LG smart TV

What hackers pick instead

• Samsung TVRecommended for picture quality, simple remotes and long life, especially used offline as a dumb display. Common caveat: ads, data collection and forced updates.37recommend
• Sony Bravia TVOwners say the TV keeps working well for many years, especially when never connected to the internet. Critics agree the smart interface has ads, lag and no security updates.19recommend
• TCL TVRecommended for value and a basic TV mode; critics warn of tracking, Google terms and laggy input on some models.17recommend
• Roku TVRecommended for its clean, ad-free interface and working as a plain display offline. Critics mainly cite slow startup and a sluggish interface.14recommend
• Samsung Frame TVRecommended for its matte, art-like look and casual TV watching. Main caveat: it shows ads in the app bar.10recommend

Every quote

The 40 most detailed of 402 comments. Each links to the original.

1. the only thing I'm not happy with is that about a year ago Netflix ended their app for that hardware generation

   Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Netflix’s AV1 Journey: From Android to TVs and Beyond”

2. I still somewhat resent that I need to wait for the software to boot up just to change inputs

   Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Stranger Things Creator Says Turn Off "Garbage" Settings”

3. I let my latest LG TV on the network, but block internet access at the router.

   Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options”

4. LG let's me put a PIN on apps like YouTube, so the kids can't watch it alone.

   Recommends · Jan 2026 · in “TIL: Parental Controls Aren't for Parents”

5. LG TVs have the best OLED displays and the most questionable privacy policy.

   Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

6. I have an LG TV that only works as a dumb screen and it's really beautiful

   Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices”

7. LG TV’s are really really good. If you never connect them to the internet.

   Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “LG monitors silently install software through Windows Update without consent”

8. their TVs are bloated as fuck and they do questionable things privacy-wise

   Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea”

9. We replaced our old TV recently with an LG and are really liking it.

   Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

10. their software was a bit shit but the hardware supported e-arc etc.

    Mixed · Jul 2026 · in “LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps”

11. read t&c where I was supposed to grant them any data they wanted

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

12. It's good that it at least doesn't stop working without internet

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

13. I own very nice LG TVs. They are not connected to the internet.

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “I didn't realize my LG TV was spying on me until I turned off Live Plus”

14. It was cheap and big. I have never plugged it into my network

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “LG says we're fake news [video]”

15. works fine without my ever having given it a WiFi password

    Recommends · Dec 2025 · in “Sick of smart TVs? Here are your best options”

16. they work fine as dumb displays attached to my AppleTV box

    Recommends · Mar 2026 · in “Newly purchased Vizio TVs now require Walmart accounts to use smart features”

17. LG TV quality is great but their software is unbearable

    Mixed · Dec 2025 · in “Microsoft Copilot AI Comes to LG TVs, and Can't Be Deleted”

18. The webOS UI sucks, but so do all the others apparently

    Mixed · Jun 2026 · in “Fox to Buy Roku Streaming Service in $22B Deal”

19. Use it as a (rather nice) 4K monitor for a Linux box

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'”

20. I got an LG and never hooked it up to Wifi/internet

    Recommends · Nov 2026 · in “Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?”

21. Voice recognition is really useful when searching.

    Recommends · Sep 2026 · in “LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'”

22. absolutely no ads. You need to tweak the settings

    Recommends · Jul 2026 · in “LG to Ban Residential Proxies from Smart TV Apps”

23. neither of them bug me with such fullscreen ads

    Recommends · Feb 2026 · in “Nvidia's 10-year effort to make the Shield TV the most updated Android device”

24. their OS can get a little heavy on older models

    Mixed · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

25. LG was the target of a different lawsuit in Texas which they settled and then wrote up a forced arbitration clause and doubled-down on data collection, even when opted out.

    Criticizes · Oct 2026 · in “Root shell on Samsung TV”

26. I think the most egregious thing here is that if you don't give the TV a network connection that it will actively search for other ways to get the data back to LG

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

27. from LG's surveillance capitalism point of view, the 0.001% of LG owners that can even think about doing that isn't even a drop in the bucket

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

28. starts using a neighbor's LG TV as access point, without telling you, for the sole purpose of upgrading itself and sending this telemetry

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

29. If they don’t use the microphones why do they have a statement in their Terms of Service to not say sensitive things in front of your TV?

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'”

30. The tv remote sensor stopped working (and broke again after servicing), so now the only way to use the TV is by the LG app on my phone

    Criticizes · Jan 2026 · in “Floppy disks turn out to be the greatest TV remote for kids”

31. There's literally zero reason for LG to be building an advertising profile on me because I was foolish enough to buy one of their TVs.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'”

32. you can't easily turn them off. I turn the features off, and every time the firmware updates, they miraculously somehow turn back on.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'”

33. using dark patterns to do things that wouldn't stand up in court because they definitely illegal in places with data protection laws

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “GamersNexus and LG: Or why rooting your TV is a bad idea”

34. The Koreans are taking a huge risk destroying the trust they've built over the last 30 years with this incessant spying and adware.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby”

35. The LG software is horrible on this TV. Great picture quality, but I would never recommend an LG TV just because of the software.

    Criticizes · Dec 2025 · in “Microsoft Copilot AI Comes to LG TVs, and Can't Be Deleted”

36. My TV is not connected to the network, because the setup process left me with 0 trust that LG wouldn't be collecting information

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “LG denies TV spying claims, says tracking and snooping concerns 'not true'”

37. Streaming microphone inputs all the time, knowing everything that is displayed on the screens via object recognition and stuff.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “LG TVs caught spying even when offline or on standby”

38. your LG TV is actively trying to scan your local hardware, gathering IP-addresses of devices, wi-fi names and signal strengths

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

39. There is no reason for the level of adversarial tech and dark patterns in the UI if you are not doing something shady with it.

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “216M Spy TVs – The LG Smart TV Problem [video]”

40. indirect training via modern spy devices ("smart" IoT devices like LG TV's) feeding the transcribed ambient conversation data

    Criticizes · Sep 2026 · in “More questions about whether researchers can trust OpenAI with unpublished math”