LG's recent software update has forcibly installed Microsoft Copilot, an AI assistant, on smart TVs without removal options, sparking widespread user backlash over privacy, bloatware, and loss of control. This highlights growing tensions in smart devices, where monetization often overrides user preferences.
Incredible. What a shit idea.
Anyways, kids, remember: never let your smart devices talk to the internet. We actually love our LG OLED - it’s fantastic hardware. But it has not once, and never will, get the chance to phone home.
I reworked my entire home network. Going from an Asus router to an opnsense firewall, just to put the HP printer and the LG TV on a VLAN with absolutely no internet access.
These two poor guys ping each other every day, in the hopes one of them gets a connection.
Sorry for that noob question: i do not grasp the idea of vlan fully: will i still be able to connect to devices in the locked down vlan (the tv, the printer) from the devices in the “normal”, open Wifi (like my phone streaming to said tv).
Right now i have a gl-iNet router (brume 2) that uses adguard to block advertising sites (and also home phoning destinations of popular brands), but not sure if that does the trick already.
Whether you can access these devices or not depends on your firewall rules.
The usual (very simplifed) setup is as follows
VLANs:
Firewall rules:
VLAN_Trusted: Can access everything, WAN (internet) as well as devices on VLAN_Untrusted and VLAN_IoT. Usually, your PC or smartphone is here
VLAN_IoT: can only access WAN (internet), but none of the other VLANs, usually connected devices, like smart appliances that you control via their dedicated apps, like Philips HUE lamps, etc
VLAN_Untrusted: Can not access anything. Usually devices that you don’t want to allow to access anything, lika a TV, or a printer to prevent automatic firmware updates.
Some people also hav a VLAN_Guests, which is similar to IoT, where devices can only access the internet.
I hope this helps
Thanks a lot! That is very helpful. I was lost in reading up the details of configuration without understanding of a general concept.
But what do you use instead? The onboard apps work well and having two remotes always sucked.
Thanks to HDMI-CEC you can control additional media players with your TV’s remote. Sometimes it might not be perfect for things like long presses and stuff, but for basic controls it works.
That’s my experience with an Nvidia Shield and a Raspberry with KODI. I wouldn’t really recommend the Raspberry though.
So long as the GabeCube is at a decent price it is going to be my TV’s media center. My old plan of building a new main rig and repurposing my old rig with an arc B580 upgrade went out the window for my budget when ram prices went through the roof.
Just consider that Netfliix and Co. don’t offer higher resolutions than 720p (?) on browsers that are not Edge (or does Chrome support it by now?). I really forgot the details because it’s such a mess using them on Linux. But maybe you use other sources for movies anyways. Also if you need to use your browser for media streaming you might lose some benefits from CEC because you still control things with mouse and keyboard.