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Comment by aetherspawn | Hacker News Reader

LG webOS in my opinion is the least bad out of all the smart TV operating systems, and so far (we have a few of these at home & at work) I don't really feel the need to root them as they are ad-free and working fine even after several years of auto updates. This lack of enshittification has urged me lately to buy and prefer LG products over Samsung et al.

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I agree, I'd rather use something else, even if only for philosophical reasons, but I couldn't find anything that didn't sacrifice something - or at least that could promise it didn't.

No separate box seems to do all of 4K, Atmos, Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HLG without some weird restriction like 'except the Netflix app'. Even worse if you wanted DV IQ I assume, but I think my TV doesn't support it anyway.

And honestly I think I prefer WebOS to Fire sticks' UI for example. Stock Android TV isn't great either. If I was into playing Xbox/PS games I imagine that would make a better 'hub', since it's presumably (I have no idea) more organised around your own content/games at least rather than random adverts and features you don't want. Also probably more money being spent on designing it.

if you have an LG tv, HDR10+ is not needed as the dynamic handling of HDR10 on the tv makes the HDR10 layer look as good as HDR10+. With this is mind, an Nvidia shield pro is pretty much what you are looking for.

An external Chromecast stick also works fairly well (assuming you pay for YouTube premium and Netflix etc to avoid ads, but at least not much in the way of bloatware).

the webOS on my LG is so out of date that modern apps won't install. so instead, i don't use the webOS, and treat it as a dumb TV with an HDMI input by using an external device for the smart things. there is nothing wrong with the picture that any of the updates would be required. so, just don't connect the smart tv to the rest of the world, and say thanks to all of the others that do to subsidize the price of your TV

> they are ad-free

The home screen on my LG TV seems to devote the top 60% of the page to sponsored content. Is this not an issue for you?

I understand where you are coming from, but I personally think that it's reasonable for a TV to show me sponsored content that is TV shows. I don't see this any different to how Netflix or Spotify show sponsored TV shows or music.

But my friend has a Samsung TV and it shows him ads for things he can buy from eBay, ads for games etc. in a similar area .. and yeah that's nonsense, that would really get on my nerves.

I don’t even have a Home Screen on my C9

I think you can switch it off. Poke around on menus

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