2d ago

LG Update Installs Unremovable Microsoft Copilot on Smart TVs, Ignites Backlash

It's wild just how much they're trying to shove AI down our throats.

371 comments

Incredible. What a shit idea.
Anyways, kids, remember: never let your smart devices talk to the internet. We actually love our LG OLED - it's fantastic hardware. But it has not once, and never will, get the chance to phone home.
- But what do you use instead? The onboard apps work well and having two remotes always sucked.
  
  Thanks to HDMI-CEC you can control additional media players with your TV's remote. Sometimes it might not be perfect for things like long presses and stuff, but for basic controls it works.
  That's my experience with an Nvidia Shield and a Raspberry with KODI. I wouldn't really recommend the Raspberry though.
  
  A separate box with apps that work better and just use the one remote.
  
  I only use the Nvidia Shield remote. It obviously does everything on the Shield, plus tv on/off, and volume. Then I remapped the Netflix button on it to open a little quick actions menu to select brightness/picture mode levels.
  Haven't touched the lg remote since
  
  I use an Apple TV with mine. You can control the TV and soundbar from its one small remote.
  
  AppleTV.
  https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/the-ars-technica-guide-to-dumb-tvs/
  
  Would you connect it to the internet with all its consequences to be able to use one remote instead of two?
  
  Nvidia Shield or chromecast. Two remotes is really not a big deal, but I use a universal remote that works for everything.
  
  Literally any device plugged into a dumb screen is better than a smart TV.
  The hardware on a smart TV is typically absolute trash. It's why they're so slow.
  Edit: This includes laptops, which is what I'd use, why do people even consider extra devices?
  
  Chromecast
  
  I have an lg TV. Never use it's remote.
- Totally worth mentioning, some LG OLED TVs are able to be jailbroken and run homebrew software!
  https://www.webosbrew.org/
  It can block firmware updates and telemetry, so no spying and no surprise "feature" additions.
- Yeah, my LG OLED is a genuinely wonderful thing, with which 99% of its use is via an Apple TV. The other 1% is me casting my phone to it, because it's a Pixel and Apple are pricks who won't let AirPlay work outside of their ecosystem.
- I got a Sony OLED that was on a steep discount near the beginning of covid since it was clear me and my roommate would be home a lot more (Ended up just being in nature more and used it sporadically). Thankfully their interface was minimal at the time so it was just a blank homescreen in offline mode but I've saw tvs now adays some people are buying that will have an overlay even while on any hdmi inputs, that you must connect to the tv. A friend of mine got a cheap Walmart one after a move like 2 years ago and the overlay took up a third of the screen. He just moved too so he had no internet to connect to for a couple days so couldn't even use his PS4 on it.
- I reworked my entire home network. Going from an Asus router to an opnsense firewall, just to put the HP printer and the LG TV on a VLAN with absolutely no internet access.
  These two poor guys ping each other every day, in the hopes one of them gets a connection.
  
  Awesome haha. ALmost exact same setup here, incl. OpnSense with an isolation vlan in which (brother) printer and TV are.
- Exactly, I basically just use mine as a big monitor connected to my PC sat beneath it
  
  That's the way to go, fuck all these limiting android slop boxes.
- remember: never let your smart devices talk to the internet.
  Especially a smart phone!

Who’s going to step up and start creating a “dumb” version of absolutely everything? One brand dedicated to just making the thing do the thing it absolutely must do and nothing else.
- Would be great but the manufacturer would be at a disadvantage because that bundled bullshit effectively subsidizes the device. So you'd have to either raise prices or accept a lower profit margin.
  Due to the high barrier of entry (e.g. because of patents) it's unlikely that a privately owned company can make a big market entry, especially across countries. And a public company will be forced by the shareholders to maximize profit so either you bundle crapware or they fire you as CEO.
  Of course if you look outside the TV market such devices already exist. High-quality digital signage devices can easily be had – for about three times the price of an equivalently-sized TV.
  
  So you’d have to either raise prices or accept a lower profit margin.
  Isn't that the point and the main benefit of competitive markets?
  Agreed, regarding barriers to entry though. They need to be addressed.
  
  Wonder if avoiding the HDMI forum and only having open source ports like DP would reduce cost.
  
  Why do they need incoming profit after the purchase? We've had single purchases for 70 years and they've done fine. Set the price above the price of materials. Boom profit. Transaction over.
- Some premium brands like Bang & Olufsen sell TVs without adware, I think Panasonic TVs are mostly ad-free for now. Outside of that, most big brands will have "professional" or "commercial" product lines that also don't have ads. But in all cases you'll have to pay extra over the TVs subsidized by ads.
  
  pay extra over the TVs subsidized by ads.
  Let's be very clear, they are not and never were "subsidised by ads". Ads just became a new way to extract more money from customers.
  
  that also don't have ads.
  YET!
  What we need to be pushing is someone like Framework to build fixable TV’s. Plenty of companies now make PI compute style boards so give me a screen I can put my own PI compute style board in and flash my own software.
  Then if JelllyFin added in the tuner side, considering it already has the basics, you’d likely get a ton of business selling custom TV’s that are more useable then the crap we have now. Look how popular the fire sticks got!
  Makes me wish I had a few million to get a TV designed, make a batch but I think demand would be an issue… which begs the question, how is no-one doing it yet? 🤦‍♂️🙄
  
  https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV-category1category73.html
  All their TVs are dumb. We're moving to a new house next year, and I decided all our TVs will be Sceptre.
  
  Some premium brands like Bang & Olufsen sell TVs without adware,
  Well, their TVs start around $9k and get up to about $30k. That'd be kinda crazy if they play ads like other brands do.
  
  are mostly ad-free for now.
  Mostly?
  Is that already considered some kind of quality?
- Alternatively... just get a CRT. Or hell, even an old plasma screen lol
- I will if you start a go fund me to raise enough money to.
  
  Yeah, me too. I've already been wanting to make refrigerators. How hard can it be? I assume shitty regulations are the biggest holdup.

My company received an email from Microsoft this week.
“From our data you are not selling Ai features as much as your competitors and we suggest that you start changing this or you will be left behind.”
It was a completely bullshit email. But the stupids at my company are now worried that Microsoft is tracking the features we’re selling with our computers. Like if that wasn’t the most glaring red flag “we have spent way too much money on this and we need you to prove we aren’t dumbasses” I don’t know what is.
I still will not sell Ai outside of its basic uses. And I’m backed up by the old heads in my department. Ai is not for everything.
- One day, literally every Gsuite product immediately and incessantly started nagging us to use Gemini. Fortunately our tech staff quickly switched it all off. We have slowly been re-enabling features that are useful like meeting transcriptions. I just wish these corporations could have more restraint. In previous waves of improvement in tech, usage dictated investment in new products. These days, they seem to feel the need to coerce us to use their products as they insist we should. I think users are getting fatigued by this dynamic. I used to be the first to install every update and try new apps and products. These days, I'm excited when I can stop using a product, and I don't think it's just due to age. It means I can stop having to be vigilant about some company I know is searching for ways to exploit me.
  
  Yeah the MBA guys who pushed enshitification were empowered because their strategies made more money so they must know what they are doing right? Now things don't happen because they are better they happen because these guys think there is money. And the guys who used to pick the best ideas are out being rich somewhere
  
  I think this rollout could have been handled better. I am generally pro AI but I do think there are tasks it does not handle well (yet?) and places it is unnecessary or just shouldn't be used. On the other hand though I do think that it is partly age and being in tech a while you tend to get fatigued. Giddily wanting to try all the latest stuff only really works when the technology is new and immature or that you are new to the technology. People have been around digital technology for a while now so it's no longer exciting.
- “This technology is so useful we’re going to force it on you every way we can think of”
- Last year I quit a job that added AI use to performance reviews.
  It was basically "if we're not all in on AI our competitors will be, we all need to learn it".
  Nobody paid for their product for AI before, they paid for a product that was simple and reliable so that their business didn't have to worry about issues and could dicks on their core competencies.
  I watched some sheisters build some impressive money furnaces, they got the praise while I got sidelined for pointing out the costs. I literally showed the forecasted costs of tens of thousands a week on basically a vanity feature with no payout, and the execs all said yeah that was fine, it's AI. Then two months later they were asking me why our costs went up so much and why they didn't know that would happen, and I just pointed to my date stamped presentation of the numbers and meeting notes they approved (and my numbers were 99% accurate to the true costs).
  When execs ignore my advice and warnings I leave.
  
  Sorry to hear that. It’s wild. Dell is doing a 30% price hike because of prices. Announced today. I expect us to follow.
- For your protection!

If you root your lg oled you can truly block automatic updates. You can also install ad free youtube with sponsorblock integrated plus a bunch of other stuff that is of varying utility depending on your use case.
In general though just don’t connect it to the internet and get a $100 box for jellyfin from china (ugoos am6b+ works great and can playback basically anything but av1 natively if you flash Coreelec, the android side can still run streaming apps if you insist or iptv apps like tv mate since iptv support in kodi/jellyfin suuuucks).
Lg has proven they don’t respect consent by silently opting you in to data collection with updates. The updates never add features or bug fixes, just ugly UI changes and shit like this. It’s almost never worth updating unless someone is specifically saying “you should update, it fixes/adds ____
In the future don’t support them but at the same time it’s the “who the fuck can you support/oh you use an iphone under capitalism” problem. Yeah you don’t need a big tv, you don’t need an oled, you can buy a far more expensive commercial display, etc. I dunno
- If you root your tv...
  My brother in christ.
  
  You buy a $400-$3000 tv and eliminate big parts of the feature set (dlna, phone/laptop as remote, airplay/casting, etc) because you let their nonsense prevent you from connecting something you purchased to the internet so the vendor won’t ruin it.
  Or you buy any other brand where rooting isn’t even an option and the ad penetration is often worse because they’re almost all based around amazon, androidtv, or Roku, all of which are much more developed and mature. With tricks like not allowing you to set a custom dns for Adblocking (Roku does this) or hard defining a cloudflare DNS to circumvent ad blocking dns if you set it at the router level (android does this).
  If all the options are shit, make one that works
  
  Exactly. This is already so many levels 9f wrong up to this point.
- Not connecting it isn't going to necessarily matter in the future if TVs start using meshnets to spy and install adware/bloatware/etc. regardless of if you're connected or not like has been looked into for a while.
  
  Raising the importance of both having a rooted tv and independent analysis of network traffic related to these devices
- ugoos am6b+ works great and can playback basically anything but av1 natively if you flash Coreelec, the android side can still run streaming apps if you insist or iptv apps like tv mate since iptv support in kodi/jellyfin suuuucks
  Not Netflix though, right?
  We cancelled our Netflix subscription earlier this year, but I am just curious. To my understanding to install Netflix you have to use trash tier HTPC devices.
  
  The android side should be able to run Netflix with Dolby vision/hdr/atmos though I have not tested this because I don’t have an account.
  The reason it works for Dolby vision playback in kodi/core elec is because it’s licensed. That’s why you end up having to dual boot, you need to retain the blobs on the android side to make the DV profiles work. It’s fucking dumb and Dolby vision is dumb and proprietary but technically superior but hdr10+ is open but lg doesn’t support it, it’s all fucking dumb. HTPCs dont work great with DV, at least for pirated content (not sure about streaming). They’ll play some profiles with specific software configurations but not all. Generally you end up tonemapping
  Anyway it’s licensed for Dolby vision because it’s primarily meant as a box for streaming apps, so I assume Netflix/hbo max/etc would work. I don’t have accounts so I don’t know. I only use the android side for iptv

The controversy centers on a Reddit post in the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, where a user lamented the unexpected addition of Copilot following an automatic update. The post, which garnered thousands of upvotes and comments, describes the AI tool appearing as a non-deletable app on the TV’s interface.
"Widespread backlash" 🙄
- AI generated summary for sure
- I thought "Widespread backlash" was the position Microsoft wants all its customers in ✋️🍑🤚
- Honestly, though this is the definition of "widespread backlash" when it comes to red pilled garbage. So I'll take it.

Needs to be illegal.
- Yeah, changing hardware operating software after purchase should be restricted.
  
  At minimum, should be forced to allow trash software to be removed.

This, this finally made me reach back my LG TV and disconnected the Ethernet cable.

I need someone to explain to me, what situation could possibly arise that would require me to use Copilot on my fucking TV?
- The same reason why windows has that stupid desktop search - so that some twat with an MBA can brag about user engagement and justify his existence. Also, to hoover up user data for slop machine training.
  
  At least you can turn that search thing off!
- Don't think about what copilot can do for you that's some socialism talk!, think about how it could squeeze profits and data from your instead ~Microsoft lunatics
  
  This is like how I save money on internet by having cable I don't watch.
  The execs just want that cable subscriber number to go up so they effectively pay me to have it.
  They had the same thing with landlines for a while.
- I believe we're talking about the "number go up" scenario
  
  "Go away, I'm batin'!"
- Play the movie where Darth Vader dies.
  Of course there are features enabled by ai. But to force it down our throats, that's the problem.

This shit is why more people now have dabbled in DNS blocking and vlans. Its "your" equipment but you need to literally treat it as hostile.
- Anything you didn't program yourself should be assumed hostile.
  Lots of open source gets a pad because grumpier people than me review it and they seem to have good taste, but I still don't blindly trust it.

Then follows a class action lawsuit because the AI exposed children to unsuitable materials and the thing is gone the next update.
- """gone"""

My next tv (don’t have one) is just gonna be attached to a laptop by hdmi. That’s it.
- Meet ACR
  
  Holy shit, I had no idea that exists. My next TV will be a monitor with no internet access.
  I'm in the process of making all our media sources and tech independent, starting with my dad's laptop. I've already set up easy remote access so I can always help him with anything. I am NEVER using mainstream shit from now on.
  
  I know it’s not a fix all
  But a Pi-hole prevents a lot of this collected data from ever leaving your network to begin with.
  
  Yup. Make sure it's not a "smart" TV with a WiFi connection. LG was one of three TV companies (Visio and Samsung were the others) that got caught spying on their TVs HDMI connection and sending usage data on connected devices back to their manufacturers through the WiFi connection.
  
  Do not connect it to your network. It cannot do spying if ot cannot connect.
- Ive been eyeing up signage displays and 50"+ gaming monitors.
  I don't want the smart in my display, I want the smart attached to my display.
- Get a monitor, you don't need a wall sized tv. I got a pair of Displayport monitors for free, and they perform admirably.
  
  I think the one I have is 50 inch and I think it could be a bit smaller, yeah. A monitor might work better . I just use it for my switch and some tv shows/ambiance.

I'll throw my money at any TV manfucturer that just sells me a dumb OLED TV with great picture quality. Heck, even drop the speakers, I won't be using them anyway. Just a dumb panel with plenty of input/outputs.
- The LG TVs are basically that if you just ignore the LG ui. You can plug in whatever input you want and have it automatically go there on power on
  I never see the LG UI. Only my nvidia shield
  You'll never get a high quality panel like you want because there's only so many that produce the panels. And without a value add nobody makes any money.
  
  FYI, LG and Samsung were both confirmed to take and upload periodic screenshots, whether you're using native apps or an external input.
  Shitty article with guide to disable ACR: https://appleinsider.com/inside/mac/tips/how-to-stop-your-lg-or-samsung-smart-tv-from-tracking-you (you might want to block traffic altogether knowing what they are ok with doing)
  Primary source for finding: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.06203
  
  Same here. Love my LG tv, but it only talks to my shield. And my other tv talks linux. But nvidia is also walking down an ad ridden possibly ai path.
- Sceptre has some dumb models.
- The last time I said basically this same thing, someone recommended something…I think it was an industrial TV or something? I can’t remember!
  
  Industrial TVs or computer monitors, yeah, but that's only a matter of time and the former are expensive.
  Edit: also projectors.

So glad I blocked my LG C1 from the internet ages ago. Haven't received updates in forever, don't care. It's a TV, it shows pictures. I even still have it LAN enabled so it can be controlled via Home Assistant automations, it just can never leave the home network, and that's how I like it.
I can't even remember how long ago I set it up to do this, I think it was when I heard rumor they'd be including ads in the UI, maybe 2023 or so.
- That’s interesting - I have a C1 (2021). Where or how do you block these updates and have it connected to your local network?
  
  It's blocked at my router. I've had two routers the past few years, an ASUS AX5700 (RT-AX86u) and a NETGEAR AXE7800 (RAXE300). Both allow for blocking a device from internet without blocking LAN access. So you give it an IP on your network, and then just block it from internet. I use the Netgear currently and have the ASUS as a backup device.
  I don't know if it's true, but I've read that some TVs will scan and seek to connect to open networks if it's not connected at all, so I figure that way it's totally blocked, and I still have access to its APIs for Home Assistant and Homekit use.
  
  You'd need to set up a firewall rule on your router to block that device from accessing the internet. If you've got a fancy enough router you could set up a VLAN and second SSID for all your IoT things and only whitelist connections and devices you want to allow. That can get a little tricky to set up though
- So it talks to your media box exclusively and your media box summons the streaming services?
  
  I've got a Home Assistant server hooked into homekit with voice (via an Apple HomePod). I can say something like "turn on home theater" and it will turn on the receiver, TV, and Apple TV, and will set the receiver to the Apple TV's input.
  Then, other automations. Like, I've got a Lytmi Fantasy 3 Pro light strip behind my TV, and when I launch video (via streaming, plex, whatever) on the Apple TV, it will automatically turn off the living room lights except for the color strip. Then if I stop or pause the video, it will turn them back on. Stuff like that.
  Only drawback is the TV doesn't do wake on LAN unless you use the ethernet connection. If you want it wireless, you gotta use CEC instead, but that's not too big a deal.

Irony is LG has their own open weights AI: Exaone 32B.
https://huggingface.co/LGAI-EXAONE
It’s… not terrible. Especially for a multilingual, locally runnable one. But they gave it a license from the depths of hell, that even forbids reverse engineering and basically claims all its outputs, so no one uses it.
https://huggingface.co/LGAI-EXAONE/EXAONE-4.0.1-32B/blob/main/LICENSE
Anyway, I find it darkly hilarious that they choose to snub their own research, and their Tenstorrent partnership, and shove copilot in instead. How much you wanna bet they namedrop OpenAI in their earnings report?
This is corporate enshittification at its purest.
- I’d assume microsoft is writing them a fat check to do so
  
  Ding ding
  Nothing has to do with quality anymore, it's all about money for the few rich people
  
  Yeh and their own ‘R and D’ may have been leverage in the negotiation.

It seems TV aren't even owner by the owners anymore. I don't watch TV nor game anymore but seeing the amount of ads when just turning on tvs at friends houses is wild and now with this it's doing way too much to just be a display. Whoever decides to start making dumb tvs again at mass with all the newer tech like hdr and dolby atmos in it will have a booming business but I guess no residuals after the sale no unlimited growth for investors.
- For now, at least in Europe, I have removed every single ad on TV just buy going to the terms and conditions and not giving them consent. But I am using Samsung smart TV and I'm in Europe.

Since it can't be LG anymore - what's a good TV screen for gaming?
- The panels all come from two producers (really just one for the very good ones). So, pick whoever you can get the best deal on for your needed featureset and never connect it to the internet.
  
  Also enable Game Mode which typically turns off some of the smart TV functions.
- I disagree that it can't be LG anymore since it's still a basic TV so long as you don't connect it to the internet. Use the TV as a TV and use an Nvidia Shield, Chromecast, etc to do your internet stuff.
  
  I called a terrible IT person for suggesting not connecting smart TVs to the network as a simple means of by passing the issue with their updates and invasion of privacy. I think it'd be easier to do that and hook up an old computer for streaming from.
- Its looking like our future will be buying dumb industrial display panels and running a RaspberryPi as your streaming service device
- LG, Samsung are still fine, you just don't connect them to the internet and use an android tv instead
- Wasn't LG one of the last good ones left?
- Samsung S95F OLED
  https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/video-gaming

Well LG did me a favor. Don't buy LG tvs, Samsung appliances or HP printers.
- Don't buy LG anything. Everything I've bought from them has suckes
  
  I've had good luck with their mid-high end kitchen appliances and washer/dryer.
  Not impressed with the TV and the AI update made the UI very slow and unresponsive. Next one will not be LG.
  
  Their washing machines are good
  
  I have a freezer from them, it has worked well. Took a chance on the brand. But now it seems the display has broke after 3 years only... Hmm.
  
  We have had great luck with our LG microwave. It’s well over ten years old and the one issue we’ve had was caused by user error. Our two year old LG tv is meh. The backlighting is uneven; our much older Samsung looks much better.
  
  I've only ever bought LG phones, they made a couple of duds but largely they were great, they died rather than going to shit.
  I need a new phone eventually though. :(
- Well, at least LG has a range of TVs turned monitors, i.e. without all that "smart" shit. So they have a usable alternative, something other vendors don't.

FYI, it won't let you delete Alexa either. I hate that fucking thing.

I got my mom an iPad, apparently AI is unavoidable in setup. To finish setup, you must agree to Apple AI.
They are all doing it together. I can't keep track of who owns what, perhaps "they" are all actually owned by the same megacorp.
- This can be turned off after setup.
  It's stupid that this is the feature they decide to force considering using an Apple account during setup is still optional.
  
  Thank you, I didn't finish setup, I took a deep breath and turned the pad over and declared that I am done for the day. A man has to know his limitations.
  
  Clever, so you have to agree to the terms either way.
- I think everyone should return things when there is weird tos to use something. It costs the company as they'll have to sell the product as 'used', and it informs them that people don't actually agree, we are just coerced into it.
  
  A coordinated effort to do that on a specific day could be interesting.
- You can definitely turn Apple Intelligence off
- Ecorp
- Oh really? I have never had Apple Intelligence enabled on mine, it was always opt in I thought
  
  It is. Original commenter is either dishonest or inept.
- Well Vanguard and Blackrock have a significant stake in all major companies even in Apple, together they own something like 17% of Apple and almost the same in Microsoft. Since they buy shares for their ETFs or mutual fund products. While they technically don’t own the shares but only manage the investments they do vote on behalf of their clients.
- It is not unavoidable. You can say no and move on with your setup. There are reasons to hate corporations but this is not one.
  
  It is 100% unavoidable with the options provided using setup as stated. You can either click "activate AI" or "continue", clicking the latter brings you to the "activate AI" prompt. There are no other options using the setup.
  Please don't make false claims to defend Apple, it's silly.

At some point we'd have to start importing TVs from the other side of the Great Chinese Firewall to avoid unwanted US tech. It's getting ridiculous.
- then you get unwanted chinese tech.
  
  It would have to phone home over the great firewall, which is the point
  
  From a European perspective, at this stage I think I'd prefer the Chinese tech over the American.
  
  Yes. The way things ate going, at some point it may become less harmful and easier to deal with unwanted Chinese tech than American. Pay much lower profit margins as a bonus.
- Or get a laptop or some other device so the TV has no choice but work as a simple display. We've come full circle
  
  The new problem is AI running on the TV taking the images sent to it and processing those separately from everything else, and using that to see what you're doing and watching.

This comes up a lot, and I don't necessarily get it. I have all smart TVs, and I just never, ever, EVER let them connect to wifi even ONCE for any reason. It's not like it NEEDS it for anything.
- It’s not like it NEEDS it for anything.
  I see this take online a lot, but in person, everywhere I go people play netflix and whatever directly on their TV. I think there might just be a huge divide in perspective between those with and without game consoles of some sort always connected to their TV.
- Totally, although the thing is I bet one day tvs will come with a built in sim card, or worst yet will disable themselves until there's an active internet connection or some other scummy method
  
  That's the point when I will get a dumb corporate TV with a streaming dongle or media server connected via HDMI or DP...
  
  You can not set up a Roku tv without being connected to the internet.
  
  I think they kind of do the active Internet part now. I don't watch television and haven't touched a TV for a long time, but recently I had to help a neighbour set his new smart TV up. It was one of the big brands, I don't remember if it was LG, Samsung or something else. The TV couldn't go through initial set up without me installing some app on his phone. If there was an option to skip I couldn't see where it was, I only assume that if it was possible it was intentionally made un-intuitive or hard to discover. And of course, if you want the TV to connect to the app you must connect it to Internet. Again, it may have been a failure on my part, but I wouldn't be supprised if they intentionally forced the user to do it this way.
  Samsung had something similar on their cheaper phones (the A series) where during the initial set up it asks you to login or create a Samsung account and you have to jump through a couple of hoops to skip it, as well as some other part where I don't remember what the phone asked you to do, but the "Yes" option was blue, while the button to skip was intentionally colored the same or very similar shade of gray as an inactive button. So if the TV was Samsung I don't doubt for a second that they will do some shady practice like that.
  
  Agreed. And that'll be the time I'm up in arms.
- My tv wants to connect to the internet. I tell it to eat shit.
- I would assume that there are updates who could be useful or something? But as long as everything works, my tv has no connection to the outside world. Talk to the linux box if you want to know something.
  
  I used to think this… but it’s just not true.
  Device software updates only make your device worse now.
  If it ABSOLUTELY MUST get online, you DO need to let it update for security purposes, but in most cases now when you buy it from the store, it’s got everything that needs and you just need to block it from getting online all-together.
  My LG CX from 2021 has not been online even once since I bought it.
- This right here is the answer. There are so many devices you can plug into those things that you don't really need the crap that they installed natively.

Oh, the same company that screenshots your content even if you use it as a dumb display? Who could've predicted this!
- I read somewhere Samsung does it too. Not surprised at all if they all do it, along wiht the streaming sticks.
  
  I mean considering that broadcasters have been viewing our watching habits ever since the inception of TV this is really no different.

What does LG even get out of this?
- M$ is probably paying them handsomely for it.
- It's always one thing: Money.

LG's recent software update has forcibly installed Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant, on smart TVs without removal options, sparking widespread user backlash over privacy, bloatware, and loss of control. This highlights growing tensions in smart devices, where monetization often overrides user preferences.
Sure is ironic that the article summary is itself AI-generated.
- Widespread user backlash? Those of us who value privacy probably stopped watching streamed services anyway. The user base that cares is probably 1%. Nobody I know cares about privacy enough to implement countermeasures.

one of the many prices you pay letting a "Smart" TV connect to the internet.

Easy way to never get this. Don’t connect the tv to internet. Literally get an Apple TV or fire stick or something else as a media player.
- if you get one of those you end up in the same place with more steps… you need to hook up a pc (any format), preferably running Linux, so you have full control
  
  Amd streamers dont give hd on desktop devices.
  So if we go this route we need to bring our sea legs.
  
  Yeah it used to be a pc on Windows was enough, but now even that's corrupted to hell
- For the love of Mithras do not get a fucking firestick. The amount of data collection and phone home requests those things do is actually insane. Not to mention they're locked down hard now, you can't even change launchers. You'll be back at square one with a TV spewing ads at you without consent, and you can't do shit.

Don't buy LG, noted. Also, maybe buying a dumb TV with great panel and then adding android fire stick that you can manage the way you want is the way all along?
- No, don't even buy LG.
  I bought a dumb LG panel for my bedroom and I had to buy black enamel paint to go over the status LED. When the panel it's off, the indicator LED it's BRIGHT. BLUE. BLINKING. And it's so powerful that I still see it because the light leaks from the small plastic vents. I also had to additionally insert a Shelly 1pm smart relay in the socket and program it with the logic "from 8pm to 8am if power usage is under 5 watts, cut the power; repeat the check every minute"
  When the panel is on, instead, the status LED it's off 🤷🏻‍♂️
  
  I can turn off the light in the menu on mine
- Watch out for the android TV boxes. They are being used by China to backdoor into US critical infrastructure. Seriously.
  This just barely covers the depth and scope of the issue. https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fbi-badbox-20-android-malware-infects-millions-of-consumer-devices/
  
  I'm tired of being in the frontline trenches of a shadow cyber war, boss.
  
  That's exactly what FBI would want people to think when they lose the money because the black boxes and can't surveillance themselves anymore.
- Or just buy whatever smart panel and do the same. Might as well take the subsidy from the smart panel and just leave it off your network
  
  Mine periodically displays a wi-fi not connected overlay if it's not connected.
- Seems hard to find those types of displays. Some people bring up commercial displays but they are expensive and it seems like a lot of then do have smart features.

Who the fucks connect tv to the internet
- Straight to the work bench, remove the back, physically remove the wifi adapter, replace back of TV. Yay, i am ready for xbox.
  
  If I had done that, I would have never gotten the firmware update to enable VRR support on my HDMI 2.1 ports…

How the fuck would you even use it on your TV?
- You must understand: It's not your TV, it's LG's, and they will do with it what ever they want, and not to your benefit. This is the future we chose.
  
  This is the future we chose.
  I don't recall be given options.
- You don't use it. It uses you.
- The newer models already have the option to enable Google assistant and interface with it via a microphone in the remote control. Sounds like it's no longer an optional feature and is being AI enshittified.
- My guess is voice control

clankers should be segregated from society. oh and to the hexbear people: "clanker" is technically NOT a slur. seriously!
- what?

I got the notification and I read the fine print. I will have to turn off any future updates from here on out.
- Pi hole and block LG’s servers. You can’t just opt out. It will wait for a power outage to opt you back in or “critical security patch” and they’ll force it anyway.
  
  I have pihole network wide and one of the lists I added is https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Perflyst/PiHoleBlocklist/master/SmartTV.txt .
  I guess I will have to review those lists.

i wish they at bare minimum let you opt out.
- The bare minimum is opt-in, anything beyond that deserves a bear minion knocking on some C-suit doors...

Never connect your TV to your wireless and wired internet, even on initial purchase. Use a USB when updating your TV.
- and why would that be any different? do they offer special usb-stick no-malware upgrade or what?
  
  Don't upgrade it past the day you set it up. Set it up with something like Nvidia shield or a fire stick so when it goes fucky on you, swap it with a better product. I went from a Chromecast first gen to Nvidia shield, love both products. Never connect the TV to a network where it can update and change the terms of agreement after the fact, like adding ads, adding apps, etc. avoid Roku for this as well. Changing product terms after purchase should be highly illegal.
- Or just have a extra vLan for untrustable Hardware

Maybe I should have bought a projector instead.
- Odroid with LineageOS
- Projectors have the exact same problems. Their OSs are awful with ads, too.
  
  A projector with an OS? I just plug mine in via HDMI and it's no different than a computer monitor.

This comes in handy...
- Shit, Kodi isn't mentioned once in the article. That's a sign of the times.
- Smart TV OSes help TV-makers stay afloat in an industry with thin margins on hardware. Not only do they provide ad space, but they also give OS operators and their partners information on how people use their TVs—data that is extremely valuable to advertisers.
  I turn my tv on, turn it to whatever channel, and then I just go about my business. I even leave the house. Go to work. Ect.
  So if I had a smart tv, I they would get info like "oh, he's been watching tv for 36 hours straight...."
  Meanwhile, I may have watched 3 hours combined at different times.
  Oh, you want to pay these companies more money, because more people are watching? Ok.....but I'm not even home. I've been at work for 5 hours. I just turn the TV on so it looks like someone is home.

smart TVs
Instead of getting some proprietary media device glued to a display, you could just put Kodi or similar on an HTPC. Use whatever display device you want. That way, you decide what the device does.
- Have you tried to buy a non-smart TV recently?
  
  I just picked one with a nice screen, didn't connect it to wifi, and set it to turn on to the last used input. Bam. Dumb TV.

is it that hard just to a regular TV? i think with all the AI backlash and Smart TV fatigue that's kinda a reasonable solution. Def won't hurt anybody
- The companies making TVs don’t want to sell simple displays, they want to expand their businesses beyond just one time sales of hardware. So they and the store fronts don’t offer the average consumer a simple display. People can still find them, but they need to be actually looking for a dumb TV and know what to look for.
  
  everything gotta be scaling, eh. seems like a dead end.
- They kept telling me that capitalism gave us choices.
  Lol.
  
  technically, it's not capitalism but free market that provides choices. capitalism kinda fucking hates free market.
  
  You do have choices.
  Right now you can have Samsung adware or LG adware.
  They both want to sell your content watching data, demographic data, and stuff ads in the tv like Roku does at a layer you can't do anything about.
  Even not connecting my tv to the internet, if I buy next year's tv it's going to have this shit pre installed and nagging.
  I have a new LG OLED which is great, but it took a lot of tweaking in the setting slto get it to work without going to the homepage and the quick settings still waste space showing my the wifi isn't connected (which it will never ever be).
- Depends on the country, but yes it is actually difficult to find a TV that is not android TV based or at least has WiFi and smart features built in, especially above a certain size/price threshold.
  
  damn.

This is worse than anything Microsoft has done, I hope it leads to their decay as a company.
I hate when companies do nonsense like this.

Some best buy asshole convinced me to buy LG this last time because "it's the same screen as the bravia, but lower price so you can get the sound bar too!". Yeah fuck that, Sony doesn't jerk me around. WebOS doesnt even fucking WORK unless you agree to every sharing option and update. Next time I'll just pay the extra.
- Sony is also a terrible company with a long history of anti-consumer behaviour.
  
  That's fine, I now own both and I can say objectively that LG is way worse to work with and Sony has been easy. I have money, I want a TV. I don't want LG.
  
  I always wonder how much my PS5 is spying on me.

And they still haven’t figured out how to stop Netflix from crashing 15 minutes into every other show I watch. First year I had it no problems. Then one day about two years ago, bam, unwatchable.

I have my TV on WiFi network that has no Internet access so at least I can control it via homeassistant still. It doesn't need Internet for anything but the UI so just get a shield and strip that down

Back to crt. Analog everything
- Back to flashlights and shadow puppets
- I saw a 16:9 CRT in the trash a few years ago, it had just started to rain, the time it took to arrange secure transport it was soaked, so I passed. I didn't feel like I could deal with the size and weight of the thing if I had to repair it as well.
  But they do show up now and then.
- Stoves, washers, dryers, and ovens with knobs too please!
  
  A guy at Costco was telling me about how his grill connects to wi-fi. Too freaking far man.

Good.
Remind them who's in charge.
- Assert dominance and look at them while you're at it by the built-in camera.

I think they want to replace conventional ui with a universal machine equivalent of a talking head. It could save billions on ui development. If only we would shut up and just swallow it.
- I dunno. This doesn't seem anything at all like Max Headroom.
  
  They'll probably go with a finely tuned matriarch. Sexy yet commanding. And it must be addressed in a tone of subservience. "Please your highness, put on Cartoon Network"

If I want to avoid connecting my LG smart TV with my network, but I would like to still use a remote with an external device running Jellyfin plugged in via HDMI, what privacy respecting options do I have here? AFAIK, TV sticks run Android and can also collect your data, so my natural guess would be to plug in a device running Linux, but how about remote control?
- Block your TV MAC address from accessing the internet at the router level. Local LAN phone apps will still control TV . but for streaming stuff you will want a raspberrypi loaded with Kodi or jellifin
- a firewall with a very strict egress policy would probably be all you need

Pi-hole
- AdGuard Home

My next TV, I’m going to look into whether the PCB can be swapped with a computer monitor PCB made by the same company.
- Perhaps, with some soldering.
  The issue is the firmware.

Looks like the last update I applied to my LG TV via USB was truly the last one it'll ever receive. No way am I ever connecting my TV to any network, that's what streaming devices are for 🙂

No factory reset?

What's wrong with not having a TV? I feel like a weirdo for even asking, but honest question. I had a black and white TV that got three channels in 2001, but haven't had it or any other TV since then. I just watch Netflix on my phone.
The only place where the AI push is annoying me so far is fb msngr adding a screen-space hog of "use meta to summarize 12 unread messages" when I've already read them three times and the messages are shorter than a summary would be 😂
- A lot of people use TVs to watch shows with someone else. Phones suck for that. When I'm watching something alone I just use my computer and its fine. When I'm watching with someone we use the TV.
  
  That makes sense. My partner and I just lay in bed to watch on our phones, but at his son's house they have a TV with a firestick and use that.
- Nothing wrong with it tbh. If your phone is big enough for ya that's fine.
  If you ever did get a tv get something like a roku to use for netflix.
  
  Thanks, I'll keep that in mind

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