LG monitors with builtin ads

https://x.com/snwy_me/status/1847396175961641176

Yeah, what the fuck indeed

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This better be a one-off thing…

My C1 OLED TV has the same option. If you don’t plug it into the network it won’t actually show you any ads, and there’s another setting to make it skip showing the “home” page or whatever and go straight to HDMI when turned on. I guess they’re putting their smartTV platform in monitors now, too. Just don’t plug it into the network and it should work fine.

That’s not to downplay how much I despise ads, they’re the fucking worst, just pointing out that actually connecting a smart TV to the network is dumb.

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Seems to relatively new development, one that barely makes sense even from usual corporate boil-the-frog bullshit standpoint.

Why the hell would they merge smart tv hardware + os with monitor lineup?

  • usage data gathering requires data connection from device in question
    • not guaranteed on monitor usecase, unless its also model with integrated dock + ethernet
  • webos usage data gathering scrapes video content id, not something that will be displayed on monitor
    • or track webos apps usage, which also unlikely usecase

Maybe margins are becoming tight enough, so that they decided to increase part commonality with tv lineup by discarding custom display control circuitry for lower end desktop displays?

Only thing that could explain this from rational and economic standpoint, unless someone had KPI set as “increase number webos devices by next fiscal years by XY%”.

Weird move.

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Ads are worth $5+/month per recipient. It’s a continuous stream of money. Everyone else (all the steaming services) are doing it, why should the TV manufacturers be left out?
You can’t win if you don’t try.

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also at some point, I think cellular wireless (6G or whatever) will be inexpensive enough that it makes it worth it to put one in these for small quantities of data… I am not giving anyone any ideas, if I thought of it I am sure smarter people already figured it out as well.

LG is even licensing WebOS out to other manufacturers now. To be fair, I think WebOS is one of the better ones for smart TVs (my C8 is still getting updates and works fine with the usual apps).

I think the business model is college kids getting a monitor that they can use as a smart TV. The ads will basically pay multiple times over for the added expense of a cheap SoC for smart functionality.

I’m not a fan but I see the business logic. It’s no worse than Windows 11 but then again I won’t be using that either.

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If they have usable data to report and can send data back. Thats not given at all.

Trivial for most tvs in digital broadcasting era, but hard task for monitors.

Few monitors have standalone network connectivity, since there is no usecase for it.

TLDR: If you buy smart monitor, you get exactly what you paid for. But who would buy smart monitor on purpose though? And why?

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So this monitor got a lan port. And it has only one function is fucking over consumers.

Or do’s it have other functions ? Can it be a terminal for example, Is it widi compatible ?

The interface looks the same as the smart TV ones. So probably it has netflix/prime/… apps. Netflix & co will pay to put their button on the remotes. It’s a couple dollars extra profit per unit minus a dollar for some SoC.

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Then you would be able to watch 4k netflix under linux. Also somthing that really makes my angry. On what kernel are all those tv operating system based. And why cant we have 4k streaming under linux.

But basicly it means. That yeah its posible nowdays to stream video’s. But those company’s only allow this on devices where they can collect more data. So the question now day is. Or i Steal the data of there video’s Or they steal my personal data.

Because this song is about a toxic adictive relation ship. In a way it feels like this

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This, Samsung also has “Smart” monitors. Bought one for my mom, and I didn’t realize that the TV came with a remote… a remote?? why do you need a remote? oh! You have Netflix! oh… oh no…

TL;DR: Never connect it to a network and you should be fine

Depends on how any content identification/categorization “features” it has are implemented.

I know nothing about the space, but a simple and flexible approach would be to start with a screenshot, and send it^ to an online service.

If that screenshot is written to persistent storage - which might happen if online, or especially if you are offline - when you dispose of that monitor on the second hand market you might also be unknowingly releasing that information to the world.

If I were a CISO such devices would definitely be on my do-not-procure list. Unneeded extra cost, risk and complexity.

^I hope what’s actually sent is some privacy preserving low information derivative, but who knows, there’s a lot of manufacturers.

Already happened. You know most modern cars have that emergency call button/feature, and also do various Point-of-interest-things in the GPS, that works because LTE is so cheap.

Ethernet over HDMI, random TV-stick-dongle and off you go.

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I’ve got an LG CX that I want to take off the network just due to how annoying the ads are and how insecure I’ve heard they are, but I’ve got to convince the SO which isn’t going well so far due to the conveniance of the smart TV functions, I’m thinking something like a firestick or chromecast or something might be a good middle ground in the mean time. I’m glad to know about the setting to avoid the home screen though… It drives me up the F*****g wall!

If worst comes to worst, you can unplug the WiFi antenna from the TV’s board while your partner is out, and pretend it just “stopped working out of the blue” afterwards. Then you can use that as an excuse to plug something like a raspberry pi to the TV and still retain the “smart” functionality while being in control of what’s being sent over the internet.

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If you have a somewhat advanced router you can at least isolate the traffic so the devices don’t snoop on your network. They could only send what you’re doing on the tv which Netflix & co would already know any way… not ideal but at least limiting the damage especially if it would get hacked due to outdated and insecure firmware down the line.

I have got a pi 4b that id planned to use for exactly this, but it seems to be painfully slow compared to the smart TV functions. I’m not sure why, scaling the rest to 1080p helps a lot but it still struggles a lot especially with rendering video, so I’ve not quite integrated it at this point

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