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.
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
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.
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
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 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 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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
Copilot is trash
The problem is, you can never trust companies whose products can update over the air. (like “smart TVs”). The company can promise all kinds of things they won’t do and then sneak something awful into a future update. I will spend a little more on “non-smart / no WiFi” TVs in the future.
Just don’t connect the TV to wifi?
The problem is, the TV won’t let you. The Visio TV won’t let you do anything with it at all until you set up your WiFi connection first. So you can’t even use it as a dumb monitor.
And if you disable WiFi later, the TV will nag you to turn it back on every time the TV starts up. I’m sure this design is intentional.
How exactly?
They don’t make no Wifi TVs. You can choose to not give it your Wifi Password.
And please don’t say digital signage. That costs 10x what a TV does and the picture is significantly worse.
Here’s a 32" one on Amazon. Found it in just a few seconds.
A 32" TV is not what most people are looking for. In fact I don’t know anyone with a main TV that small these days. The problem is that 40"+ dumb TVs are hard to find. I’m not saying they don’t exist, but very few manufacturers are making them, and the few that are have garbage screens in them.
Specs seem bad. Only 720p from the looks of it no mention of latency which makes it questionable for gamers. Better off getting a gaming monitor at that point over it.
I don’t think this is even worth buying and seems the type of junk TV that would be sold on black Friday as a deal.
We need a custom replacement ROMs like Lineage or Graphene for smart TVs.
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.
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.
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.
This post deserves to be a Technology Connections video
Oh my god he would have so much fun with CEC. What a wonderful and cursed protcol
Hey, I remember your website!
Slava Ukraine!
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
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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.
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.
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.
It’s not even an app, it’s just a link to the copilot website
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.
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.
This crap is why my LG TV lost its internet privileges last year and built a htpc to do all my media needs.
