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Comment by megraf | Hacker News Reader

I have an older LG TV (circa 2016 or so) which runs an older version of LG's WebOS. It has no ads, the TV's UI hasn't noticeably slowed. It's 4K. It's an excellent TV.

I catch myself thinking that I'll be in a conundrum when the TV eventually dies. It looks like new versions of LG's WebOS has ads every time you open it's 'dock'.

Yes, you can buy an AppleTV (or your preferred alternative) – but you'll always be scurrying to the TV's original remove for anything beyond on/off, or changing the volume. So you either keep two remotes around, or toss Apple's glass remote and use a universal remote.

Does it work? Sure. Is it elegant? Eh. How have you guys solved this?

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The thing that's frustrating about webOS is that LG doesn't provide meaningful updates, and apparently app providers have no incentive to support TVs more than a year or two old.

So the most expensive, highest quality TV in my house can't use CBS All Access because the webOS version is slightly too old.

I've become convinced that you should either buy a TV with Roku built in or buy a TV and stick a Roku on it. It seems to be the only platform with the clout to get support for most streaming apps and that also updates its software regularly for a long time. I don't like the idea of a single, proprietary platform being the end-all, but every manufacturer-specific platform seems to be missing key streaming apps, and then there's Google where it's unlikely Google will support the device in a year.

Roku has built-in AirPlay support now too, which I believe makes it the only non-Apple device that you can "just" stream to from an iPhone.

I recently bought a mid-tier Vizio that has AirPlay 2 built in, also.

That's good to hear. I definitely had a lot of initial irritation with my iPhone that the only box it could stream to was another Apple product (at the time).

I think Apple TV generally has more clout and has features come to it first. For example, HBO Max had Apple TV support first before Roku.

YouTube on AppleTV is the worst experience, though. The UI is incredibly laggy. It's much nicer on Roku.

I use YouTube on my AppleTV 4k daily and it works really well. Occassionally there's video lag but the UI is mostly fine.

"Mostly fine" is not good enough with the price point on the Apple TV. My Xiaomi box does it better than the Apple TV for a fraction of the price.

I have a Roku streaming stick+ and I found the hardware to be slow. Maybe it's just due to the weaker specs on the stick?

Sticks are terrible. I remember getting the Fire Stick and finding it incredibly prone to crashing and regularly overheating. Chromecasts aren't much better, but newer ones are also meatier in size. Video streaming wasn't meant to be done by devices the size of a pack of gum.

Roku Premieres are pretty compact but work much better than the sticks. And Roku Ultras are really, really smooth, and support Ethernet!

Apple TV is a platform-locking choice. I have an iPhone now, but most of my devices aren't Apple. Rokus pretty happily stream and interact well with iPhones, Androids, and Windows computers without issue. To me, the fact that Roku both operates well and has wide independent app support and also can be mirrored to from nearly any device is a almost completely unmatched feature set.

Even if Roku doesn't have my app yet, as long as one device I have it on does, I'm good. Whereas I stumble over if my iPhone can mirror to my LG webOS TV (it can't), for example, and I have to break out a Windows PC just to mirror a show on an app it doesn't have.

With regards to HBO Max, that was a contract dispute over advertising share. Roku has had the existing HBO app for a long time.

> With regards to HBO Max, that was a contract dispute over advertising share.

HBO Max has advertising? I thought it was just because it was too new (at the time HBO Max was the new version of HBO Now).

> Whereas I stumble over if my iPhone can mirror to my LG webOS TV (it can't)

Airplay is generally supported by new devices, even LG tvs and Samsung TVs.

I was thinking of Peacock/NBC. HBO Max may have been over subscriber fees instead, but the overall jist of when Roku doesn't have an app is that given their market share, Roku tends to insist on extra terms. For ad supported channels, some percentage of ads are served by Roku instead of the channel provider, and I believe when signing up for a paid channel via Roku, they get a recurring cut of the subscription.

>The thing that's frustrating about webOS is that LG doesn't provide meaningful updates

They do. For example they added Variable Refresh Rate to my TV in a firmware update. Also added more resolution options at 120hz.

> but you'll always be scurrying to the TV's original remove for anything beyond on/off, or changing the volume

I'm not sure how long it's been since I've done anything other than volume, on/off, or source switch on the TV, but I think it's measured in years.

Each of those actions can be done via Audio Return Channel (ARC), and perhaps most/all of them via HDMI-CEC. About 50% of the time the Chromecast Google TV we just bought can adjust the tv's audio itself (unless we are casting to it, in which case it does nothing except pops up a notice to check settings, which we have thoroughly checked).

But there's still a lot that can not be done. I change my Samsung monitor's brightness, gamma, & "lean-back" view mode multiple times a week. On my projector I switch between "quiet" & normal mode, & adjust keystone & zoom depending on position.

It'd be awesome to de-interface the TV, to create machine-to-machine interfaces that let the TV be a "dumb" screen while still being able to fiddle it's knobs. We could definitely go middle-way by returning to the tv having an "on screen display" only, some menus for configuration, but I'd love to also expand the digital controllability of these things, such that Rokus & GTVs &c can integrate with, become a comprehensive modular hub/brain for controlling the TV.

Except ARC is horribly broken on, well, most systems. I can't count the amount of systems where a HDMI connection breaks in subtle ways because of the HDMI device in the neighbor HDMI input! Advice number one if you have ARC problems is to unplug the other devices. It is just insane how bad ARC is implemented.

>Does it work? Sure. Is it elegant? Eh. How have you guys solved this?

I don't do anything other than turn the TV off and on and change the volume, so the Apple TV remote (or any other remote programmed to work with the Apple TV remote) suffices.

I put a little adhesive remote holder I stuck on the back of the TV for the remote that came with the TV for the rare times I might need to change the input or something.

HDMI CEC should allow you to just reuse the TV remote, I had an NVIDIA Shield plugged into my TV for a while and it would automatically forward TV remote inputs to the Shield. At some point I just took the batteries out of the Shield remote and used the TV's for both.

I have a 2019 LG OLED. I use the TV remote to control an Nvidia Shield via HDMI-CEC.

Some apps work "better" on the TV (Netflix, Amazon Prime) since I can get Dolby Vision from the built-in apps. Other apps (Disney+) are horrifically buggy on the TV and I use the Shield for them.

I have not enabled all the snooping that LG wants, and so I do not see any ads. If I ever start to see ads, I'd factory reset the TV so it forgets my wifi, and use the shield or an Apple TV.

I also use the shield for and ad-free youtube by using SmartYouTubeTV on the shield.

Wait, why doesn't the Shield do Dolby Vision / HDR for Netflix/Amazon? I thought that was like one of the best options for a streaming media player so that is a big surprise to me. I'm curious because I also own a 2019 LG C9 and currently use only internal apps + my HTPC but am considering the Shield as an option.

I use a Sony TV and the latest Playstation(launch, pro, and now PS5). The TV remote can control the Playstation interface so you don't need to use the controller if you're just watching things.

Its all in on Sony but its pretty nice to only have one remote.

It works on my cheap TCL TV with a PS4 after enabling HDMI-CEC, it's really nice!

> It looks like new versions of LG's WebOS has ads every time you open it's 'dock'.

I own a LG OLED from 2020 and it has the option to turn on ads. Yes, it can have ads but you have to turn them on yourself.

LG TV + Apple TV here too. I don't touch the remote control unless I need to adjust volume for my PS4/Xbox or turn the TV off.

For AppleTV it turns itself on when I tap the ATV remote, volume is adjusted using the same remote.

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