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.
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.
This post deserves to be a Technology Connections video
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, IIRC ad-free, 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
Re-read my comment, you plonker. I said you don’t have to watch, i.e. having preferences is fine.
If your preference is that people “act straight”, however, I’ll call you out on it.
God, what a fucking moron you are. Such a simple point that you completely failed to grasp.
My suggestion is you go get some therapeutic services for the difficulties that plague your mind.
I don’t like the guy, it hurts your feelings, that’s a you problem you little baby
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Oh my god he would have so much fun with CEC. What a wonderful and cursed protcol
Hey, I remember your website!
Slava Ukraine!
Woah is that actually rarbg in the wild, in 2025!?
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.
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.
You can just never connect it to the internet. That’s your 60” wall-mounted monitor.
So a TV then
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.
It may depend on the LG TV or maybe it’s a setting. I just bought a new one and have a Google streamer on it and use it’s remote to turn on the streamer, soundbar and TV with a single button. I never see the LG UI itself unless I need to change a setting, and I’ve disabled it’s wifi entirely. I don’t get any kind of popups from the TV, it just works cleanly with the streamer.
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.
It’s not even an app, it’s just a link to the copilot website
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.
I would be so happy if I could just disable the “magic mouse” (IIRC that’s what it’s called). I once talked to support for an unrelated reason and asked how to do that; they said the only way was to enable on screen narration.
Any time throughout the conversation I asked why those two things were connected, they dodged or outright ignored the question.
I’m on a lg c1 and the magic mouse is disabled. Without narration.
How did you do that?
I’ll double check tonight for you.
Thanks in advance!
I have to apologize for the bad info. Looks like I was confused because I bought an lg sound bar and I’ve been using that remote because it doesn’t have the capability it just doesn’t work for magic mouse.
No worries, thanks for following up.
In think they died.
Well, one viable solution is to use a non-compatible remote, but at least my TV complains every time I press a button on one.
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the irony
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.
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.
That hot take ignores human psychology’s known weaknesses.
Blaming the public for falling victim to psychological manipulation that has been being perfected for generations is like blaming a stabbing victim for bleeding so much.
I donn’t believe this is true. Microsoft is known for trotting out garbage that nobody wants. Sometimes they back off. Sometimes they beat us down until we fall in line.
I suspect an assortment of realities that include individual partnerships on the boards, bribes, kickbacks, and more blitz style manipulation to “ensure” LG that people want this, and of course there is also the realization that they will make bank before people realize they’re getting bamboozled.
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?
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.
I don’t know if this is common knowledge around here or not, but you can fix them to keep them in your cold, dead hands longer, too!
The panels rarely fail without getting struck; its almost always the power supply or the lights. Replacing the lights can be time and space consuming, though, because you have to peel it completely open.
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.
Smart tv’s are awful, doubly so since you cant get “dumb” tv’s anymore. I just dont give my tv wifi access and that seems to pretty much mitigate all the bullshit.
I lament the day online access and accounts become a requirement.
Same. It was bad when gaming consoles did it and I see no reason why corps wouldnt do it
Consider seeing the youth of today don’t consume their media for atvs primarily anymore, it’s unlikely they will force that.
I Dont trust these TVs not to make peer to peer connections with others until it hops onto one with a active connection.
If I get a new TV, its getting opened and the wifi antennas and microphones are getting desoldered.
As far as I’m concerned LG is a shithole company. I’ve gone through a TV, dishwasher, and fridge from them and all three had issues just outside warranty. That’s not bad luck thats intentional shitty engineering. Fuck them.
They used to be good. My last TV was 10 years old when I finally got a new one. New one is now 8 years old. It seems like LG and Samsung just both make super shitty appliances. In any case, I agree they can certainly both fuck off now that we know everything they make is spyware.
Next time I get a new TV, that sucker is getting opened and the wifi antennas and microphones desoldered.
On Roku branded TVs, it sounds like that just means you can’t use it for anything
If it doesn’t connect, it won’t let you switch inputs or anything until you connect your account
Is there a manufacturer that doesn’t ship a bunch of bloat with its televisions? Maybe Panasonic or Sony?
Monitors and projectors also work.
I have a Hisense that I’ve never connected to the internet. It has an input button on the remote, and I just use that to go between inputs. I’m only reminded it’s a smart TV when the power goes out and I see the Google TV boot screen.
As far as I know, none. “Smart” in smart TVs means ads, data collection and profit, they aren’t about to leave money on the table.
The only way to get “dumb” TVs is to purchase digital signage TVs meant for in-store displays and other business use. In fact, they’re better than ordinary TVs with improved cooling and rated lifespans, specially designed to run 24 hours a day in a cafe or smth.
Unfortunately, companies don’t sell it to individuals, you have to buy it as a company. You either have to buy used or set up your own shell company. I’m this close to setting up a fake company to buy a TV, but I’m not sure if it’ll work. Hopefully there’s no secret legally binding TOS or smth.
That’s not really true. B&H sells digital signage displays to consumers and you can buy some of them from Amazon and Best buy as well
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.
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 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.
yeah i have a pi with adguard on it as my backup dns if my server is down for maintenance or it exploded. you could also use unbound on it to keep your dns snappy too since it has a cache, and it keeps your dns from leaking. whatever that means idk i have it though lol
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.
This is the link to their website. I apologize for not adding it in my previous comment.
Thanks for the link!
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
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.
Jellyfin and Emby are kinda the same thing.
They are not when it comes to playback.
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).
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.
FWIW I replaced my Samsung “smart” TV by a Nebula Mars video projector. It’s very convenient and let’s me forget I have it, tucked away and hidden most of the time. Yes it is “smart” but it’s Android and I can connect via
adbto it to install apps like VLC, make it start on boot, etc. I’m not updating it.Next time I do buy a replacement though I’ll verify first in forums if it can be rooted to have the level of control I need. Maybe there will be a OSHW equivalent to https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer for video projectors as unfortunately it seems like a trend.
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/
Thank you, I’ll look into it. Mine is probably too updated for the easier methods so this helps
Yeah the web site vulnerability is likely no good for you, it was patched quite a while back, but methods like dejavuln are very easy to use, just need a USB drive and run the fake mp3 in the LG media player app.
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
Yeah you won’t get any new features from this, it’s just something to hold onto in case you have a need to upgrade the firmware in the future. It’s the same website, but now they’ve expanded it to show other methods unlike what they had a few years back.
dejavuln is actually pretty interesting, plays a fake mp3 that’s actually a script talking advantage of a buffer overflow (I think) in the LG media player app.
That’s also how you hacked old consoles back in the days. Early as Dreamcast, lol
Is pihole blocking LG dns to that client a good solution here? (prepping for plugging mine back in ha)
Can you DNS block the webos update site?
Buy an apple TV and unplug that shit from the internet.
I am still using a 2011 TV, but when it goes out it seems I’ll have to switch to a big PC monitor to dodge all that bullshit.
I don’t want a smart TV. I want a stupid screen, with just enough color settings to properly calibrate it. That’s it.
The thing with smart TVs is that you don’t need to connect them to your network to use them.
LG, unfortunately, still make the best OLED displays at the moment, and Samsung are arguably even worse when it comes to not respecting their customers.
Our C2 65in is hooked up to an Apple TV for all of our media streaming needs.
Apple TV is honestly fantastic. The only issue is, so many streaming devices don’t support 120 Hz so you can’t have 120 Hz Steam Link for example, you usually need to use the built-in OS Steam Link to stream games at 120 Hz.
I hope this is something that will change in the future.
I get where you’re coming from, and in certain situations where you can’t otherwise get around it, you can configure your home network to not allow the Smart TV to phone home with telemetry or to accept any inbound external network traffic, so it can only access local network data such as your PC for Steam link.
I’m not confident enough to configure my home network that well (yet), hence I just opt to have the TV air gapped instead
