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.
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.
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
All I want is a DisplayPort and maybe some os with freedom of Linux why is that too much to ask for. The fact I can’t have vrr with my $600 GPU is absolute bullshit
Get a Raspberry Pi? Or maybe a SBC with a display port option.
Yeah I have a 3b and 4b
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
Realtime subtitles is a value ad for the user. That’s totally fine.
Copilot scanning my activity and recommending me shows serves the company, get that off of TVs.
I’ll always use a plugin streamer.
I’ve never owned a smart TV. I still don’t see a point in owning one. Why in the world would someone need copilot on their TV?
Unfortunately it’s getting hard to find dumb TVs. The only real options are pro-AV or digital signage displays but even a lot of those are now moving to being smart. Our 15 year old bedroom TV finally died last month and we ended up having to replace it, and we ultimately went with an LG. I’ve disabled it’s wifi though. It’s a frustrating situation. I wish one of the manufacturers with good displays would just offer a dumb line of TVs. I imagine they would still have a market even if they were higher cost to make up for the lack of ad revenue, but maybe I’m underestimating that revenue. Either way, avoiding smart TVs is getting extremely difficult these days.
I think we need a whole company that makes dumb everything. I want a dumb house. Grill, fridge, washer/dryer, TV, gaming console, floor cleaning robot, toilet, lights, oven, and everything. They need to make “The Dumb Store.”
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.
I can’t stand the algorithms of video media. I wish they all had organic options.
Copilot is trash
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.
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.
I haven’t updated my LG TV in over 2 years. I just know it’s going to be some useless shit that just makes it worse with more ads and AI
They added chromecast to mine this year which has been useful.
Using that would require having my TV connected to the internet, which I refuse to do.
Your title’s commas are in the wrong place, and it sent my brain on a wild goose chase of trying to find the closing comma, and then wondering why the quoted text did not make sense as a quote.
Edit: It’s actually correct, odd but correct use of possessive on the plural form of an initialism.
It’s in a quote because I’m quoting the author.
In the title. It’s “TVs”, not "TVs’ " nor “TV’s”, the middle one making it look like everything between the two "TVs’ " is quoted.
The usage is correct and indicates possession.
Damn you’re actually right, I think it just trips me because I’ve never seen it used that way. It looks very odd, and I definitely didn’t understand it as possession, now the title makes a lot more sense!
Kay. Bring it up with Ars’ editors.
Their blunder indeed, not yours.
Note to self… People still watch TV. How odd.
Removed by mod
the irony
