LG TVs continue down advertising rabbit hole with new screensaver ads

LG's TV business is heightening focus on selling ads and tracking.

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[xoa]

I post this from time to time in "smart tv" threads, but just as a reminder or FYI for those who aren't aware: while the trend in the consumer TV space has been towards more rent extraction any way they can find it, it is still possible to get TVs without this stuff, albeit at a premium. TVs are still made for business usage in areas like conference rooms, wall displays etc. They're often found under labeling like "commercial digital signage", "hospitality display", "business display" or the like, sometimes seemingly trying to avoid using "TV" (if being cynical maybe to make them harder for normal people to discover and confuse them if they do). But they're nice panels aimed at serious running hours, without this sort of junk (which would give enterprise IT conniptions) and can have very useful feature support like 802.1x authentication which so many devices still lack. Players like NEC have even advertised their use of an RPi compute and winked at lack of spyware for some of their products, but lots of major "smart TV" providers also have a commercial lineup. And they don't have to be radically expensive at all either, something like NEC's PN-ME502 is $913, not thousands of dollars.

I think they're well worth considering, particularly for the Ars and other technical crowds. Granted I suppose for people who truly want built-in netflix or the like without connecting something like a Roku or Apple TV it's less optimal. But even they might change their tunes back to the concept of separate boxes and normal panels if they dislike all the ads and data tracking. I have a couple of such displays filling our TV needs and they work as advertised, integrate into a more advanced network well, with no BS.

 

[xoa]

I really love my LG OLED. It's uh, not on my network.

In the longer term I'm skeptical this will remain viable for most. Cellular connectivity has gotten very, very cheap. Companies can form connectivity partnerships, and we've already seen scummy cable companies turn on WiFi networks with customer's own connections by default so that anyone else can use them who are also on the cable company plan (Xfinity). I've turned them off then seen them switched back on again with some update. It's easy to imagine LG paying Comcast some fraction of any revenue they get to connect to that as well, so if you're merely within range of anyone else with one your TV would cheerfully connect. Sad fact is that advertising really does seem to be pretty darn profitable, and some bitter irony is that those who work hardest to avoid it might actually be more profitable then average to advertise to.

When there is enough money on the table trying to work around an inherently hostile device on your network may become difficult. So I think it's probably better if more people consider buying friendly devices in the first place. Granted, nothing wrong with taking advantage of a window of real discounts if you can work around the downsides.

 

[xoa]

A TV without any tuner or network abilities. Just a nice monitor with good output. That could be a future plan.

These TVs actually do generally have network abilities, though normally via ethernet (sometimes WiFi too, sometimes that's an optional extra module), but "network" means "LAN" not some internet/cloud thing. Businesses want central control, real time temperature monitoring and so on. The MEx01 series actually had a carrier board/slot for an RPi compute module built in which was neat, can't tell at a glance if that's still there with the 02. But ultimately the point is it's something you can put to work (or not) for yourself, not something that serves the device manufacturer. The networking is higher quality as well. As far as tuner no, but I don't see that as an issue these days since there are abundant networked TV tuner options available for cheap for those still using OTA.

Thanks for this, truly.

I was honestly unaware of that niche, making this one of the more useful and interesting article comments I've seen in a while.

Glad it could help someone! As I said I don't think they go out of their way to advertise it as an option for the general consumer. Right up the alley of many here tough!

 

[xoa]

Or a non-broadcasting WLAN on every Comcast/Optimum/whoever wireless router, inaccessible to the customer. Put your box into pass-through mode? Turns off the customer network, but the partner network stays active.

Yep, though the real issue here isn't even "you" as a customer who cares. A technical customer can demand to use their own modem, stick an OEM one in a faraday cage, and attempt other counter measures. And if you live in a rural area with nobody within a quarter mile it's probably feasible for the time being to maintain some level of EM control. But most people live in denser areas, which means it'll be about the lowest common denominator of every single other person within WiFi range. So while scummier tricks like you say could be done, they probably aren't even necessary and a certain veneer can be maintained due to the power of defaults. Very few people change any sort of default on whatever CPE their ISP provides.

 

[xoa]

I may have missed it, but it doesn't look like these are OLED or support DolbyVision/HDR10+

There are definitely commercial OLED displays, I found some Samsung ones when I was looking a couple of years ago. Again, almost all the major manufacturers have a commerical/enterprise branch, it's an important separate market. You'll have to dig around though sometimes to find them, and/or go to a business equipment provider (or ebay) to actually buy them. On topic for example, info on LG's "hospitality TV" lineup is found here, and there are OLED options. Have to research it somewhat of course.