I bought an expensive LG Oled a few months back and was quite annoyed that every time my kids would turn it on, they were greeted with an ad depicting Peter Griffin in a thong lying on a beach. It was crass intending to be humorous; typical Seth McFarlane fare. The ads on the home screen are a very worrisome indication of where smart consumer products are headed. This root is cool, but I accomplished what I needed by blocking all the LG ad URLs in my router. You can find the list by some simple Googling.
I got a new LG C2, hooked an AppleTV up to it, the AppleTV turns on the TV and it goes straight to the AppleTV Home Screen, when you turn off the AppleTV, the TV turns off (with a slightly annoying “LG: Life is good message”), and no, I’ve never connected it to the internet.
Using it basically as a dumb screen seems fine so far.
Yes, this. Never connect a TV to the internet. Apple TV (or whatever you prefer) and the TV as HDMI monitor only. Firmware updates with USB stick. If it won't work like that, take it back.
Exactly this! I have the same lg oled and I love it. I don't think I've ever even seen the native ui (maybe when I first unboxed it?). I've never connected it to the internet, and don't ever plan on updating anything. What would a firmware update for a dumb monitor even do?
My VISIO had what I believe was a memory leak. After a few weeks it would start getting random white streaks on the screen. After unplugging and restarting, the problem disappears for a few weeks. Firmware update eventually fixed it. So, yeah, sometimes a dumb monitor needs a firmware update. I would think a robot as smart as Daneel would have known that... :-)
That sounds like a great way to encourage users to connect it to Internet. Increasingly degrade the video and audio quality slowly (and randomly) over time while no internet connection is available. Part of the support script should be to advise the user to connect to Internet so that updates can be downloaded to "fix" the issue.
hahaha, yes I should have I suppose! But that is honestly the first actual case of an update for a dumb screen doing something, so hey, learn something new every day.
the problem is that not every one of these streaming devices supports all services, so you end up having a few of them. plus, the free LG channels that come with the TV are great. you get 24x7 channels of some good shows.
IIRC, the only other useful one is whether the light on the front should be off all the time. There are a few other options, but they felt more diagnostic
I do the same on my Sony TV and it's great. Unfortunately there will probably be a day in the not-so-distant future where that AppleTV has ads. It's probably the same day I start a collection of Blu-Rays.
We bought a C2. We went with DirecTV Stream, which oddly there is (or was) no app for on the LG, but there is on the cheaper Samsung in my office. (both Android based) Got DirecTV's streaming box, which boots directly into their service (so no bouncing around in apps for our everyday watching) but also supports the usual third-party apps as well. It's also uses a simpler remote which is nice.
Actually I think I'm wrong on both accounts, as my Samsung TV runs Tizen, not Android. I believe I was thinking about the old FireTV that I put on the C2 at first, as well as the DirecTV Stream device, which both run variations of Android.
I had no idea this was an issue, tv ads? I'm about to buy a new tv for new home. So go-to is buy any new tv but just use Apple TV box instead, and this box is worthwhile?
Yep. Your options are to buy a dumb TV or just make sure whatever TV you do buy doesn't ever connect to the internet, and use an external device to get the content to the screen. There are ads everywhere now.
I have a slightly older LG OLED and I don't get any ads -- I just haven't accepted any of their policy checkboxes and that seems to keep things at bay. There some very minor features (Alexa integration) that don't work but everything else works fine.
I have a C!, and didn't accept the policies either.
This worked for a while to prevent ads, but now the ads ignore the policies and show up anyway, and they became really obnoxious, including the notification system sometimes showing ads while you are using the TV.
I use an nVidia Shield and a TV as a dumb one. It was really good until Google decided all Android TV devices would have to use their bad UI with their homepage full of ads.
You should look into swapping out the default google launcher. Which will remove the ads, remove all suggested content and declutter the main screen. Tons of videos out there showing how to do that on android tv.
Used Nvidia Shield TV since the first gen until the ads started getting really bad and taking up most of the screenspace. That was a very quick way to convert me to an AppleTV user. I know you can replace the launcher on the Shield TV/AndroidTV, but the process is non-trivial and I didn't feel like dealing with it. In my experience, when you have to hack things to make it work, it presents problems later on.
