- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Even with LG’s concession, it may become more difficult to avoid chatbots on TVs.
LG says it will let people delete the Copilot icon from their TVs soon, but it still has plans to weave the service throughout webOS. The Copilot web app rollout seems to have been a taste of LG’s bigger plans to add Copilot to some of its 2025 OLED TVs. In a January announcement, LG said Copilot will help users find stuff to watch by “allowing users to efficiently find and organize complex information using contextual cues.” LG also said Copilot would “proactively” identify potential user problems and offer “timely, effective solutions.”
Some TVs from LG’s biggest rival, Samsung, have included Copilot since August. Owners of supporting 2025 TVs can speak to Copilot using their remote’s microphone. They can also access Copilot via the Tizen OS homescreen’s Apps tab or through the TVs’ Click to Search feature, which lets users press a dedicated remote button to search for content while watching live TV or Samsung TV Plus. Users can also ask the TV to make AI-generated wallpapers or provide real-time subtitle translations.
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The problem is, you can never trust companies whose products can update over the air. (like “smart TVs”). The company can promise all kinds of things they won’t do and then sneak something awful into a future update. I will spend a little more on “non-smart / no WiFi” TVs in the future.
How exactly?
They don’t make no Wifi TVs. You can choose to not give it your Wifi Password.
And please don’t say digital signage. That costs 10x what a TV does and the picture is significantly worse.
Is there a manufacturer that doesn’t ship a bunch of bloat with its televisions? Maybe Panasonic or Sony?
Im still on webos 24. Should I stick with it forever? I also use pihole and dev portal homebrew.
I am genuinely curious, this whole thing is most likely an effort to sell more TVs, but does that actually work? Is there a significant segment of customers which buys TVs based on whether or not it has a (link to a) chatbot in it? Or did some exec just decide “our products need to have AI now” with 0 research done.
I would really like to see data on this.
Or did MS pay them to include it, knowing they could hoover up a lot of data, perhaps even with a clause in the contract to also share that data with LG?
They do it because those TVs are selling.
What many people seem to misunderstand today dramatically is that no sane major manufacturer will push a genuinely risky feature. On the contrary, if something like this makes it into a product, it’s because there is an expectation of immediate or medium-term profit, backed by extensive market research. Companies aren’t stupid; they are highly optimised for this kind of decision-making. And I would honestly be glad to be proven wrong.
In other words, if the feature is there, it means that people either like it or simply don’t care enough to make it into a problem.
And here’s the hot take: don’t blame the manufacturer, blame the people. Collectively consumers have shown almost no resistance to the ongoing enshitification of the last decade.
I’m glad you’re opposed to it, and many people here are too, but in the bigger picture it is just a drop in the ocean, unfortunately.
I already barely watch the TV I have, and it never goes online.
The Internet sucks now, and I’ve got shit to do. Gimme a reason to stop looking at screens. I fucking dare you.
We need a custom replacement ROMs like Lineage or Graphene for smart TVs.
i prefer roku
It’s just another icon I never use in the LG menu I almost never see.
Maybe when I’m forced to use it I might understand the uproar, but from my perspective it seems like the loudest opponents to this are those who don’t even have it.
If your first and foremost complaint is copilot and not the gyro cursor, I know you have no skin in this game.
This crap is why my LG TV lost its internet privileges last year and built a htpc to do all my media needs.
Every article like this makes me want to hug my 13-year-old Costco Sharp (is that brand still a thing?) TV that barely has apps and doesn’t get butthurt when I don’t do anything with them
I feel that. I got a 50" 4k Sceptre from walmart maybe 4 or 5 years ago that has absolutely no smart features. They’ll have to pry that out of my cold, dead hands before I consider ‘upgrading’ to a so-called smart tv.
My webos keeps wanting to update to add AI shit and I keep saying no but it won’t take that as a permanent answer, so every time it turns on it’s required (and if I turn it on with my one and only button on the thing, it takes a while before the prompt goes away and requires remote input).
I’m looking into ways to jailbreak it or something, just family won’t exactly let me do that randomly.
I routed my LGCX by simply going to a website kind of like how you could do that back in the day for iPhones but I don’t think that’s applicable anymore but people are definitely looking into hacking the fuck out of this television so there might be some jailbreak in the future for you
Yeah that method doesn’t work on newer firmware, but luckily there are newer methods (like dejavuln), and they keep things up to date on available methods and possible versions at https://cani.rootmy.tv/
Cool, thank you for that, I wonder if I can get any better features with my TV with that new root I’m going to poke around on that website thank you again so much. Lol it’s the same website I used never mind but thank you in any case
Thank you, I’ll look into it. Mine is probably too updated for the easier methods so this helps
That’s also how you hacked old consoles back in the days. Early as Dreamcast, lol
Can you DNS block the webos update site?
Is pihole blocking LG dns to that client a good solution here? (prepping for plugging mine back in ha)
Buy an apple TV and unplug that shit from the internet.
When you get a new TV, make sure it supports CEC so you can bypass all this bullshit.
CEC allows your input devices to change inputs, control power, control volume, etc.
My current setup is a Samsung QLED, Xbox, and Apple TV. All support CEC and I never touch the Samsung remote and have no idea what’s in the Samsung menus anymore.
If I turn on the streaming box, the tv turns on, the input changes, and all I see is the streaming box UI. Same for the game console. CEC is fucking incredible and an underrated thing that doesn’t get the flowers it deserves. It just works.
Edit: imagine your TV is dumb monitor with a KVM. That’s what CEC feels like when it’s setup correctly.
Yup. It’s awesome.
When I turn on my Switch 2 with its remote, the TV starts with the Switch HDMI input. When I turn the TV off with the remote, the Switch 2 turns off. The Switch 1 did the same thing. Stuff like this is awesome.
My last TV’s remote could even control playback on my Chromecast.
LG magic remote can’t though for some reason. Disappointing.
That’s what I do. I have an LG OLED from 6-7 years ago and I have no idea what the UI looks like. But to be fair this is only because I don’t watch traditional TV at all. It’s just an Apple TV for most streaming services and a Mac Mini for some other things like adblocked youtube (with one of those cheap gyro mouse and keyboard bluetooth remotes). I guess I wouldn’t have to use the satellite TV though, I could get iptv via my fibre isp too, but that’d cost money.
The Mac is not good at supporting CEC other than switching source when it wakes up, but even that’s not an issue because I can still use the Apple TV remote to control volume even when something else is the active source. Speaking of volume, my setup also includes a Samsung sound bar which also has a remote that I never actually have to use. Everything mostly just works.
This post deserves to be a Technology Connections video
Oh my god he would have so much fun with CEC. What a wonderful and cursed protcol
I detest that man so much now. His first videos were good, then his ego started growing, then the bitchy gay man presentation started. I find that so off-putting. Drop the 'tude and give the facts my man.
Imagine complaining about highly informative and high effort videos (that you don’t have to watch, btw) because he complains about industry trends too much and seems a bit camp.
Imagine a person having personal preferences - holy shit what a mind-blowing concept that must be for you
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CEC has little to do with this; it’s an app that’s installed not a button on the remote. The search button referenced can use copilot but it’s not necessary (ie you can use the default webOS search) nor is the button copilot branded.
CEC is awesome, it just doesn’t address the issue raised by putting copilot/other AI apps on the smart TV itself. For that you just disable the internet connection.
My point about CEC is that it doesn’t matter what silly crap they install on the TV. You won’t see the unremovable apps and ads if CEC will bypass that junk entirely.
A good CEC setup will kind of feel like your TV is a dumb monitor and there is a KVM that switches all the auto and video when you pick up a game controller or streaming box remote.
I never see my TV’s software and I never touch my TV’s remote.
It’s not even an app, it’s just a link to the copilot website
Nope, CEC sucks. It makes lots of simple stuff complicated and it often does things on its own.
Just don’t connect TV to the internet or purchase a dumb PC monitor.
Find me a 60", 4K OLED with proper HDR support and ease of wall-mounting that’s anywhere near the price of a TV.
I’d love to buy a monitor and use it like that, but it’s a fantasy.
What devices have you tried it with?
I’ve been very happy with Samsung’s implementation paired with Apple and Microsoft devices.
That said, I haven’t see how things play out with other TV brand and input devices from Sony, Roku, etc. I only know that my setup has been pretty damn bulletproof.
Same here. I have my PS5 and Chromecast w/GTV via CEC, and haven’t seen the TVs UI in a long time. No issues whatsoever.
I’ve used many throughout the years. There’s always something goofy going on. Watching something on input one might automatically switch to another input that is just doing a network software update check in sleep mode. Or someone picks up a game controller and accidentally presses a button which will also suddenly switch inputs.
CEC is only good if the devices connected to it are very limited and if you want to do all software updates for everything manually.
LG’s implementation is both good and bad. It doesn’t automatically switch over, but it pops up a dialog box asking if you want to switch inputs whenever another input is connected or device turned on.
Samsung did neither, and I always had to manually switch inputs.
Wait… While this is horrible… How did LG say anything in a January announcement when it’s still December?
Probably one of those pre-announcements. Or they had AI determine the announcement date.
I will need to replace my TV next year and I’m really not looking forward to it.
I will be hooking my two consoles (Series X and PS5), then all I need is something that I can put Emby and SmartTube on.
Are the Onn sticks still a good option?
I’m in the same boat, need 2 new TVs in May of 2026. Seriously considering Sceptre TVs for that.
I haven’t heard of Sceptre. I’ll take a look.
if you could purchase a basic/dump TV with no features at all and buy raspberry pi separately, you could install Android on raspberry pi and connect the two together
Not sure if it changed in the last year or so since I bought my tv but isn’t the issue that there are essentially no dumb tvs? The closest I could find were big monitors intended to be commercial public displays but they came with their own set of issues. In the end I bought a smart tv and I it’s quite bad.
That’s what my search keeps coming up with - commercial display models. I don’t know enough about them to make a good decision, though. I guess I’ll keep digging.
Those displays are made to be very bright and usually have a lot of backlight bleed.
it’s not that complicated, just get a smart TV and don’t connect it to your network. quite easy to never use any of the built in apps if you only use your own inputs sources.
That’s exactly what I do but that doesn’t magically shield me from the bad software running on these machines. The OS is still unstable, tries to apply a bunch of filters that need to be disabled, has extreme lag unless gaming mode is being used and has stupid UI decisions like putting the audio level exactly where the subtitles usually are so that changing audio will obfuscate them. Once every 24h I‘m also getting a warning that the tv is not connected to the internet, despite network connectivity being explicitly disabled.
searching “non-smart tv” on amazon yield many results as long as you don’t require highend brand like samsung or LG
I’m trying to avoid Amazon but I’ll look there to see what I can learn.
I have an LG. They have a jellyfin app. Just block the access to other stuff and it’s fine, if not actually good.
I don’t use or need a seperste streaming box. I don’t get data mining or ads.
I need Emby - a friend runs his stuff on it. I’ll eventually move towards self-hosting all my own stuff, but that’s months away.
LG has both so it keeps your options open. Some tvs don’t have either or both and you need a seperate box to act as your client.
Some people prefer not to connect their smart tv and instead connect a box they have more control over. I find the LG app to be perfectly good for me and prefer to keep it simple and just block other network access.
Jellyfin and Emby are kinda the same thing.
So, I can use Jellyfin client to watch stuff off his Emby server? Interesting.
No, you cannot. If your friend has an Emby server you’ll need the Emby client for remote viewing (unless you friend is willing to go through a whole lot of hoops to provide direct DLNA remotely, which is a real PITA).
I think laptop or mini pc is the best. Casting might not be an option, but its nice not having to deal with apps at all if you want to watch something on the TV, and picking up a cheap wireless keyboard with touchpad makes it a nice combo.
I was thinking I’d do a pinhole and maybe a minipc. I’ve never had much luck with casting.
Linux on minipc with a cheap wireless keyboard like the k400 is a great combo. Won’t be seeing ads with that, since on browser you’ll have ublock origin for things pihole can’t block.
Very true. I’ll need to buy a pi and play with that first.
if youre getting a minipc you can run pi hole or adguard on that instead of getting both. unless you just want a pi, theyre pretty cool
My router points to adguard, so I’d probably just run pi hole on the minipc.
We don’t need/want a huge TV, so we just use a monitor with an external speaker and dedicated media box.
Smart TVs these days are just too invasive to even consider in my home.
if you’re using a dedicated media box anyway, a smart TV not connected to your network is basically the same as a dumb monitor.
Exactly our setup.
