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LG TV's new software update installed MS Copilot, which cannot be deleted

202 points2 monthsold.reddit.com
Neywiny2 months ago

As a proud member of the LGTV community (yes I'm making 2 of those kinds of jokes back to back, fight me), and an occasional reddit user, I'm both horrified by the notion of getting this update and thrilled people are still using old.reddit.com. The new layout, which isn't even new anymore, still falls very short for it I'm looking something up and it's buried in a comment thread where ctrl-f can't find it.

jwr2 months ago

The management of reddit doesn't seem to use reddit at all and they seem to be unaware of the fact that a) the "new" layout just isn't that great, and b) their mobile app is terrible.

They killed third-party apps, which were way better than their garbage app and they don't seem to realize how much it annoys their users.

kstrauser2 months ago

I thank them for that, because forcing me back to their horrid app broke me of my habit of hanging out there.

I’ve got six digits of karma, and I’d rather walk away than suffer through its awful UI.

xingped2 months ago

Same. Only thing that ever managed to break me of my reddit habit. No 3rd party apps? Reddit may as well no longer exist as far as I'm concerned.

+2
midnitewarrior2 months ago
juliusceasar2 months ago

As a none user; what is a karma? Fantasy points?

+1
jtokoph2 months ago
tapoxi2 months ago

They don't care about their users, they trapped people in and people aren't migrating to alternatives in droves.

shawabawa32 months ago

More importantly they serve ads and capture all of the revenue from them

_DeadFred_2 months ago

Time for a reverse Digg exodus.

rvba2 months ago

They are doing everything they can to increase number of users before IPO.

Redit from a text based place, became a place driven by pictures (Can we call that "instagrami-zation"?).

The thing, is that discussion is what made reddit good. Now it's mostly low quality pictures, bots and comments written by marketers.

Then AI models and google search are trained on this garbage.

I wonder if someone will finally disrupt reddit

kstrauser2 months ago

They’ve already IPOed.

biglyburrito2 months ago

I believe they're full aware of all of these things, & they simply don't care because they know that millions of people will continue to use Reddit in spite of all this.

afavour2 months ago

I disagree, I think the new layout and the app are bad for Reddit power users. But for someone brand new to Reddit today they work fine.

And that’s the point. They care about boosting their user base, not satisfying power users.

jwr2 months ago

Let's take an example: if there are several images, you click on the "next" button (keys do not work!) several times, and if you are not careful, the last click gets you a full-screen image, because the button has disappeared and clicking in the same place now magnifies the image.

How is that "fine".

In the mobile app, even swiping from the left edge to go back doesn't work reliably.

lofaszvanitt2 months ago

Sigh, power user doesn't mean the individual is an alien with some quirky taste. Oh, the contrary. It means someone who has a wider spectrum and those who are not power users are still on the spectrum, but theirs is shorter, but overlap with the PU's. So if it is good for the power users it is almost always good for the rest of the world. Let that sink in.

midnitewarrior2 months ago

Not all third-party readers, the for-profit ones.

Red Reader still exists.

https://www.reddit.com/r/RedReader/

caxco932 months ago

actually, when you share a reddit link, HN automatically converts it to old.reddit

rcarmo2 months ago

And yet we cannot have dark mode, which would be a simple CSS tweak.

But I’m thankful for the other little things.

esperent2 months ago

The various "dark mode" browser extensions work well here. Brave on Android also has a dark mode toggle built in, which I assume repackages one of the extensions.

+1
rcarmo2 months ago
stevesimmons2 months ago

Am I going mad or do some of those old.reddit comments slope downhill?

traverseda2 months ago

No, the subreddit has applied custom css to do that. It's the mildly infuriating subreddit. There's also an image of a hair visible on widescreen monitors, to make you think there's a hair on your display.

sseagull2 months ago

I went there and saw two hairs, and yeah thought it was a nice funny touch.

I then went back to HN and turns out one of the hairs was real and I needed to clean my laptop screen :)

molticrystal2 months ago

They have a bag of dirty tricks [0], here are a few highlights including a couple already mentioned:

    /* Dead subpixel (Thanks M) */
    .content[role=main]:before {
        content: "";
        position: fixed;
        top: 126px;
        left: 242px;
        width: 1px;
        height: 1px;
        background: #f0f;
        z-index: 9999;
    }

    /* Hair */
    .content[role=main]:after {
        content: "";
        position: fixed;
        top: 150px;
        right: 150px;
        width: 140px;
        height: 200px;
        border-radius: 50%;
        box-shadow: 2px 0 rgb(60, 24, 24, 0.3);
        transform: skewX(-30deg) scale(0.6);
        pointer-events: none;
        z-index: 9999;
    }

    .thing.comment[id*=c] {
        transform: rotate(1deg);
        margin-top: 30px !important;
    }

    .comment p a{
        font-family:Comic Sans MS, Impact,serif;
    }
[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/wiki/config/style...
christophilus2 months ago

I see the hair on my iPhone. That’s a nice touch.

pmontra2 months ago

The next step will be adding a web in a corner, to make us think we cracked our touchscreen /s

lagniappe2 months ago

try eddrit.com

GaryBluto2 months ago

r/mildlyinfuriating seems to have a custom stylesheet that is deliberately mildly infuriating.

Tyr422 months ago

I see it too. What the heck?

3RTB2972 months ago

I only use old.reddit.com when I am forced to sulk back over there and actually log in. To just look around I just use some redlib frontend.

The numerous layers of attempted monetization schemes since 2016ish hilariously touted as "features" are sort of band-aided on top of each other on new reddit in a way that makes it the worst possible way to display the information. It's like a terrible UI challenge.

joecool10292 months ago

> thrilled people are still using old.reddit.com

I noticed a day or two ago they quietly turned on the 'show new reddit as default' preference option, it was still possible to change default back but they won't stop pushing it.

Klonoar2 months ago

This happens every few months.

You should just use a browser extension to do it since those don’t rely on an auth state anyway.

rsynnott2 months ago

I don’t understand how anyone in Reddit thinks that new layout is better.

If old.reddit ever goes away I’ll probably stop using it entirely.

dmsayer2 months ago

502 error

bromuro2 months ago

I have poor eyesight and I don’t support this practice of linking old reddit on HN. Old website is unusable for me. I have to load the link in the native app to read it.

ctrl+F doesn’t work anyway as the comments are also buried in a “load more comments” on old reddit too. New website and app have a search comments field.

Neywiny2 months ago

While true some are hidden, old shows a *lot* more and most of my searches for obscure issues don't yield more viral posts

gcr2 months ago

I have shitty eyesight and old is the only version that’s usable to me because text zooming works far better in the old layout. Are you using a screen reader by any chance?

bromuro2 months ago

Screen reader is not available on Safari for old reddit. Also zooming the font is not working: I have to scroll a lot and the layout grt all broken.

gcr2 months ago

Oh. TIL, sorry for pushing back

rationalist2 months ago

> Old website is unusable for me.

New website is unusable for me.

shayway2 months ago

Assuming the issue with old reddit is font & element size, does zooming in with Ctrl+ not solve the problem?

Gualdrapo2 months ago

I agree. I joined reddit when the "new" design was launched - I could never made sense of the old design. Way too cluttered and unreadable.

pier252 months ago

I wonder how you're using HN then

jitl2 months ago

We need a Framework-style company making TVs.

Get the OLED panels from whoever makes them wholesale, spend on a beautiful enclosure / design, add just enough software to calibrate the image and switch between HDMI inputs with HDMI-CEC. Sell a premium soundbar as an add-on instead of including speakers in the base device.

I think a brand like Sonos could make a killing in this market selling a premium dumb tv to high end customers.

Look at how much markup Samsung adds to their standard LCD panel for a decent enclosure - it’s like $600-$1000 markup to get the Frame tv, which has a mid panel, JUST because the enclosure is actually nice/inoffensive.

3RTB2972 months ago

The hitch is that it would be more expensive, making it a "premium" product and limiting the market. Smart TV pricing typically includes subsidies based on the assumed data sales from each user over the lifetime of the device.

jitl2 months ago

Yes I am suggesting a premium product, there’s at least $600-$1000 more the market is willing to pay just for aesthetics based on Samsung Frame tv, which is a premium product with mid-range LCD component quality. It’s priced about $200 underneath Samsung’s top of the line OLED

5424582 months ago

I really doubt the user data for a smart tv user is all that valuable. Meta has infinitely more rich data and an entire tightly optimized ad system and is on a platform where people commonly make large purchases and makes around $10 per user per year.

DaiPlusPlus2 months ago

> I really doubt the user data for a smart tv user is all that valuable.

According to a 2021 article about Vizio's user-hostile advert display devices, they boast of an average revenue of $13/yr - up from $7.30/yr, though consider this was 2020 when more people were at-home watching TV instead of going outside, meeting people, touching grass, the usual.

https://deadline.com/2021/03/vizio-smart-tv-streaming-ipo-12...

> A range of advertising opportunities drive revenue, including revenue sharing with programmers and distribution partners as well as activations on the device home screen. In the fourth quarter of 2020, the company said average revenue per user on SmartCast was $12.99, up from $7.31 in the same period of 2019.

-------------

If you'll allow me to make an arbitrary assumption that a new TV set bought today will last about 10 years, then $13/yr means the advertising revenue implies Vizio has reduced the sale-price of their TVs by $130 compared to before we had no-opt-out advertising displayed on our own property as a condition for the privilege of using said device.

strstr2 months ago

How much are my eyeballs worth over the lifetime of a TV?

In the race to the bottom, ads will outcompete others by pushing price lower. But how much lower?

ivan_gammel2 months ago

We need Framework-style company making local/owner-first everything, including fridges and washing machines today. There’s no guarantee that your next coffee machine or teapot won’t come with AI talking to you.

shermantanktop2 months ago

It would not be cheap. All that ad crap represents revenue, and all those features represent sales volume for feature-conscious customers. Without volume you don’t have supplier leverage on pricing, or the ability to get onto big box store shelves, reducing volume further.

ninkendo2 months ago

I for one would be willing to pay a premium for what GP described. I’d honestly pay twice as much for a TV with working HDMI CEC, some simple picture adjustment controls, and a really really good panel. Nothing else, please.

cgbeeng2 months ago

What I want is simply a well-made monitor with a single HDMI input and built-in speakers. Make it as flat as you want.

The rest is almost unnecessary in this day and age.

If everyone were to do this, it would open a bigger market for a well-made upgradable combo smart device and air TV tuner that the TV manufacturers could produce if they wanted to.

al_borland2 months ago

I’d like this as well, except I think more than one HDMI port would be useful, for something like a game console. Maybe the screen itself could have 1 to keep it simple, with an optional HDMI switch that could integrate cleanly.

BizarroLand2 months ago

I think it wouldn't be very expensive to make a TV frame platform that could have user-installable screens and a simple power/display module.

Probably wouldn't be too much more than the default cost of a TV to sell the screens, and users could select what technology they are willing to pay for, LED, QD, MiniLED, OLED, etc.

The problem comes from things like upscaling, color tuning, refresh rates and resolution handling. That would require a custom compute module, and the module would need data on the attached screen that the screen itself cannot likely provide.

If you had access to a TV manufacturer who would be willing to work with you to create this platform, you might be able to start shipping TVs for only a few million dollars, but you need the money and the connections to make it happen.

I imagine you would need to go to Shenzhen, find a manufacturer, talk them into working with you, put a lot of money down upfront, and then hire programmers and UX designers and hardware designers to craft the perfect TV, design a unique TV brain module and have it manufactured, standardize the system so that other manufacturers can get in on the platform, make thousands of extra parts, and then hire a marketing team to let purchasers around the world know of the new product, pay for UL certification, standardize some sort of testing system so the panels can be calibrated to the brain...

It's a lot.

Although, now that I think about it, the calibration could be done with a set top camera system like the one used by those companies that sell RGB LED systems for TV backlighting, so if that were bundled in by default then it would do a lot to simplify the calibration and add a cool standout feature to the TV.

These TVs would be pricey to start with, like Sony Bravia pricey, so you're never going to move a lot of product. And you'll have to deal with tariffs, pushback from TV manufacturers, cheapskates, rude customers, and the risk that if you start to approach success then some other TV manufacturers with deep pockets might use their brand name power to make a competitor to blow you out of the water for a few years until your company goes bankrupt and then stop competing with you.

The only way to prevent that would be to open-source the entire platform, and even then you would be in a constant dogfight just to stay alive.

Despite all of that I say go for it. If you can deliver a 65" OLED Open Source TV with customizable inputs for under $3,000 then assuming I'm not financially worse off than I am right now then I'll buy one.

scosman2 months ago

Sonos is a software company with a history of pushing bad updates. But Framework sounds great.

IneffablePigeon2 months ago

I too am irritated by their software but they do make nice hardware. I’d have their headphones if I trusted their software, the hardware is perfect IMO. Open and upgradable is not really their forte though.

jokowueu2 months ago

Wouldn't not connecting it online and using a google tv box fix this issue ?

jitl2 months ago

I’ve used some of my friends more recent year TVs and even if they’re not networked the UX is just horrible. One Samsung model eliminated the “input” button on the remote and forces you to go through “Home” to select inputs in a tiled menu festooned with quick tips and baked in ads for Samsung stuff like SmartThings. The worst part is that if it detects an input is connected to a game console, then it moves that input to the Gaming tab, which is chock full of tiles for shit like Solitare, Samsung game store, etc. WTF.

It’s like every interaction is viewed as an opportunity to sell attention or get you to mis-click on an ad.

amelius2 months ago

We really need laws against products that are still tied to the vendor after you buy them.

If a product needs to be tied to the vendor, it is a service and it should not be sold as a product.

+2
bluefirebrand2 months ago
0cf8612b2e1e2 months ago

One thing you could try is to get a third party remote. The input switching functionality may still exist and be reachable. At least, it worked for mine.

afavour2 months ago

FWIW I do this with a TCL Roku TV and it’s fine. Not great, I still see the Roku interface for ~2secs on startup but otherwise it’s out of my way.

varispeed2 months ago

We need regulators that look after interests of tax payers and not after who pays for regulator's yachts.

jitl2 months ago

Well I’m not sure if you can regulate having good design and user experience. Certainly the ability to roll back updates and enforcing privacy though.

varispeed2 months ago

It is simple. Let user remove any unwanted software and don't install anything new (as in new apps), without user consent.

+1
bluefirebrand2 months ago
jitl2 months ago

the “software” is a single unit, the whole TV OS. I don’t think any vendor considers the homescreen of the OS a removable app besides perhaps Android. Certainly not Samsung lol.

wdr12 months ago

Can't you already just get an HDMI monitor, speakers & a raspberry pi?

jitl2 months ago

if you know a vendor making great 55”-75” OLED 160hz+ 4K monitors let me know!

snvzz2 months ago

>and switch between HDMI inputs with HDMI-CEC.

And please include DisplayPort inputs.

pontus2 months ago

I would buy this in a heartbeat. I am profoundly bothered by the slop software that is on every TV these days. I keep joking that as tech invades more and more corners of our lives, we will at some point in the future be helping our parents with their couches by saying "Have you tried restarting your couch?"

Don't get me wrong, tech is great when it's a value-add, but TV tech has gotten out of control.

boredatoms2 months ago

Maybe framework will pivot given RAM prices these days

Mountain_Skies2 months ago

These are domain block rules I got from a previous HN thread about LG shenanigans. No idea if it is still up to date.

   ngfts.lge.com  

    us.ad.lgsmartad.com  

    lgad.cjpowercast.com  

    us.info.lgsmartad.com  

    aic.recommend.lgtvcommon.com  

    aic.homeprv.lgtvcommon.com  

    aid.rdl.lgtvcommon.com  

    aic.lgshopsvc.lgappstv.com  

    ^aic.*lg.*  

    us.emp.lgsmartplatform.com  

    snu.lge.com  

    us.lgrecommends.lgappstv.com  

    api.thetake.com  

    us.lgtvsdp.com  

    aic.service.lgtvcommon.com  

    lgtvonline.lge.com  

    (\.|^)gracenote\.com$  

    (\.|^)prehook\.com$  

    raw.vidyard.com  

    (\.|^)vidyard\.com$  

    (\.|^)wistia\.com$
bane2 months ago

I don't know why my sense of ethical outrage over the cancerous spread of this worthless garbage technology doesn't extend so hard to LG in this. But I've finally just hit the wall with Microsoft. Between all the forced account sign-ins, ads, random reboots and updates that aren't for the purpose of securing the OS...I'm done.

I haven't seen this level of anti-consumer nonsense from Microsoft since the late 90s when lots of circles called them Micro$oft.

It's a shame since Satya Nadella came in and made a lot of right moves. Support for Linux, open source, etc. I could stretch myself to forgive the other stuff as some kind of wrong headed thinking about a cloud-first strategy. But in the last few years that productive pivot stopped and the company moved back into high-risk money grab steps.

My current daily driver is a Windows machine, but my last few builds around the house have all been some kind of Linux. Last year I moved my home server infrastructure over. I kept a windows VM around for a few things but it ultimately corrupted itself and was replaced by a Linux VM that's been chugging along just fine.

I think when I rebuild my home desktop sometime next year Windows gets relegated to a "run when needed" VM. I've really only kept it around for games and a few other Windows only software but those days are fast fading thanks to numerous efforts by Valve and others and a fallback VM for other stuff works fine in my experience elsewhere.

I think I don't have the same concerns about LG because the relationship with me as the consumer seems different somehow, and I simply expect less from them?

syntaxing2 months ago

I think them sneaking in and turning on that LivePlus feature is far more nefarious. The fact they can track whatever you watch and do to serve you personalized ads is insane.

irilesscent2 months ago

This is matching the levels of surveillance in north Korea. They also have software that takes pictures of your screen every few seconds.

avidiax2 months ago

It does this for HDMI inputs as well, BTW.

Using such a TV as a computer monitor sounds dicey. There will eventually be a data breach of the uploaded screenshots, assuming they aren't able to fingerprint entirely on device.

abbycurtis332 months ago

Until somebody releases a dumb TV, you just can't connect your tv to the Internet.

newsoftheday2 months ago

Our LCD TV is almost 2 decades old. If we upgrade, I can guarantee we won't be connecting it to the Internet. Also none of our smart appliances are connected to the Internet.

jodrellblank2 months ago

You won’t get a choice; they will come with a 5G connection that doesn’t ask you, doesn’t notify you, doesn’t cost you, and has no user-visible toggle. Like cars do these days. And a mesh-networking fallback so if you’re in a city and your neighbour also has one of the similar brand it will connect through their internet instead.

some-guy2 months ago

I am actually surprised at how well our second TV (Samsung) still looks [0] after 17 years. We inherited from my sister who bought it for some ridiculous amount of cash for the time. It’s heavy and runs hot, but doesn’t look any worse than cheap TVs of the same size today.

[0] https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/samsung-touches-lcds...

tempest_2 months ago

It very likely depends on what you are playing on it and what size it is.

Even most cheap TVs now a days are 4k even if the panel is low end.

There is a large difference between 1080p and 4k which is usually quite noticeable if the TV is large but if it is a smaller size I can see how it would be less obvious.

+1
SoftTalker2 months ago
LeonM2 months ago

I bought the top of the line TV from Samsung in 2011. The 'smart' functionality services went offline after a year or two, which means all 'smart' functions no longer work and I am now happily using it as a dumb TV.

Eventually every smart TV becomes dumb when they inevitably shut down the backend services.

amlib2 months ago

> Eventually every smart TV becomes dumb when they inevitably shut down the backend services.

Except that on newer tvs all the nagging will still be there, all the ads will be "frozen" in time (mine has ads for stuff from 2023, the last time I connected it for some firmware update that _GASPS_ actually fixed some things) and some features may depend on internet connectivity. The manufacturer may care to release a final update and solve these issues, but you know they are much more likely to fraudulently just disable features that worked offline as a last middle finger.

Repeat with me, SaaS is fraud. Proprietary digital platforms are fraud.

tempest_2 months ago

In 2011 smart tvs / phones were not quite the data harvesting devices they have become.

The things stopped working because they were for you the consumer.

The modern smart tv will keep working as long is its piping data back to the data retailers, they have a vested interest in keeping it going.

phoronixrly2 months ago

I think you underestimate how shameless the vendors can be. I imagine in a couple of years the TVs will refuse to function unless periodically connected to the Internet to get updated ads and an updated firmware so that you can't jailbreak them...

croes2 months ago

They don’t need your internet for a connection

newsoftheday2 months ago

I'd like to hear more how that could work. If I get a new TV and never configure it for access from Day 1, how would it connect to the Internet or some unknown service with I guess Internet access as a proxy? On its own?

+1
croes2 months ago
tjpnz2 months ago

We need a "Right to Be Left Alone" law.

snvzz2 months ago

Every home is required to have a telescreen.

morning-coffee2 months ago

At least we still have the right to not buy a TV... (for now?)

tylerflick2 months ago

Yeah, as someone with two of these I would never let them connect to the internet. It’s chock full of ads.

I do connect them to a jailed LAN so I can control them over the network.

snvzz2 months ago

Doesn't matter when the neighbor has a smart TV as well, tethering all the bad stuff to yours, whether you like it or not.

general14652 months ago

Copilot usage must be abhorrent when you are pushing it into TVs and making it non-removable application.

A4ET8a8uTh0_v22 months ago

It is interesting. Arstechnica just had an article about how to get a dumb tv, which I saw on google news. I want to believe there is a tide turning among non-hn peoples ( I tried various phrasings and neither worked in terms of exclusion ).

bdhcuidbebe2 months ago

I just read that, too. Its interesting and somewhat depressing that the best option for the last 10+ years according to ars and this linked reddit thead, and comments in this thread all suggesting Apple TV. I hope to see a viable foss option soon.

al_borland2 months ago

There are options like LibreELEC (Jeff Geerling did a video on setup a year ago[0]). However, these options are rarely plug and play. It also doesn’t let people simply download and use apps from the popular streaming services. They tend to rely on pirated content or someone who is willing to rip all their own physical media for more convenient access. FOSS has always had an issue with that last 10% of the user experience, and the services to make things pleasant to use, which I think really hurts mainstream adoption.

[0] https://youtu.be/3hFas54xFtg

Boxxed2 months ago

I wonder how this went down. "Hey LG, this is the Microsofts. Just had an idea how we could give your entire customer base the middle finger, wanna hear it?"

morkalork2 months ago

LG must have had some real FOMO watching Samsung piss on all over their fridge customers?

cindyllm2 months ago

[dead]

baby_souffle2 months ago

If supported, rooting is easy. https://cani.rootmy.tv/

anonymousiam2 months ago

Does this link now work for LG TVs again? I rooted mine about four years go, so no annoying AI firmware updates, but I remember there was an update to the LG webOS that prevented the exploit that allowed rootmy.tv to work.

If rootmy.tv is working again for modern LG TVs, I'll run out and buy another one.

baby_souffle2 months ago

Site shows known exploits and known vulnerable versions based on model. I don’t think there’s an exploit for anything new in box… and even if there was, it would be treated like an 0day and LG would patch. Your best bet would be to subscribe to some notification for a new film and go out and buy a new LG that week.

phoronixrly2 months ago

Just did that yesterday because it disables updates. I had stopped updating and disconnected my TV from the Internet completely in 2021 in fear that an update will bring ads, and in hope that a jailbreak will come around eventually.

zeeed2 months ago

Was that an LG?

phoronixrly2 months ago

Yes, OLED65BX

jwr2 months ago

As a reminder, turn off the "Live Plus" thing on your LG TV. 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.

beaugunderson2 months ago

Thanks for the menu tree, just turned it off on our LG G5 (the flagship model) where it had defaulted to on. Gross.

a21282 months ago

What is legitimately the expected use case for Copilot on a TV?

TVs are for consuming video. As far as I know, Copilot doesn't generate videos yet, and it certainly won't be possible or cheap enough to generate anything on the level of TV shows or movies any time soon. So are they expecting people will sit in their living room home theater to... chat with Copilot... instead of doing it on their phone?

I genuinely can't come up with any realistic use case where it would be convenient or useful to use Copilot on a TV. It feels utterly deranged that they would put it there.

pndy2 months ago

One user mentions that LG also enabled content-aware data mining: https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1plldqo/...

jmclnx2 months ago

I really use to like LG products, but between your link and this, I will never buy LG again. They were added to the same list Samsung was added to years ago.

It is like these companies do not want to sell what people really want, but only want to spy on you. The way things are going, it will be back to the old crt TVs, which you can still find used if you look hard enough.

smackeyacky2 months ago

Best 2nd hand TVs seem to be Panasonic Viera at least in my experience. You still need a set top box of some kind as they don’t understand H264 channels only mpeg (at least here in Australia). I like them because the back lighting is quite diffuse compared to other brands. Those plus a google TV streamer is more than good enough without laying out piles of cash or subjecting yourself to a smart TV.

pier252 months ago

ACR has been going on for at least a decade now. It's the reason TVs are so cheap now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_content_recognition

shinycode2 months ago

Awful software, I use an Apple TV or firestick to replace it

slumberlust2 months ago

AppleTV makes sense, but Amazon's garbage is just as bad.

shinycode2 months ago

I switched to Apple TV after having tried the firestick indeed

xfil2 months ago

TV industry's in a pathetic state when customers reasonably consider Apple TVs to be required included costs. In other news, my new 'smart' GE oven crashes roughly once each month into unresponsiveness for several hours. Where's an Apple Oven to save the day?

fishbacon2 months ago

Thinking about how my television was only ever on the internet for 5 minutes in 2016. It must think the world is tiny.

the_af2 months ago

Ah! I can finally chat to my TV by writing text to it and have it hallucinate shows that don't exist, or tell me I'm right about everything. Possibly even create PR for work from my LG smart TV, my boss will be pleased.

Just like I wanted!

1970-01-012 months ago

Is there a DNS filtering list anywhere that just blocks these firmware updates? That would be the easiest way to maintain dumbification without getting into hacking the software while still allowing streaming services.

jitl2 months ago

It’s well worth the $100 or whatever to do all the streaming through an AppleTV. It’s the only streaming device I’ve used that doesn’t seem to constantly try to upsell random garbage.

richid2 months ago

This is the answer. AppleTV is worth its weight in gold. Well supported and quality apps, good connectivity options, enough horsepower for hardware decoding, and Apple has a good reputation for privacy (hello no ACR).

ezst2 months ago

Till yourself get hacked because the connected-to-the-internet TV is running an insecure software version. We should legal action the hell out of such practices.

pmontra2 months ago

I use a tablet as smart TV. As a bonus it's portable around my house. I'll look into Linux tablets when Android will get too obnoxious to bear. Are they a thing? Basically I need VLC and not much more.

mindcrash2 months ago

But the symbol above the tile tells me you could hide it from the UI. Which is often the case with... uhm... "sponsored" and thus unremovable software on these kind of devices.

haunter2 months ago

When it comes to technology Korean brands are really the worst. I'd never buy anything from Samsung or LG, not even a bread toaster.

Lio2 months ago

Yeah I would have switched from Apple to Samsung years ago but Samsung are agregious when it comes to control and privacy I don't want to have anything from them in the house.

The Korean car brands, Hyundai and Kia also have a terrible privacy story. They really do regard their customers as the product.

nothercastle2 months ago

My decision to never allow lg devices to connect to the internet never felt smarter than today.

timbit422 months ago

That's how you outsmart your smart TV.

pier252 months ago

Just don't connect your tv to the internet. Get an Apple TV or an Nvidia Shield.

anal_reactor2 months ago

In general you should turn off software updates

tzs2 months ago

So...?

I only read the reddit comments down to the point where the slanted lines became mildly infuriating and switched new reddit to continue, and there only down to the "view more comments" button, and didn't see anyone saying what Copilot actually does on the TV.

The comments seemed to all be about the nefarious things people were speculating it could be doing, how to block smart TVs from updating, etc., and that's also how the comments here are going.

A bit of research suggests that it is just another app. If you don't open it it won't be doing anything. If you open it you can use it as a virtual assistant to do things like check the weather, search streaming service for content, and that sort of thing.

Is there any indication it does more?

sheepscreek2 months ago

Why does a TV need Microsoft Copilot? While I think AI on the whole is a long-term net positive, but I just cannot understand Microsoft's insistence on putting Copilot everywhere. Even in places where it has no business being and against the user's wishes. I cannot remember the last time a company was this tone deaf. Why isn't Satya Nadella personally getting involved already? Seriously inexcusable.

hughes2 months ago

Why anyone would allow their TV to connect to the internet is beyond me.

bachmeier2 months ago

Now I know why my wife needed the account login information this morning.

rsynnott2 months ago

Oh, ffs. I’ve got one of those. This bubble cannot burst soon enough.

varispeed2 months ago

Yet again regulators are caught lacking. This is so predictable and yet not illegal. I guess they just wait for bribes to come in.

hsuduebc22 months ago

This is beyond tiresome.

ur-whale2 months ago

Who the fuck still watches content on an effing TV in 2025?

morning-coffee2 months ago

All the people who weren't raised on a phone or tablet shoved in front of them since they were a toddler...

the_plus_one2 months ago

How else would you watch things with other people at home? Are you going to huddle around your desktop, laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.?

haunter2 months ago

I only watch films on a 6" phone display as God intended

recursive2 months ago

Me. It seems like the best kind of display for a game console.

redwall_hp2 months ago

Everyone except weird nerds. 97% of US households have a TV, usually a smart one they watch streaming apps through nowadays.

Fewer even own a desktop or laptop computer. Using one as a media center is comparably fringe.

snvzz2 months ago

I'm not giving up my CRT.

boredatoms2 months ago

Probably half the planet