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Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#141

Post by matheusmoreira »

zdware wrote: post #114
paulgerhardt wrote: post #45

Do recommend the LG C series (C5 or C4 are new or the C1 series if you want a deal on classifieds - same hardware as the higher end models but needs a firmware bit flip). The OS is very rootable and it makes a great TV that doubles as a monitor. Supports free sync / g-sync. OLED is nice at this scale. Text is very readable, refresh rate is good. It uses the same panels as the fancier G series in the larger sizes. One…

++ for the LG homebrew community. The homebrew store literally has an app now that will auto refresh your dev token so your TV doesn't go out of devmode and uninstall all of your home brew. Used to have to setup a cron job to renew/refresh dev mode.

Is rooting just for homebrew or can I get rid of all the advertising and dark patterns?

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#142

Post by aljgz »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #45

Do recommend the LG C series (C5 or C4 are new or the C1 series if you want a deal on classifieds - same hardware as the higher end models but needs a firmware bit flip). The OS is very rootable and it makes a great TV that doubles as a monitor. Supports free sync / g-sync. OLED is nice at this scale. Text is very readable, refresh rate is good. It uses the same panels as the fancier G series in the larger sizes. One…

I Second avoiding Samsung. I had an LG, had to let it go to my ex, and got a Samsung because the rtings said it has a better color space coverage. The quality in the out of box experience is day and night. Samsung does every trick to take you to the homepage to show you ads. Even when using as a monitor, will analyse your content and phone home to use in showing you more "relevant" ads. I disconnected it from the rest of the world completely. If I could sell it for 70% of the price, I would, and would get an LG again.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#143

Post by technothrasher »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #141
zdware wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

++ for the LG homebrew community. The homebrew store literally has an app now that will auto refresh your dev token so your TV doesn't go out of devmode and uninstall all of your home brew. Used to have to setup a cron job to renew/refresh dev mode.

Is rooting just for homebrew or can I get rid of all the advertising and dark patterns?

Pi-hole gets rid of a lot of the advertising, and homebrew gets you an ad-free YouTube client, but dark patterns are still there.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#144

Post by MBCook »

stevedh wrote: post #123
MBCook wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus it’s a black & white movie, and b&w film has a higher “resolution” than color too right? Because you’re dealing with silver particles instead of physically larger color grains. Or something like that. Someone more in the know please check my math.

It was shot in colour. But the rest of the comments in the tree apply.

It seems my memory fails me.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#145

Post by baby_souffle »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #45

Do recommend the LG C series (C5 or C4 are new or the C1 series if you want a deal on classifieds - same hardware as the higher end models but needs a firmware bit flip). The OS is very rootable and it makes a great TV that doubles as a monitor. Supports free sync / g-sync. OLED is nice at this scale. Text is very readable, refresh rate is good. It uses the same panels as the fancier G series in the larger sizes. One…

Another +1 for LG but it's worth mentioning that there are a few things that a TV firmware does that you don't necessarily want in a Monitor. Simple example: most TVs will stay on _forever_ with the "no signal" image bouncing around... but a proper monitor will interpret that as a sign that the PC has gone to sleep so the monitor should, too.

I have not looked into hacking the firmware to change this behavior but if there's a "custom rom" out there that can do this, I'd appreciate a link!

One of the best things about LG in general is their serial port. It's hit/miss which of their models will have it exposed on the back, but if yours does, the protocol is well documented and is very simple.

My LG TV (used as a monitor) is really chatty on the network and so I keep it disconnected so I don't get periodic interruptions from little overlays telling me that $someApp has been updated and needs me to agree to new terms (yes, really!).

To re-gain remote control for automation, I use the serial port. I have an ESP32 connected to a mmWave sensor for active "at desk?" detection. This is integrated with Home Assistant which knows which PC my KVM is pointing to and if it's on or not. This lets me re-implement basic "if not at desk and no PC is on, put the display to sleep" automation.

My biggest complaint is more of an ecosystem issue; why is DisplayPort not common on TVs? Because this TV-As-A-Monitor is HDMI only, my KVM has to be HDMI and so does every PC that's hooked up. Would have been a lot nicer if the whole chain could be display port :/.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#146

Post by andrepd »

hamdingers wrote: post #66
andrepd wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately it still spies on you if you connect to the web :S I guess you can mitigate that if you use something like a pi-hole? I do wish there was a solution using root/devmode to block ads (or better yet, run in whitelist mode!).

You're correct on all points. However, if you do have an pihole/adguard home, this list does get rid of all the ads: https://gist.github.com/d4kine/b2458cc9d693d7d36193be0247094...

Hmm but I'm skeptical. All it takes is an update and the list is no longer relevant. And there's no guarantee that data isn't passed anyways through the domains that are not blocked.

Still, would love an "opensnitch" in whitelist mode for my TV!

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#147

Post by wintermutestwin »

trenchpilgrim wrote: post #140
wintermutestwin wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? You are confusing video refresh rate with audio latency.

Does the stuff on the screen not need to also be low latency when recording live instruments?

Irrelevant.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#149

Post by serf »

I kind of hate smart TVs -- my family got a Samsung one that got feature obsoleted in months , but I needed a cctv kiosk -- I bought a fire stick and the cheapest +speakers monitor on amazon with an HDMI port and USB power, was pleasantly surprised; 4k, tiny, performant, adb access isn't fucked up, and you can change the home screen.

By the end of the day it's just an android device with an HDMI out, and that's exactly what I wanted.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best hackable smart TV?

#150

Post by mmastrac »

tracker1 wrote: post #98
mmastrac wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am curious if the Cx series has the same issue as my B2 where Dolby Vision (Atmos?) seems to kill the video processing circuitry and requires me to power-cycle it. Apparently the only fix is to disable it in your source, but it works like 75% of the time and I'd hate to lose the excellent picture quality of Netflix and YouTube via Google TV.

Worth trying are a different cable, and maybe a different source depending on your setup... my previous AVR had pretty consistent issues against my TV that I constantly had to soft power off and on to work around, it only happened when using the ARC port. On another setup, it turned out to be an issue with the cable. YMMV.

Unfortunately the Google TV is direct attach, no cable.
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