Submitted 1 day ago by Sunflier@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
It’s wild just how much they’re trying to shove AI down our throats.
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.
remember: never let your smart devices talk to the internet.
Especially a smart phone!
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.
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 use an Apple TV with mine. You can control the TV and soundbar from its one small 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
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.
Nvidia Shield or chromecast. Two remotes is really not a big deal.
Would you connect it to the internet with all its consequences to be able to use one remote instead of two?
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!
It can block firmware updates and telemetry, so no spying and no surprise “feature” additions.
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.
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.
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.
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…
I need someone to explain to me what situation could possibly arise that would require me to use Copilot on my fucking TV?
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.
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, think about how it could squeeze profit 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’!”
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 launch.
I never see the LG UI. Only my nvidia shield
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: appleinsider.com/…/how-to-stop-your-lg-or-samsung… (you might want to block traffic altogether knowing what they are ok with doing)
Primary source for finding: 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.
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 monitors, yeah, but that’s only a matter of time and the former are expensive.
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.
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.
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
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!
“This technology is so useful we’re going to force it on you every way we can think of”
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.
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
You can not set up a Roku tv without being connected to the internet.
That’s the point when I will get a dumb corporate TV with a streaming dongle or media server connected via HDMI or DP…
I think they kind of do 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.
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.
Not to mention they often cheap out on both the software and hardware, so you end up having to slowly navigate through poorly designed UIs that it struggles to display.
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 maker, 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.
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.
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.
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
Honestly, though this is the definition of “widespread backlash” when it comes to red pilled garbage. So I’ll take it.
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.
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.
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.
Well LG did me a favor. Don’t buy LG tvs, Samsung appliances or HP printers.
Needs to be illegal.
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.
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
Good.
Remind them who’s in charge.
FYI, it won’t let you delete Alexa either. I hate that fucking thing.
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
My next tv (don’t have one) is just gonna be attached to a laptop by hdmi. That’s it.
This, this finally made me reach back my LG TV and disconnected the Ethernet cable.
clankers should be segregated from society. oh and to the hexbear people: “clanker” is technically NOT a slur. seriously!
Irony is LG has their own open weights AI: Exaone 32B.
It’s… not terrible. 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.
huggingface.co/LGAI-EXAONE/…/LICENSE
Anyway, I find it darkly hilarious that they choose to snub their own research and shove copilot in instead.
Then follows a class action lawsuit because the AI exposed children to unsuitable materials and the thing is gone the next update.
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
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.
Never connect your TV to your wireless and wired internet, even on initial purchase. Use a USB when updating your TV.
Since it can’t be LG anymore - what’s a good TV screen for gaming?
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.
I got my mom an iPad, apparently AI is unavoidable in setup. To finish setup, you must agree to Apple AI.
There are all doing it together. I can’t keep track of who owns what, perhaps “they” are all actually owned by the same megacorp.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 hours ago
Oh, the same company that screenshots your content even if you use it as a dumb display? Who could’ve predicted this!
rumba@lemmy.zip 8 hours ago
I read somewhere Samsung does it too. Not surprised at all if they all do it, along wiht the streaming sticks.
titanicx@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
I mean considering that broadcasters have been viewing our watching habits ever since the inception of TV this is really no different.