It’s wild just how much they’re trying to shove AI down our throats.
Oh, the same company that screenshots your content even if you use it as a dumb display? Who could’ve predicted this!
You can often buy the “digital signage” of TVs. Same pannel, but it’s just a screen. I think it’s targetting businesses but you can buy them too!
I need someone to explain to me, what situation could possibly arise that would require me to use Copilot on my fucking TV?
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.
Who the fucks connect tv to the internet
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.
This comes in handy…
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.
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.
That’s not my worst one. I did an analysis for one company which took 2 months since their data was such a mess. They were spending at least $10m/year (20 high comp devs) developing a product that was pulling in 8k/year. They did not have a path to growing revenue 1000x on that one, when I told the ceo and he doubled down that it was a bet they wanted to make. They really just wanted the nice slide deck for the board.
I checked in a year later and they were still working on it. Two years later they mothballed it. They could have saved millions by listening to me.
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.
In general its just wasteful use of power for answers that are easily found in other ways.
Answering questions is not the only thing it’s used for. Lol.
The stats show people are using it for things like multiple my meal by 18% tip, or give me web link to x product. Instead of using a calculator app, or re gular search. Meanwhile the AI companies are having to build power station. People are stupid, and we will ruin out world because of idiots
Every time I search for a simple answer Google suggests I use Gemini instead, or they show me a “switch to AI mode” pop up that covers the lower third of my screen. I’ve just started receiving emails about using it on my old Gmail account apropos of nothing. These companies are begging people to waste that energy.
And then they’re gonna say “see? Look how many people are using this! I deserve a bonus.” When it’s a setting that’s just on by default.
Yep, you can turn off some of it with the flags settings https://pureinfotech.com/disable-ai-mode-address-bar-new-tab-chrome/
You are the cream of the crop, somehow you not only knew this, you decided that this needs to be shared, even though anyone with electricity has been told this hundreds of times.Thank yooooooooouuuuuuu
For your protection!
“This technology is so useful we’re going to force it on you every way we can think of”
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.
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.
Totally worth mentioning, some LG OLED TVs are able to be jailbroken and run homebrew software!
It can block firmware updates and telemetry, so no spying and no surprise “feature” additions.
remember: never let your smart devices talk to the internet.
Especially a smart phone!
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.
So long as the GabeCube is at a decent price it is going to be my TV’s media center. My old plan of building a new main rig and repurposing my old rig with an arc B580 upgrade went out the window for my budget when ram prices went through the roof.
Just consider that Netfliix and Co. don’t offer higher resolutions than 720p (?) on browsers that are not Edge (or does Chrome support it by now?). I really forgot the details because it’s such a mess using them on Linux. But maybe you use other sources for movies anyways. Also if you need to use your browser for media streaming you might lose some benefits from CEC because you still control things with mouse and keyboard.
I have no qualms against paying for Netflix and getting their videos from other sources. If Netflix wants my viewing data, they can change their stance. Until then, Jellyfin with Jellyserr to handle requests will suffice. The Netflix app may just become a browse app if they don’t accept the future.
Just consider that Netfliix and Co. don’t offer higher resolutions than 720p (?) on browsers that are not Edge
- Specifically, on browsers that are not Edge on Windows. And yeah, I genuinely don’t know the reasoning is behind specifically requiring Edge on Windows, when I’m sure Chrome on Windows supports the same DRM. Does Edge have some additional Windows-specific DRM on top of Widevine that’s connected to TPM2 and VBS that the streaming services use for authentication or something?
Isn’t it possible to get around by changing your browser user agent?
Stremio with real debrid has very nice 4k with hdr, dolby vision, etc
Who would have thought?
I use a remote like this that has a pointer function and a keyboard on the back.
Install KDE Plasma Big Screen QT6, Waydroid Android TV, and you’ll be golden
Modern replacement as a kodi box for both shield and pi is ugoos am6b+. ~120$ on aliexpress (probably more with tariffs) and once you flash it with coreelec it can natively playback pretty much any format except av1. You still dual boot to android so can also run all the streaming apps too, if you want, and the android is really stripped back vs the shield (especially the later releases where ad bullshit creeped in quite a bit) though not fully degoogled because the play store is still present.
Main downside is some issues with hdmi-cec. It works 99% but power on doesn’t when in coreelec. Ugoos locked the bootloader for some reason and refuses to unlock it. Fixes for this depend on equipment and use scenario. Some people on the forum that watch tv a lot just disable power on/off cec and leave it running 24/7, it’s pretty low power. I have an avr that works with hdmi-cec and home assistant so I have hdmi-cec on/off turned on, it will turn off when I turn the tv off with remote, and when I turn the tv on the avr turns on via CEC then home assistant sends a wake-on-lan packet to the device, which turns it on. A bit of a delay, but works.
Only device on the market that can properly play back Dolby vision though, including commercial bluray players. If you download 2160p remux with the dv layer for lg oled this is literally the only thing that plays it back correctly. Alternatively just get hdr rips
A separate box with apps that work better and just use the one remote.
I usually use my graphene smartphone connected with adapter cable usb c to hdmi on television.
Do you happen to know a guide about setting that up?
Grapheneos can currently only be installed on a google pixel phone, info can be found on yt.
Buy a USB-C to HDMI cable. Costs about 22 euros .
Look for mirror casting setting on your phone.Recently bought a pixel 8 pro and everything works .
Everything related to TV and music can be found on https://fmhy.net/Thank you! I own a Pixel 6a and a 7. I also run a Jellyfin server.
I’ll look into it.
👍
I use an Apple TV with mine. You can control the TV and soundbar from its one small remote.
I have a Frame connected to an Apple TV. I’ve never let the Frame online to do anything. Its been perfect so far. The day it sneaks itself online through some means is the day it will probably go in the trash. I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of sludge it would download and wrap itself in if given half the chance.
But then isn’t there a worry about Apple tracking everything?
Everyone is tracking everything anyway, but having been a user of Apple products since 2007, they’ve got what they can on me.
Yeah I guess the better question is which device is best and who’s the better company to allow to track you. If I create an apple TV account with a user name that is a RNG and all fake information, do they even gain anything?
Plus the point is that you can replace the AppleTV with mostly whatever you like (some CEC functionality notwithstanding), and don’t use the TV’s own OS or apps for anything.
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
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?
Nvidia Shield or chromecast. Two remotes is really not a big deal, but I use a universal remote that works for everything.
This is a fascinating article. As someone who has never owned an apple device in my life out of principle, this is actually making me consider one.
I have two AppleTVs and while they are great at what they do, I won’t buy another. The reason is that they are still locked down to what Apple allows you to do. Want to watch YouTube? Your only realistic option is Google’s app, complete with ads. If you connect a real computer to the TV, you have significantly more control over what’s going on, but you may lose some of the convenience of a dedicated TV device. Hopefully with things like the GabeCube, more Linux OSes will be dedicated to big screen TV use.
Would you connect it to the internet with all its consequences to be able to use one remote instead of two?
just block it from being able to reach wan AND wan from being able to reach it
I know, but OP says they want to use onboard apps and don’t want to use two remotes.
Chromecast
I have an lg TV. Never use it’s remote.
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.
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.
Well LG did me a favor. Don’t buy LG tvs, Samsung appliances or HP printers.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
