[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?
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Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?
I want to get a second TV which will more or less be a second
monitor for my System76 laptop which is plugged into a bunch of
music equipment, like a korg midi keyboard, and a novation drum
pad, all of which work great with linux. I want to buy this TV
used. I'm seeing a bunch of Samsung, LG, RCA, Sony, etc on Facebook
Marketplace. What a cesspool Facebook has become, right? Any
suggestions on the best brand or even model for that kind of thing?
I don't really want to battle with a bunch of shit that tries to
coerce me to install another app from a streaming provider slash
gambling entrypoint. I imagine mostly it will just need HDMI to
work, and all the TVs will support that. But, I thought maybe there
would be a fun brand that offers interesting other options.
Author : xrd
Score : 203 points
Date : 2025-10-06 12:42 UTC (4 days ago)
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| I bought a Hisense model from Costco and set it to "store mode".
|
| For all practical purposes, it is just a dumb HDMI display
| attached to my computer.
| mongol wrote:
| What does store mode do?
| elmean wrote:
| It lobotomizes the TV
| hamdingers wrote:
| It disables smart features and many of the settings making it
| more like a dumb HDMI screen.
|
| This may seem like a good thing, but it also usually enables
| a "vibrant" postprocessing picture mode, motion smoothing,
| and maximum brightness so the display looks good in a well
| lit big box store. Unless your viewing environment is similar
| (or you don't care so much) that's probably not what you
| want.
| twostorytower wrote:
| Motion smoothing is awful.
| cheschire wrote:
| I've always thought this feature might have more
| potential if more modern deep-learning tech was baked
| into the video and not just dumb frame interpolation.
|
| I can imagine that there would be a potential to generate
| interpolated frames that intelligently make fast-moving
| scenes more understandable while leaving slow-moving
| scenes more or less at their intended 24 FPS.
|
| Many action movies, especially with close hand-to-hand
| combat in tight spaces, are difficult to understand
| visually because 24 FPS just doesn't quite catch the
| movements.
| somat wrote:
| It will happen, look at the results they are getting out
| of the framegen stuff on pc graphics cards. DLSS and
| friends.
|
| I sort of don't like it(Old man shakes fist at sky "I
| want my frames to be real") but they are getting amazing
| results.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| Depends on the TV. I prefer it off, but on my fancy OLED
| TV, there is too much "judder" without it on.
| fragmede wrote:
| It _also_ , in my case, puts up a giant info banner on the
| screen across the content, about the screen's capabilities,
| so YMMV.
| jimt1234 wrote:
| This is interesting to me. I never heard of "store mode". Is
| that common for "smart TVs" these days? My interest here is
| for my elderly mother who tries to watch TV, but her current
| LG is constantly bombarding her with notifications for
| software updates, recommendations and ads. It's very
| frustrating for her; it's to the point where she's afraid to
| turn on the TV.
|
| I want a TV for her that will power-on directly to YouTube-
| TV, and that's it, nothing else, no notifications, nothing.
| otterley wrote:
| Are you able to adjust its picture settings when it's in store
| mode?
| RajT88 wrote:
| Craigslist an older 1080p TV. People are getting rid of old
| "dumb" TV's, and sometimes you can get them free. I see seemingly
| undamaged LCD TV's out by garbage bins all the time. I sourced
| one such a TV for my wife for $100 a few years ago to use as a
| monitor - works great. No apps or anything - dumb as they come.
| gruez wrote:
| You're missing out on resolution (4K) and picture quality (HDR,
| contrast ratios, color gamut) improvements by doing this.
| PenguinCoder wrote:
| Good. Some of us don't need or want those things.
| MyOutfitIsVague wrote:
| My experience with HDR has been pretty abysmal on a $500 4K
| TV. Badly tuned HDR is way worse than no HDR at all.
|
| I have 20/20 vision, and I really can't tell the difference
| between 1080p and 4K for video games and movies. I will never
| do below 4k again on a desktop, but 1080p is more than fine
| for a TV. Higher framerate makes a far bigger difference than
| higher resolution for video games too.
| addandsubtract wrote:
| You can see the difference in 4K when the bitrate is there,
| but most streaming platforms compress their videos too much
| for it to be worth it. It's definitely not the jump that
| 720p to 1080p is, though. I agree with everything else you
| said.
| yesb wrote:
| Whether 4k is worth it depends a lot on the size of the TV
| vs how far away you sit. For a 65" TV, I don't see much
| difference between 4k/1080p above ~8ft away.
|
| HDR is indeed effectively a marketing gimmick on many cheap
| TVs. They are getting better though
| MBCook wrote:
| Also the content being viewed. High bandwidth 1080p can
| look sharper than over-compressed 4k.
|
| It's why even non-4k BluRays sometimes look better than
| streaming.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _You 're missing out on resolution (4K) and picture quality
| (HDR, contrast ratios, color gamut) improvements by doing
| this._
|
| Not everyone suffers from FOMO.
|
| I've only seen one movie that was worth the bother and
| expense of seeing it in 4K (Rear Window).
|
| The rest of the things you mention are mostly for a very
| small slice of theoretical people with perfect vision in
| perfectly lit rooms at the perfect height and viewing angle.
|
| Beyond icons on a sticker checklist, they mean nothing to the
| 99% of people who just want to watch sportsball or eat
| popcorn while watching Disney films with their kids.
|
| You can put lipstick on a pig, but most people are still
| watching pigs.
| addandsubtract wrote:
| Rear Window? A movie from 1954? Can you explain how that
| was better in 4K when the footage isn't even 4K?
| diggan wrote:
| If it was shot on film, isn't it possible to get 4K from
| it? Thought that was old news already.
| hank808 wrote:
| It was on film, probably 35mm. That film contains more
| information than 4k video. Resolution is between 4K and
| 6K.
| MBCook wrote:
| Plus it's a black & white movie, and b&w film has a
| higher "resolution" than color too right? Because you're
| dealing with silver particles instead of physically
| larger color grains.
|
| Or something like that. Someone more in the know please
| check my math.
| reaperducer wrote:
| It's not in black and white.
| stevedh wrote:
| It was shot in colour. But the rest of the comments in
| the tree apply.
| MBCook wrote:
| It seems my memory fails me.
| meatmanek wrote:
| Obligatory Technology Connections video:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVpABCxiDaU
| dghlsakjg wrote:
| The footage is analog (on film). It was shot with 0
| pixels, so 4k pixels on an edge doesn't matter. Side
| note, footage itself is a term derived from film (how
| many feet of film).
|
| You can scan film into whatever digital resolution you
| want. You could do an 8k scan if you felt like it. You
| might run into issues where the resolving power of the
| film is less than the scan, but 4k is not an unreasonable
| resolution to pull out of well lit studio shot movie
| stock.
| Larrikin wrote:
| Pretty sure I read this same comment when the transition
| from DVD to 1080p/Blu-ray occurred and people were updating
| their TVs.
| Blackthorn wrote:
| The difference is the 4k content isn't available like the
| 1080p content was then. Streaming "4k" is a bad joke with
| its bitrates.
| carlosjobim wrote:
| The OP is not asking for a TV to watch TV on, he's asking
| for a TV to use as a second monitor for his laptop. When it
| comes to computer interfaces, the difference between 4K and
| HD is enormous. Especially for text.
| cheschire wrote:
| HDR is a mixed bag on PCs, and 4K comes at a system
| performance cost. OP said this was intended to be a monitor.
| Atomic_Torrfisk wrote:
| Yes, but I think you are missing out on the part where it is
| close to free. I have a nice monitor for photos and other
| crap, but most of the shit I do is text. I do not need 4k.
| RajT88 wrote:
| If I (like my wife) was going to use a TV as a monitor at her
| desk, I would definitely want a 4k monitor. Up close, that is
| a video wall, with no need of window scaling.
|
| Such as it is, I use 3x 1080p displays. It's fine for me, and
| approximates a larger curved super-wide display (while also
| being cheap). She does just fine with 1080p resolution
| however - rarely has more than 2-3 windows on screen at a
| time.
| shayway wrote:
| Be warned, 'seemingly' is a key word there. I have picked up
| eight TVs up from alleys over the past few years and each has
| had a broken screen only visible when plugged in. I have no
| idea how people are breaking so many TVs.
| RajT88 wrote:
| I can help: Children.
|
| I can remember when the Nintendo Wii came out, and people I
| know were damaging things when the remotes would go flying.
| It's like the Wii release every day in a house with kids. My
| brother-in-law is on their third TV in 5 years.
| gdulli wrote:
| What does hackable mean in this context, and what's the downside
| of any old smart TV not connected to the internet and the input
| left on your laptop, where you'd never see anything having to
| with the manufacturer's app OS?
| MisterTea wrote:
| Most TV's today are actually giant Android computers. I opened
| a friends TV a few years back to try and examine a back light
| issue and to my surprise there were just 3 small PCB's in the
| TV: Power supply, LCD driver/interface, and the video input
| board that contains an Arm SoC. The PSU had a small harness
| that ran to the other two boards and the SoC board had a ribbon
| cable to the LCD panel.
|
| The Arm SoC is the real interesting part here as it also has
| WiFi and Blue Tooth interface, Ethernet, and USB port(s).
| They're like a giant black box Raspberry Pi. If we could get
| our hands on the SoC datasheet then its possible we could flash
| that SoC to run whatever OS we want and actually have a Smart
| TV instead of a spyware and malware vector. Though I am sure no
| TV maker would ever let the plebs disable their money making
| spying and data exfiltration schemes.
| gruez wrote:
| >If we could get our hands on the SoC datasheet then its
| possible we could flash that SoC to run whatever OS we want
| and actually have a Smart TV instead of a spyware and malware
| vector
|
| Surely it's more straightforward to buy a SBC yourself and
| plug that into your TV? Even if you could flash it, dealing
| with random SoC/hardware seems not worth the hassle compared
| to shelling out $50-200 for a SBC that you picked and can be
| carried between TVs? Flashing third party ROMs like lineageos
| makes sense because there's no real alternative for
| smartphone hardware, but the same isn't true for smart TVs.
| MisterTea wrote:
| > Surely it's more straightforward to buy a SBC yourself
| and plug that into your TV?
|
| Of course it is. Though my point is we already have the
| hardware in the TV and it would be awesome to actually use
| it the way we want to use it. Also, I have two dumb TV's,
| each with a small PC hooked to it and they haven't moved in
| years.
| trenchpilgrim wrote:
| You probably want a computer monitor rather than a TV; monitors
| will prioritize latency which is important for music production.
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| Huh? You are confusing video refresh rate with audio latency.
| trenchpilgrim wrote:
| Does the stuff on the screen not need to also be low latency
| when recording live instruments?
| wintermutestwin wrote:
| Irrelevant.
| nomel wrote:
| Related, many modern TVs have "game mode" which prioritizes
| video latency, with the loss of some of the algs being
| available.
|
| RTINGS actually tracks this, with most being comparable to
| monitors at the same refresh rate, while in game mode (around
| 10x faster than non-game mode). [1]
|
| 4k@120Hz with VRR is even available in < $1k TVs these days!
|
| And, for audio latency, unless you're using the built in
| speakers, it's fairly trivial to make the video and audio paths
| independent.
|
| [1] https://www.rtings.com/tv/tests/inputs/input-lag
| IlikeKitties wrote:
| What you are looking for is a digital signage display and some
| android tv box
| hmokiguess wrote:
| this should be more upvoted, could even bundle them in a grid-
| like view and have multiple streams
| gosub100 wrote:
| I think Tizen lets you write your own apps. I know I installed
| Emby on one of the very cheap smart tvs recently and had to
| install it via developer mode and pull in the package by typing
| the IP of my laptop into the TV (maybe vice versa).
|
| I didn't write the code but it seemed like you can get a
| development account from Tizen and write your own apps.
|
| To be clear, Tizen is not a brand of TV, it's the name of the OS.
| It's fairly common on various no-name hardware brand, check it
| out.
| colangelod wrote:
| If you just want it for the HDMI input to use as an aux screen
| for what ever computer your running than anything with an HDMI
| input in the size range you want should work. I run all the TV's
| in my house like this; connected to mac mini's instead of futzing
| with the onboard software mostly because I despise typing one
| letter at a time with a tv remote.
|
| Honestly all the onboard TV OS stuff I have interacted with in
| the last decade has been more or less terrible and I wouldn't
| even consider it when buying a TV especially one that is just
| going to be a screen. All of the recent installs Ive dealt with
| (family and friend support) has revealed a ton of pay-to-play
| features (Samsung frame tv's cough cough). I applaud you for
| wanting something neat but I cant say Ive come across anything
| Ive ever actually wanted to use beyond "select input -> HDMI1"...
| patrickk wrote:
| This, this, this.
|
| Just never, ever connect the TV to the internet. Connect up an
| Nvidia shield, or a mini-PC/raspberry pi configured with
| whatever apps you desire, hidden behind a pi-hole. Connect a
| steam deck if gaming/linux desktop usage is your thing. I only
| touch the TV remote to switch on the TV, and even that could be
| automatable with home assistant+CEC if that's of interest.
| dn3500 wrote:
| I had a TV once, can't remember the brand, that refused to
| stream from my dlna server unless it could contact its own
| corporate servers over the internet first.
| foobarian wrote:
| Unfortunately the family likes live TV, and that is very hard
| to get without compromising the UX.
| horsawlarway wrote:
| OTA TV Tuners fill this niche.
|
| It's been a bit since I've done this (I'm not watching live
| TV anymore), but something like HDHomeRun worked fine.
|
| It basically pairs an antenna with a small computer to
| convert to network traffic, then gives you an app on your
| streaming device to play it back.
|
| You do need to be able to run the vendor's app, and you'll
| get stuck with that UI for live tv (So yeah - totally agree
| that you're compromising the UX). But still no reliance on
| the "smarts" built into the tv.
| beala wrote:
| I have an HDHomeRun box and use it through Plex. I've never
| installed the HDHomeRun software. Plex immediately
| recognized it as soon as I plugged it in. There is a
| noticeable amount of latency between selecting a channel
| and starting the stream, so channel surfing is pretty
| cumbersome, but I almost never do that. With the paid
| version of Plex (Plex Pass), you also get DVR support which
| automatically removes commercials from the recording, so
| that's pretty much the only way I use it.
| horsawlarway wrote:
| Yup.
|
| You generally don't want a smart tv you can hack. You want a
| decent computer you own sending signal through the external
| inputs.
|
| The SBC in the TV is, hands down across basically every "smart"
| TV I've interacted with, a cheap piece of crap (even well into
| the "expensive" brands and models).
|
| Manufacturers stick the absolute cheapest garbage in there that
| can output the advertised resolution during playback without
| stuttering.
|
| So you can spend hours/days/week wrestling this cheap,
| underpowered board back from the manufacturer... or you can
| just side-step it entirely and spend much less time and effort
| sticking a decent computer you own behind the tv.
| joshstrange wrote:
| This!
|
| All my TVs have an Apple TV on them and that's all that is used
| (aside from a game console here and there). I pretty much never
| need to interact with the TV OS. Is there a Netflix app on my
| TV? Probably, I'll never know, I've never even launched the app
| store.
| Xelbair wrote:
| Any that you can put in store mode, and run all smart features
| off separate device.
|
| Otherwise it will run out of updates fast, services will stop
| working and only way to fix that is to buy.. a separate device.
|
| This also let's you make search easier as you can just look at
| the panel itself when comparing.
| bestouff wrote:
| Any smart TV where some hacker could install its own build of the
| OS ? Kinda like LineageOS for smart TV ?
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| Not per se a TV, but it is worth pointing out that LineageOS
| literally has builds for some set top boxes; if I go to
| https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ and filter to device type >
| set top box, then it lists 7 options.
| th0rine wrote:
| Older LG sets (tested on C9 OLED) had security vulnerabilities
| you could use to root your TV and then do "??????" you wanted
| with them. WebOS as a platform causes a lot of unproductive
| discussion surrounding it's ecosystem and such but if you want to
| "hack" or actually have a shell on your TV it's great for that to
| do anything else you want. Personal favorites include changing
| the default screensaver behavior to the bouncing DVD logo,
| running Chocolate Doom, and a port of Space Cadet pinball
| natively. More info here - https://rootmy.tv/
| tamimio wrote:
| I ditched the whole smart TV years ago. I was never a fan of the
| slow, ad-ridden software, and later found that enormous packets
| were being sent when I monitored the DNS at the network level
| despite the TV being 'turned off'. Instead, I got a non-smart TV
| (you can find old Sony TVs) and attached a TV box or direct hdmi
| to an old laptop instead, far smoother and better at all levels.
| hamdingers wrote:
| For "fun and interesting" consider an LG WebOS TV. Many can be
| rooted[1] which allows installing a homebrew channel[2] of
| unauthorized apps or writing your own.
|
| I initially did it for Jellyfin before they made it into the
| official app store, but the Moonlight game streaming app has
| unlocked many hours of entertainment.
|
| 1. https://cani.rootmy.tv
|
| 2. https://www.webosbrew.org/
| postexitus wrote:
| Only older models that have not been upgraded to latest webos.
| A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 wrote:
| Can confirm and will add that depending on what model you get,
| webos UI is a breath of fresh air compared to other
| heavyweights ( like samsung ).
| stavros wrote:
| Moonlight is really fantastic. It's worked better than Geforce
| Now for me. Amazon's thing worked best, but they don't have as
| many games as my Steam does.
| diggan wrote:
| Are you using it over Ethernet or WiFi? I remember I tried
| Moonlight to a local computer two or three years ago over
| Ethernet and the latency was still too bad, any ideas if
| that's better today?
| stavros wrote:
| It goes gaming desktop PC -> ethernet -> fiber -> 5g ->
| wifi -> Amazon Fire stick at a flat 100km away from the PC,
| and I still finished Expedition 33 on it with no problems.
|
| I'd say definitely give it another go.
| doublerabbit wrote:
| Moonlight works flawlessly for me and I use FreeBSD as a
| daily driver. Of all OSes to play games.
|
| UnRaid + KVM VM + GPU Passthrough with Moonlight has meant
| I no longer have to dual boot to game.
|
| 60FPS at 1080p on a 4k screen. 4k struggles but I think
| that's more my GPU then anything else. I do have 2x of
| them.
| VoidWhisperer wrote:
| I'm assuming you don't play many games with anticheat
| though since they'd flag it running in a VM
| mrandish wrote:
| If you were using a TV streaming stick, many have slow
| Ethernet due to slow port (Micro-USB), slow PHY hardware
| (100 mbps) or slow network stack. For the popular streaming
| apps they only need 25 mbps max, so most stick makers put
| no effort into design or validation testing beyond that
| minimal use case. And they don't care about latency.
|
| I use Moonlight via direct 1 gbps Ethernet from a high-end
| gaming PC in the same house through a Google Chromecast 4K
| HDMI dongle with a powered USB-C hub for the RJ-45 input
| and it works flawlessly at 60 fps 4K 10-bit HDR with around
| 12 ms video latency. Some USB 3 hubs and USB Ethernet
| dongles won't reach full speeds on some streaming devices
| USB ports. The second one I tried worked at full 1 gbps.
|
| You have to verify every software and hardware component in
| the chain is working at high-speed/low latency in your
| environment with a local speed test hosted on your source
| machine. I used self-hosted OpenSpeedTest. Moonlight works
| great but none of the consumer streaming stick or USB
| hub/RJ-45 dongles test for high speed/low latency across
| dozens of different device port hardware/firmware combos -
| so you can't trust claimed specs. Assume it's slow until
| you verify it's not.
| zdware wrote:
| Moonlight is great, but be careful about overestimating how
| fast video decoding is. I would get 10-40ms additional
| latency, jitter doing moonlight from tv, vs running it on
| Linux on my mini PC homelab hooked up to the TV, my
| decoding/network latency was like 1-2ms for a frame
| stavros wrote:
| Yes, of course, I wouldn't play a game that requires fast
| reactions over Moonlight, but 40ms won't ruin the
| experience for most games.
| andrepd wrote:
| Unfortunately it still spies on you if you connect to the web
| :S
|
| I guess you can mitigate that if you use something like a pi-
| hole? I do wish there was a solution using root/devmode to
| block ads (or better yet, run in whitelist mode!).
| hamdingers wrote:
| You're correct on all points.
|
| However, if you do have an pihole/adguard home, this list
| does get rid of all the ads: https://gist.github.com/d4kine/b
| 2458cc9d693d7d36193be0247094...
| andrepd wrote:
| Hmm but I'm skeptical. All it takes is an update and the
| list is no longer relevant. And there's no guarantee that
| data isn't passed anyways through the domains that are not
| blocked.
|
| Still, would love an "opensnitch" in whitelist mode for my
| TV!
| bryceacc wrote:
| This is also the coolest thing you can do for a rooted webOS
| tv:
|
| https://github.com/satgit62/How-to-Install-and-set-up-Ambili...
|
| doesn't need to go through another device to capture the HDMI,
| it's built right in!
| Retr0id wrote:
| Second-coolest has got to be
| https://repo.webosbrew.org/apps/org.webosbrew.custom-
| screens... ("Bouncing DVD logo" screensaver)
| bsimpson wrote:
| I had a spare pair of Hue lights that I mounted behind my
| Android TV. Bummer I can't use Hue Sync on built-in streaming
| apps.
|
| Only time they get used is when I'm playing Fortnite. I had
| Huenicorn set up for NixOS, but I haven't bothered trying
| again in SteamOS.
| jp191919 wrote:
| Great..... another rabbit hole to go down. I have an LG CX and
| I never knew I could root it. Glad I never gave it internet
| access.
| MisterTea wrote:
| I mentioned in another post here that I opened a friends TV and
| found just 3 PCB's: Power, LCD interface, and Video SoC. The
| video SoC is an Arm SoC for TVs that runs Android complete with
| video input switching matrix and processing. The SoC board had
| Wifi, bluetooth, Ethernet and USB. It's all there.
|
| My dream is to hack that SoC to boot whatever OS. Though good
| luck getting the datasheets...
| bombcar wrote:
| A Vizio without accepting the agreement is a fine hdmi TV.
| alprado50 wrote:
| Im using a 43 inch samsung tv as a monitor. It works fine as long
| as you never conect it to internet.
| Rucadi wrote:
| I compiled/ported the mario64 port to the LG TV quite easily, so
| I would say that LGTV is the best for that.
| bitwize wrote:
| A dumb TV with an x86 HTPC attached to the back via VESA bracket.
| Sceptre dumb TVs from the Wal-Mart web site are your cheat code.
| AstroJetson wrote:
| Winner!! I have a pair of these that have multiple HDMI ports.
| So my "hacking" is hanging a raspberry pi or a x86 computer.
| black_dog_irish wrote:
| https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2022/tv-thats-not-necs-pi-...
| newsclues wrote:
| I wish there were more modular tvs like this
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-epPf7D8oMk
| matt_heimer wrote:
| I have Sony Bravia TV that has Android TV so I went looking for
| the docs to confirm you can enable developer mode, access adb,
| and sideload apps. While looking at the docs I discovered I can
| load HTML5 apps from USB! I never knew that but I'm going to do
| some experimentation in the near future.
|
| https://pro-bravia.sony.net/develop/app/getting-started/inde...
| imp0cat wrote:
| There is also a Sony Bravia integration for Home Assistant
| (using the REST API that's in almost all Bravia TVs).
|
| https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/braviatv/
| slipperybeluga wrote:
| YMMV. it's never worked well for me. works great for the
| first week, then it stops connecting or i suddenly have
| several zombie bravia devices, all of which aren't connected.
| slipperybeluga wrote:
| best thing i ever did with my bravia was install a custom
| launcher via adb to finally rid myself of the endless ads,
| upsetting news, and terrible suggestions constantly shoved in
| my face without my consent. nice to be able to uninstall the
| misc bloat that you can't get to with the gui and just have a
| simple interface. all i want is to access jellyfin and maybe
| one or two other apps. much better all around experience now.
|
| here's a nice reference for a lot of the stuff installed on
| bravia that you can elect to remove via adb:
|
| https://github.com/therealhoodboy/skinny-bravia
| cosmic_cheese wrote:
| It's difficult to do better than Sony for an Android TV. Their
| Android build is one of the most junk-free out there. The newer
| ones can also use their internal speakers as a center channel
| when external stereo speakers are hooked up (giving dialogue a
| boost) which is pretty cool.
|
| I use mine as a dumb TV but the built-in smarts are
| serviceable.
| paulgerhardt wrote:
| Do recommend the LG C series (C5 or C4 are new or the C1 series
| if you want a deal on classifieds - same hardware as the higher
| end models but needs a firmware bit flip). The OS is very
| rootable and it makes a great TV that doubles as a monitor.
| Supports free sync / g-sync. OLED is nice at this scale.
|
| Text is very readable, refresh rate is good. It uses the same
| panels as the fancier G series in the larger sizes. One can root
| the firmware to make it go brighter. (Though this is screen works
| well in medium or dimly lit rooms. It does not shine in very
| bright rooms).
|
| Plenty of YouTube videos singing the C series praises as a TV /
| Monitor.[1] LG webOS is also trivial/friendly to root in
| developer mode and network control of the tv is a nice to have.
|
| Would avoid Samsung. I love the matte on the Frame and the design
| of the Serif but the OS is frustrating / impractical to root.
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/Qtve0u3GJ9Y
| xer0x wrote:
| Thanks that's great to know! I've got one to tinker with.
| zeusk wrote:
| > same hardware as the higher end models but needs a firmware
| bit flip
|
| Is this firmware bit flip known? couldn't find anything off
| google.
| DavideNL wrote:
| https://cani.rootmy.tv/
| conradev wrote:
| This is incredible. I had no idea that there is a Homebrew
| channel!
| mmastrac wrote:
| I am curious if the Cx series has the same issue as my B2 where
| Dolby Vision (Atmos?) seems to kill the video processing
| circuitry and requires me to power-cycle it.
|
| Apparently the only fix is to disable it in your source, but it
| works like 75% of the time and I'd hate to lose the excellent
| picture quality of Netflix and YouTube via Google TV.
| tracker1 wrote:
| Worth trying are a different cable, and maybe a different
| source depending on your setup... my previous AVR had pretty
| consistent issues against my TV that I constantly had to soft
| power off and on to work around, it only happened when using
| the ARC port. On another setup, it turned out to be an issue
| with the cable.
|
| YMMV.
| mmastrac wrote:
| Unfortunately the Google TV is direct attach, no cable.
| lossolo wrote:
| I have CX, works without issues here. I'm watching raw .mkv
| and .mp4 files with DV, HDR and Atmos.
| whalesalad wrote:
| I have a C2 OLED and it is a really nice TV. I've never
| connected it to the internet or tried to root it though. It
| behaves as a simple no-frills display.
| michalf6 wrote:
| I was looking for a 40-43in 4K TV for PC monitor use,
| considered the LG C series, but it wouldn't work in my bright
| room.
|
| I went with Samsung QN90C instead and I'm super happy with it.
| It's very bright, fights glare well, and there's Jellyfin for
| it.
| dsp_person wrote:
| all the methods to root have been patched in the latest webos
| version :(
| tgtweak wrote:
| Even the USB key .mp3 homebrew?
| kelthuzad wrote:
| I bought the Samsung Frame TV and I love it, but you're correct
| about Samsung's OS (it's sluggish, filled with ADs and by far
| the worst TV OS that I've used so far)
| batrat wrote:
| Ads? I thought HN crowd already know how to use a pihole or
| at least adguard dns. I got Samsung TV's in every room
| because they are easy to use with a Galaxy phone, using it as
| a remote and a keyboard. Also wireless DEX is soooo
| underrated. Want a specific app on tv? no problem. I'm
| basically using them as displays for my phone.
| BozeWolf wrote:
| Contrary experience from me: i hate my samsung frame,
| especially because of the ads. And more especially because of
| that samsung tv channel which autostarts. And I hate it even
| more because these ads change the menu in such a way that you
| cannot navigate it blindly because it inserts itself as a
| button mid way in the menu bar. You cannot disable or disable
| those things easily. Built in airplay is unstable.
|
| Bought and connected an apple tv, always switch on the tv
| with that. Most problems solved.
| iguessthislldo wrote:
| I have one of them (don't remember which number) and OLED part
| is very nice. I haven't done anything with the TV itself, but I
| forked an old library
| (https://github.com/iguessthislldo/libLGTV_serial) to control
| it remotely through serial and Home Assistant without
| connecting it to my WiFi. I originally set this up for a much
| older 1080p LG TV, and was able to use it with a newer one with
| a few modifications.
|
| edit: Apparently I specially have C3PUA according to the model
| data I added. Also if anyone is interested in this, I can
| update the README because I didn't change it after I forked it.
| esperent wrote:
| > same hardware as the higher end models but needs a firmware
| bit flip
|
| I have a C1, and I got the technician's remote to try this. But
| it didn't work in my case - it seems that only some of them use
| the same hardware, probably based on supply chain needs. Still
| though, amazing screen. Takes a bit messing around with picture
| settings (there's some good guides online) but I've never found
| the "TV" parts to get in the way, just connected it via HDMI,
| put it in PC mode, disable wifi, and it's good to go. I guess
| I've been using it around 4 years now.
|
| The only serious issue is the shininess of the screen. It's not
| terrible but I did have to rearrange my office a bit to make
| sure it wasn't facing a window.
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| How much pause should oled burn in give you though? Both from
| the buying used perspective and using as a secondary monitor
| where there might be fixed ui elements?
| zdware wrote:
| ++ for the LG homebrew community. The homebrew store literally
| has an app now that will auto refresh your dev token so your TV
| doesn't go out of devmode and uninstall all of your home brew.
| Used to have to setup a cron job to renew/refresh dev mode.
| matheusmoreira wrote:
| Is rooting just for homebrew or can I get rid of all the
| advertising and dark patterns?
| technothrasher wrote:
| Pi-hole gets rid of a lot of the advertising, and homebrew
| gets you an ad-free YouTube client, but dark patterns are
| still there.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I second this simply because LG is the least evil of all smart
| TV manufacturers _and_ has the best panels and (usually)
| connectivity.
| bsimpson wrote:
| I think LG made the 5K iMac panels.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Less evil than Sony? I have an LG TV. I can't recommend it
| purely because they have the audacity to omit a play/pause
| button from the remote control. Pausing requires pressing the
| "centre" button one, two _or three_ times depending on which
| app you are in. Pure insanity.
|
| WebOS is trash too.
|
| Probably going to buy a Sony next time.
| aljgz wrote:
| I Second avoiding Samsung. I had an LG, had to let it go to my
| ex, and got a Samsung because the rtings said it has a better
| color space coverage. The quality in the out of box experience
| is day and night. Samsung does every trick to take you to the
| homepage to show you ads. Even when using as a monitor, will
| analyse your content and phone home to use in showing you more
| "relevant" ads. I disconnected it from the rest of the world
| completely. If I could sell it for 70% of the price, I would,
| and would get an LG again.
| baby_souffle wrote:
| Another +1 for LG but it's worth mentioning that there are a
| few things that a TV firmware does that you don't necessarily
| want in a Monitor. Simple example: most TVs will stay on
| _forever_ with the "no signal" image bouncing around... but a
| proper monitor will interpret that as a sign that the PC has
| gone to sleep so the monitor should, too.
|
| I have not looked into hacking the firmware to change this
| behavior but if there's a "custom rom" out there that can do
| this, I'd appreciate a link!
|
| One of the best things about LG in general is their serial
| port. It's hit/miss which of their models will have it exposed
| on the back, but if yours does, the protocol is well documented
| and is very simple.
|
| My LG TV (used as a monitor) is really chatty on the network
| and so I keep it disconnected so I don't get periodic
| interruptions from little overlays telling me that $someApp has
| been updated and needs me to agree to new terms (yes, really!).
|
| To re-gain remote control for automation, I use the serial
| port. I have an ESP32 connected to a mmWave sensor for active
| "at desk?" detection. This is integrated with Home Assistant
| which knows which PC my KVM is pointing to and if it's on or
| not. This lets me re-implement basic "if not at desk and no PC
| is on, put the display to sleep" automation.
|
| My biggest complaint is more of an ecosystem issue; why is
| DisplayPort not common on TVs? Because this TV-As-A-Monitor is
| HDMI only, my KVM has to be HDMI and so does every PC that's
| hooked up. Would have been a lot nicer if the whole chain could
| be display port :/.
| WorldPeas wrote:
| I use a NEC OPS module tv I got on facebook marketplace as a
| digital signage monitor. Best purchase I've made yet, though I
| will admit the feet for it being 200 dollars was quite a shock
| (they're made out of steel and about 2 feet long each so it makes
| sense) completely dumb tv, takes all inputs from HDMI to
| component and has features like auto-sleep without any real
| smarts inside. I love it.
| Gualdrapo wrote:
| I long for a Framework-like TV.
| cheeze wrote:
| Can you expand here? What are you looking for in specific?
|
| I think I have a framework-like TV. It's a high end TV set to
| store mode which has no smartOS annoyances. From there, I have
| expansion modules (they connect via HDMI) like a HDFury Vertex
| with CFW, Nvidia Shield, PS5, etc.
|
| Decoupling the TV from the OS has helped a ton with longetivity
|
| What more are you looking for?
| chatmasta wrote:
| Why does it need to be a TV? Why not a monitor? I don't know why
| we even differentiate between the two of them these days...
| basically the only difference is that a TV might have an IR
| receiver for a remote.
|
| I'd go with a basic monitor and factor out the "smart TV" into
| whatever device you prefer - Apple TV, Chromecast, Firestick, any
| SBC with Kodi loaded onto it... an Xbox... why couple the smart
| features to the display?
| dreamcompiler wrote:
| TVs are much cheaper than monitors. They are produced in larger
| numbers and their lower price is enabled by spying and
| advertising.
| atmanactive wrote:
| Agree, but also, much worse image quality. Put a, for example
| 32" TV and a monitor one next to each other, set native
| resolution, put up a screen with a lot of text, and you'll
| see - the difference is night and day.
| andsoitis wrote:
| TV panels optimize for viewing video (including subtitles)
| NOT for text-intensive work.
|
| So you find that TV panels are much larger at lower price
| points than computer monitors because they serve different
| purposes.
| Kon5ole wrote:
| >Agree, but also, much worse image quality.
|
| I managed to grab a 55" 8K LG before 8K went out of
| fashion. I run it at 4k120 for games and 8k60 with doubling
| for productivity.
|
| I've never had a better monitor and if one should exist
| it's not available in any store I know about. Monitors
| costing 2-3x as much as this TV did back then are worse.
| When it dies I will have to downgrade. :-/
| robertakarobin wrote:
| I had the same thought but found there are very few TV-size
| monitors on the market, and the ones there are cost an arm and
| a leg. There are also very few "dumb" TVs -- we finally got one
| by Insignia, Best Buy's store brand, which has been fine. If
| someone knows a better alternative please let me know!
|
| Worth clarifying that when I was a kid "TV-size" meant anything
| above 13", but the times have changed considerably. :)
| whitehexagon wrote:
| I bought a decent 4k monitor to go with my 4k media box, and
| the required 4k cable, but wouldnt play because 'for your
| safety, blocked because not a TV' or some such nonsense, think
| it was HDCP? Annoying enough for me to cancel 4k paid tv, plus
| they were busy agressively reducing the broadcast bitrate. Also
| ended up with a load of bluray 4k discs I cant use, and they
| wonder why people download stuff.
| raffraffraff wrote:
| I got a nice Philips Evnia 43" OLED monitor. 12 years belt
| that, I bought a 42" 1080p LG monitor. Monitors all the way.
| dec0dedab0de wrote:
| Because I need to be able to plug in an antenna to watch
| football
| palata wrote:
| > Apple TV, Chromecast, Firestick
|
| Those are not exactly hackable, are they?
| yetanother-1 wrote:
| Side question: what TV is best for integration into home
| assistant from experienced HA users...
| joshstrange wrote:
| I think Samsung TVs can be interacted with through HA's
| SmartThings integration but I don't use that at all. Instead I
| have my Harmony Hubs (yes, a dying breed, literally) connected
| and that's the only way I interact with my TVs via HA.
|
| "Alexa, turn on Living Room TV" -> HA -> Harmony -> IR Blaster
|
| I think through the Apple TV integration I can control them
| even further but I greatly prefer just using the Harmony
| remote. I'm not looking forward to the day when those stop
| working completely and I have to evaluate other options. Every
| year or so I look around but nothing beats my old Harmony
| remote (with a coin battery that lasts so long I've lost track,
| easily over a year) and the Harmony Hub (which actually sends
| out the signals).
| j45 wrote:
| I've generally heard LG is the place to start looking, only
| because they are the inheritors of the hidden jewel that was/is
| webOS.
| finnlab wrote:
| I can recommend The LG B2, great panel, great price. The software
| sucks however but you won't find OLED much cheaper.
| warmwaffles wrote:
| A dumb TV like a Sceptre with a smart hackable device.
| puskavi wrote:
| You could score some insane screens from recycling centers, but
| at least in Finland, its fucking illegal to repurpose (steal)
| "electronic waste" However, depending where you're located, all
| that stuff might go to somewhere else than smasher and smelter,
| so please check such places around you! Good example is
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbqOvBHVpbw ,he found old tobacco
| ad display (ips!) for cheap!
| boydYVR wrote:
| I have a 10yr old Insignia 1080p TV. One of the 3 HDMI inputs is
| a Roku stick and I have Home Assistant watch for it and load the
| Jellyfin app whenever the TV gets turned on. Works most of the
| time and it's nice to avoid the Roku ads.
| palata wrote:
| I always wonder if there is a kind of AOSP-based alternative to
| Android for TV?
| palata wrote:
| I actually would like to have a hackable AOSP device with some
| kind of open source chromecast (because chromecast comes with the
| Google Services, I guess?).
|
| Then I can plug that into any dumb TV/beamer I find.
| KaiserPro wrote:
| Dpeends what your after, but a second hand NEC multisync, which
| has an ST slot
| https://www.sharpnecdisplays.eu/p/download/cp/Products/Optio...
|
| but that might be a bit too basic. because its basically a
| monitor with 100% duty cycle and a PC.
| psyclobe wrote:
| Stay away from lg, anything with android is a good choice; custom
| launchers to remove the gif damn Home Screen. I stick to Sonys my
| one of tv is so terrible will never buy one again.
| serf wrote:
| I kind of hate smart TVs -- my family got a Samsung one that got
| feature obsoleted in _months_ , but I needed a cctv kiosk -- I
| bought a fire stick and the cheapest +speakers monitor on amazon
| with an HDMI port and USB power, was pleasantly surprised; 4k,
| tiny, performant, adb access isn 't fucked up, and you can change
| the home screen.
|
| By the end of the day it's just an android device with an HDMI
| out, and that's exactly what I wanted.
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