but I just didn’t connect it to the WiFi, and from then on it was just a souped up version of their 15 year old TV. It did ask to be connected to WiFi, but stopped after being told no a few times.

I’m sure other manufacturers have similar “smart on paper, but dumb in reality” OSes, as it seems to mostly be a cost cutting exercise. The hardware in the TV would need to be more expensive to run an actual smart platform. So the manufacturers just make a low end thing that ticks the right boxes to be able to call it smart for marketing, thinking that’s what people want.

Pro tip: Look for a hospitality TV, they come in smart and non-smart versions. Generally they’re made tougher also. You do pay more vs a Walmart pos though.

Pro tip 2: Avoid the Samsung ones, their quality control is shit.

also don’t buy LG, as they design devices that will brick themselves with no way to recover the firmware and will simply tell you you’re shit out of luck

Do you know which models or years?

they did this to my two year old soundbar a year ago, which made the entire 5.1 setup useless since it’s all driven by the soundbar

I dont know I had my LG C4 for 2 years now and it’s one of the best pictures Ive had.

Oh yeah my LG OLED TV is fantastic for picture quality. although I’m still getting used to judder, and don’t know how to fix that on panning shots. no combination of settings seem to work for me.

but I bought that before the sound system and before I had first-hand experience of how few fucks LG gave about me as a customer

I usually just search for my TV models calibration settings. Either reddit or some av forum usually has some good settings that work for me.

I’ve had a Dolby atmos boxed 5.1 sound bar with sub and rear speaker from Hisense since I got it. I think maybe once a year it losses handshake but just restart everything seems to fix it

unfortunately nobody else’s recommendations have worked so I sat there rewatching several shots over and over again with different settings lol

Deeper protip:

Commercial Display

Best protip:

Don’t buy a TV

Be careful with commercial displays, the refresh rate might be ridiculously low.

And brightness is pitiful because it’s going to be on 24/7

Oh you can get 120 refresh rates on them

And OLED too

Just a matter of being willing to spend 5x-10x what you would for a data harvester

That’s fine if you only want to watch TV. For streaming you will either need to connect it to the internet or use some external device that will be connected. Most people will actually want to use streaming so “it’s dumb until you connect it” doesn’t really help.

The one big advantage is that it can be something you can completely control. A very tiny htpc or even a raspberry pi without the need of much storage that will forever work on floss and will never be remotely discontinued, show ads against your will, or sell your personal data.

People with technical skills can do many great things. For the rest it’s either smart TV or some set top box and internet connection.

Technical skills including:

• buying a micro or other sff PC
• hooking it up to wifi
• Connecting a wireless keyboard and mouse to use it.

Yes, those count as technical skills and there are many, many people for whom it’s too big a hurdle.

picking out a decent micro PC that actually works is hard.

Getting a pc install (presumably windows) configured in a way that will display in the TV legibly from the couch is hard.

Requiring a keyboard and mouse to use your TV from the couch is weird and off-putting. Most people won’t want to and some people will have difficulty understanding what they’re supposed to do with these objects

The technical competence bar for getting a TV plugged in and working is just ridiculously, ridiculously low, and that’s for a reason

Sceptre! They make dumb TVs! They’re great! More expensive tho

I have a Sceptre ultra wide that was priced much more affordably then its competitors. I’ve long searched for more Sceptre products with little success.

I do have a LG TV and I did connect it to the internet a long time ago. Im super annoyed at how they push updates in a way they try to make you press OK as you were doing something else.

Anyway, after accidentally triggering one, I turned the TV off interrupting it.

Now it just prompts me to continue it, to which I say no. It doesnt seem to be able to move beyond this now, so I’ve kind of locked it into where it is for now.

Buy a Sceptre! I got one two years ago, as well as a monitor, and they’re both great and dumb. Although I don’t watch TV all that often.

Idk if anything has changed in 2 years. I paid like 600 for a 65 inch and maybe 80-100 for a gaming monitor? Both were purchased with the intention to get ahead of tariffs on electronics

You love to see it.

Self identifying as the baddy makes my life easier.

Samsung, Apple, LG - who’s next? Speak up, please.