I don’t ever use their “smart” functionality (that’s what my Apple TV is for) but I’ve never had any issues with the Google TV (Android) build that Sony ships. It doesn’t nag me about being kept offline, is reasonably fast, and doesn’t even show its home screen unless I specifically summon it, so it checks my boxes.
replyHow important is "the best" OLED vs the second best or 100th best OLED? I am personally ok not buying the bleeding edge to not get malware onto my OS.
replyreasonably important, if you're never connecting your lg tv to any network, and just connecting it to an AppleTV or something and letting HDMI-CEC control it so you never even see their OS.
replyExactly this. And with an Apple TV 4K Ethernet, you've got a bonus Thread border router for smart home devices. I actually didn't even realize that initially, but was very pleased when I found IKEAs latest round of Matter over Thread devices paired nicely with it and my existing Home Assistant + Hue setup.
replyAnd if you install Tailscale you can even use it as an exit node to surf from home when you're traveling.
replyI would suggest a mini-PC running Linux and Plasma Bigscreen instead of an AppleTV if you want something 100% private and user-controlled.
replymy priority for a TV isn't privacy or user control, it's minimizing annoyance. and appletv, roku, or similar streaming boxes delivers that best.
replyUnless you're using streaming services like Netflix, in which case you're stuck with 720p because of widevine.
replyDo you recommend any specific distro for this?
replyArch or Fedora, because you want a very recent KDE version.
replyIf you care about malware you do not plug it into the internet. I think windows computers are pretty mallwareish as well or at least spyware. People who buy Oled buy them because they care about PQ.
replyIf you care about home cinema it's important. There's a pretty big jump down. You can look up the specs and reviews of the C and G series from LG. Anecdotally quite a few times when people see my 7 year old LG C9 I've had them ask if it was some new expensive TV as they are so impressed with the picture.
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replyExactly. If you get the best today it'll be the second best tomorrow anyway. Absolute position is undetectable, you can only perceive change. Use that to your advantage and stay off the treadmill.
reply7 years into my C9 and it never fails to impress.
replyExactly. I could probably get a 10 year old panel and be happy with it.
reply2nd best, not. 100th, better to get a great LCD than a junk OLED?
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replyI haven’t looked recently but last I checked Samsung made the best panels. Has that changed recently?
replySamsung is good, except:
reply- No Dolby Vision support, only HDR10+ - Issues with judder/micro stutter - History of nerfing TVs via OTA updates - HDMI ports randomly failing - Bad HDMI-CEC implementation - Selling completely different panel generations under the exact same model names.
Also: Samsung thinks "your" TV is perfect place for them to display their ads.
replySamsung scored highest on https://www.rtings.com/ for my criteria, and I'm happy with the purchase. I didn't connect it to the network, of course. (I had to stop my handyman from connecting it and he seemed to think I was crazy for insisting.)
replyI installed a Pihole and set an edge router to direct any port 53 traffic that wasn’t from the Pihole, to the Pihole.
replyThat made a Samsung behave a little better. But giving it no network access is better.
"I work in software. I have seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate..."
replyEddy currents causing pressurized air deflecting cosmic rays striking drive platters flipping bits...
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replyTheir panels are often over-saturated with that fake HDR like look, similar to their phones.
replyMost screens come with "showroom settings" out of the box. You need to configure them to something more neutral once and then it's fine.
replyI'm aware of that setting, but this is the Samsung baseline. The panels they export for OEMs / other manufacturers don't seem to have the same hyper saturation. Even just standing next to someone using a Samsung phone or tablet you can often spot it straight away we know you what to look for.
replyEven phones have screen settings these days (much less detailed than monitors). On my Motorola phone w/ OLED screen, I turned off "vibrant colors" or something like that. Maybe the people you saw didn't bother or liked it. Maybe there is something that can't be turned off, who knows. I only have semi-regular experience with an older (and non OLED) Samsung tablet which seems fine.
replyOver saturated HDR is a good default in times when all TV shows only use various shades of pitch black.
replyThat goes away if you set them in filmaker mode.
replyNo, qd-oled is still best, LG is closing the gap with tandem oled but is still the second best panel tech.
replySamsung is worse, their OS is horrendous. LG allows local control fairly well and has Home Assistant support.
replySamsung is a complete mess, now charging $5/month to use smarthings with no local control. I'll never buy Samsung.
Have to agree, WebOS is much better than Android TV OS, with ads on the dashboard.
replyAs long as you keep it off the internet. Otherwise it’s absolute loaded with adverts everywhere.
replyNot the 2020 version I have, it has a suggested shows row from the apps I have already installed, which makes sense.
replyAndroid TV even has ads for Disney and Apple, which I never installed.
I have a 2026 LG, attached to the internet - absolutely no ads. You need to tweak the settings
replyYou can replace the Android TV launcher with an alternative like Projectivy [1] to get rid of whatever nonsense the stock launcher tries to push. Add Flicky [2] to address F-Droid and you've got a nuisance-free Android TV.
replyThanks, however is kind of the problem, it shouldn't be a thing in first place.
reply>I think the best thing people can do is update their firmware then disconnect it from the internet.
replyWe don't need treats this badly.
I thought webOS was pretty decent initially. But LG never provided even a single major update to my TV in a decade, so that just about cancels any possible benefits from the faster code. I'm using Chromecast for several years now, bypassing and ignoring webOS completely. But the initial idea was nice, all those years ago.
replyReally? I've had many updates over the 7 years since my c9 was released, still getting them as recent as earlier this year I think.
replyJust to clarify - my LG TV is old (10 or maybe 11?), pre-OLED, and webOS on it was version 3.0. Maybe situation has improved with newer models, I don't know. The problem with TVs, is that they really work for a long time just fine and I see no reason to change it ahead of other more needed upgrades. It doesn't fall to the ground like phones, there is no degrading battery or degrading rubber/textile parts, TVs are really robust. So it would have been nice if the software for such long living hardware was also supported accordingly and that buyers would be informed about that in advance and that was my expectation for webOS/LG originally - since it is in C++, uses modern and maintained QT framework, snappy and LG is a bigcorpo, I expected it to keep up. But nope :( .
replyI have mine attached to the internet, but it does take a good 30 minutes plus Googling to find out all the places that you have to turn stuff off.
reply3 out of 4 OLED screens in my household suffer from burned pixels. It's the early 90s all over again with OLED.
replyHow old are these and how often / how long are they turned on? My OLED TV is over two years old now without any issues even though it gets frequent usage.
replyI don't buy a TV every 2 years, that's absurd. If I buy a TV, it better work for > 10 years.
replyYou are attacking a straw man instead of answering the question.
replyThey were second hand, idk. They were already burned when they arrived. Suffices for me to say I don't have much confidence in OLED.
replyI have 3 LG OLEDs of all different generation and they all still go great. It is by far the best tv you can get vs other manufacturers.
replyYou know your phone is OLED right? I'm assuming you left a still image on without the inbuilt screen refresher enabled or something? I remember seeing that way back in the early OLED days but not on good TVs in the last 8~ years.
replyYes, that's what bothers me. OLED was the newfangled improved technology, but I'd rather hold out until something better becomes affordable.
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