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Comment by Retr0id | Hacker News Reader

PSA: If it's a recent-ish LG TV, you can root it and install an ad-free youtube app in just a few clicks. That said, one might be afraid of potential future breakage/maintenance burden from installing homebrew software for a relative.

https://rootmy.tv/

https://repo.webosbrew.org/apps/youtube.leanback.v4

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On Android TV there's SmartTubeNext that I've installed without root access. It's such a joy to use. It's honestly better than the official Youtube app (it handles multi accounts properly) and even embeds SponsorBlock by default! And it doesn't show the comments, which is another feature as far as I'm concerned.

I installed SmartTubeNext last week and it feels like a burden has been lifted from my everyday life. There's genuinely not enough praise that can be given for it; it's arguably the perfect YouTube app for your TV.

It also supports logging in multiple accounts and remote play. Thank you for mentioning this!

At the moment, SmartTubeNext is the only reason I use my Shield on my LG TV, as the WebOS apps do everything else I need. But SponsorBlock is the best thing ever.

Yeah, I've done this on my LG C9, works awesome.

Apart from SponsorBlock in YT, the most useful thing I've found is the Hyperion sender app. I'm really looking forward to building my DIY Ambilight when the pieces arrive, and it's really nice to automatically capture all output, instead of capturing through HDMI.

SponsorBlock is awesome. I just wish it could automatically “detect” those sections without users input. Something like a neural network to detect if a section is sponsorship.

Woah I did not know that was a thing. I am now for sure going to build my own Ambilight

Good luck! I've ordered a SK6812 RGBW strip and a QuinLED Dig Uno v3, those were the best components from my research.

Can you load custom OS images onto them, or is this the same situation as with bootloaders on most Android devices?

Not that I'd want it actively connecting to the Internet either way, but if I could run something more stripped-down than an OEM stock image it would... almost make a smart TV attractive?

As I'm just about to start shopping for TVs, like LG generally and would love it if I could root it, you know if there is any list of compatible models somewhere? I did some browsing and could only find which webOS versions that are vulnerable, but not which LG model runs what version ("out of factory" version at the very least).

If you buy any retail model today, it will be compatible.

Great, thanks for the reply!

Wow, I had no idea! Thanks for the tip I have some reading to do.

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