LG Says It Will License webOS To Other TV Makers (gizmodo.com) 82
LG will make its webOS software available to other companies. From a report: The proprietary software on LG's own sets will be able to be licensed by outside TV brands, the company announced Wednesday. Notably, TV brands that choose to bring LG's software to their televisions will also get its Magic Motion remote, LG's very good cursor-like wand. It would also see the same voice control tools, algorithms, and apps -- including LG Channels -- included on those displays as well, the company said. "By welcoming other manufacturers to join the webOS TV ecosystem, we are embarking on a new path that allows many new TV owners to experience the same great UX and features that are available on LG TVs. We look forward to bringing these new customers into the incredible world of webOS TV," Park Hyoung-sei, president of the LG Home Entertainment Company, said in a statement.
Ewe, gross. Why? (Score:3)
WebOS (Score:5, Insightful)
I haven't used AndroidTV, but WebOS is the best interface I've used on a smart TV. It's fast, apps load quickly and switching between them is nearly instantaneous. Most TV menus show up as toolbars on the bottom or sides of the TV, so you can still watch stuff as you mess around with options or flick through apps. Also, on the newest release, each app will show the last few things you've watched, so you can access it directly from the app menu without having to navigate through the app. It's a really well thought out UI.
It's also well supported. My TV is about two years old and they just added Airplay support. I've never had a feature that significant added to a piece of AV hardware in the past.
Other things I've used for comparison: AppleTV, Panasonic, Sony, Roku.
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I think you are missing the point, which is that GP's TV got a firmware update 2 years after release.
The only updates Samsung pushes concern inline ads and government required patches.
Re:WebOS (Score:4, Interesting)
I have used LG WebOS and AndroidTV. I prefer Android, mainly because it has better app support. I can run Kodi and Smart YouTube Next. SYN is great, as well as blocking ads it supports Sponsor Skip, which auto-skips over in-video sponsor sections for you.
WebOS is okay, it works, but you can't get Kodi or SYN for it so it's of limited appeal.
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App support is exactly why I just bought a cheap Dell Optiplex and run Windows. The interface kind of sucks, but there isn't anything it won't do. I even use it as a Plex server for the other devices in my house. The entire smart TV market is kind of stupid if you ask me. TVs should just be dumb displays that display the image as well as possible and just take a feed from whatever device you want to plug in. Maybe if they spent less time and money developing software they could put some decent speakers
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That's why Android TV is so great. The TV manufacturer can avoid developing their own crappy OS and getting 3rd parties to support it, and just use Android.
Flat TVs will never have great speakers, being flat just makes it impossible. Laws of physics.
Flat (Score:2)
Flat TVs will never have great speakers, being flat just makes it impossible. Laws of physics.
I have a pair of flat Magneplanar speakers that sound fantastic. Of course they don't sound good pressed up against the wall, they need to be out in the room a couple of feet.
But, yeah, in general, TV manufacturers aren't going to spend more than a dollar or so on internal speakers. They are never going to sound good under that constraint.
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Yup, I've been using old laptops or PCs as set-top-boxes for about 20 years now. At first they needed tuner cards added on, but now it's even easier since it's all internet based.
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It's fast, apps load quickly and switching between them is nearly instantaneous.
It shows how far we've fallen in regards to expecting quality output from a tv when we're more worried about how fast extraneous, superfluous widgets perform than we are about image quality and ease of use.
KISS is dead. Long live obfuscation!
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It shows how far we've fallen in regards to expecting quality output from a tv when we're more worried about how fast extraneous, superfluous widgets perform than we are about image quality and ease of use.
I didn't comment on it's image quality because that's not what the thread is about. It's image quality is excellent, and the main reason I chose the set. Check out the reviews of the LG C-Series on the AVScience forums. There are a couple of sets with better image quality but they cost significantly more. Out of the box, the ISF presets get you very close to an accurate calibration.
The interface is important to me, as I don't have cable, don't watch a lot of broadcast TV, and mostly watch streaming. The int
Re: WebOS (Score:2)
WRT the new features, my Vizio just added Airplay (it's 2-3 years old).
It was part of a huge update that I actually hate, but they added a lot.
I purchased it because it was just a TV with a built in chromecast, no nonsense.
Now it's messy with apps, and "stream for free" and some ads (billed as "stuff to watch"). It's really frustrating, I need the remote now to control it, before I could just open app on phone, cast to TV, it'd turn on and just work.
Now I need to get the remote and chose the chromecast app.
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I have the same problems with WebOS that I have with Android TV: I do not want my
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I have two of them and am thinking about switching to the chromecast for TV (Google TV? Android TV? Who knows what the branding is) which I recently used and found to be a much much better experience. Having content like what you were previously watching or what's coming up on all the various streaming services (cutting the cord has bundled back into paying for 3-4 streams at a time) in one dashboard as opposed to hunting through the various applications is much much better. Also whatever licensing deal
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I like LG's interface as it doesn't take up the whole screen making switching apps easier. Also their remote acts like a mouse making the interface really easy to use.
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My wife loves their remote (I couldn't care less), but the scroll wheel is wimpy and the only way to click what you've selected. LG doesn't seem to sell the exact same remote that the TV came with, and the first two that were supposed to support that model didn't actually work right. Hopefully the one being delivered today will.
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What's wrong with Android TV?
For LG, what's wrong with Android TV is that LG does not get to charge royalties for it.
For the manufacturers that chose to get LG's WebOS instead of androidTV or Roku, is that Google and Roku charge more royalties than LG does.
And those same manufacturers find also wrong that FireTV need more beefy hardware due to more reliance on voice recognition, making their TVs more expensive than in using WebOS (roku is also very nimble hardware wise, but, as said, cost a lot).
As for you, the user, your data will be
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there's an easy to way to make any TV "dumb" (Score:1)
Re:Ewe, gross. Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
What's wrong with Android TV?
The UI is horrible, crowded. and confusing, it's slow and you're sold as Google's product to their customers. I've had it on a Sony TV, and "awful" is the best one word description I can think of.
In contrast, LG's webOS is much more out of the way, snappy and fairly intuitive.
That aside, LG's TVs is a good example of why you should only care about the qualities of the display, the number of ports - and potentially sound (although getting a sounder or surround system is better). While good, they're not exactly maintaining and developing it for long - you feel fairly stuck shortly after the TV has been replaced in a lineup by a newer model. Thus, get a good display and have a separate box for apps - AppleTV is good and privacy oriented, and while I don't think it's available where I live, Roku is also popular.
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Doesn't sound like the Android TV I've used. Even on low end hardware (a 25 Euro box) it was responsive. Maybe your remote was crap, some of the IR ones are awful, although Sony are normally okay.
Anyway, as for cluttered, you can customize it to be as minimal as you like. I only have one row of icons on my home screen, just the apps I use regularly. Simply go into the home screen menu and turn off the ones you don't want.
Feel free to install a firewall if you need more privacy too. That's something you can'
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Doesn't sound like the Android TV I've used.
You mean, you dispute that you are sold as Google's product?
Re: Ewe, gross. Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
Google has most of my email on file for the last 15 years. It knows what I search for, and where I spend time on the web. To an extent it knows where I physically go in the world. If I followed my bank's recent advice then I'd be channeling many of my day to day retail payments, meaning data about real money spent, through Google's profile of stuff it knows about me... most of which it collects court they propose if influencing my behaviour to match what's wanted by whomever pays money to Google.
I haven't used Android TV apart from briefly in a shop. If Android TV works for you then use it, but all I really want in a smart TV is a clean interface and an ability to run about two specific apps. One thought when I went shopping was that if it was the same either way, I didn't see a compelling reason to provide yet another way for Google to collate data about yet another aspect of my life.
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What's wrong with Linux on the desktop?
What's wrong with Windows?
What's wrong with Mac?
All of the above look and feel very different. They operate differently. Android TV is great now that TVs are shipping with 4 fucking core processors. I jest, but the reality is preference wins, not technical superiority in any area.
Having less choice is not a good thing in any market.
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They are so many UI experts out there, but what it really comes down to is people like what they are use too. When they get or forced to use something different they don't like it until they get use to it, and give the same old rants when the next new thing comes out.
VMS Commands are too wordy, you have to type a whole bunch of crap to do a simple task
Unix Commands are too short, they are so abbreviated that you don't know what they mean.
GUI makes my Computer too slow, the font is too small, black on white
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Having less choice is not a good thing in any market.
I hear this a lot, but "any market" is going way to far. I work in physical security (key cards, alarms, CCTV, that stuff), there's nothing worse than some executive seeing a demo at some conference and deciding that it needs to be shoehorned into their system.
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Oh I think there are definitely worse things. Can you imagine the physical security market if everyone had the same lock? Actually no need to imagine. I can 3D print a key to open the TSA lock on your baggage precisely because there was only one design on the market and that information about it was leaked.
In fact physical security is a perfectly example of where we absolutely need more choice on a market.
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If we're going to have more choice then we need better standards and they need to be enforced. Good luck with that. Instead every cowboy company thinks their product is so wonderful that everyone else in the industry is automatically going to follow their lead so they don't have to worry about following standards or conventions.
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Errr not really. I think you're trying to solve a different problem. It sounds like you're pushing towards interoperability because if your silly boss who gets wowed by marketing people. Standards are great for interoperability but only where needed. There's no need for standards in TV OSes, just a common API to allow app portability.
Having cowboy companies doing their own thing is great. It gives you more choice. It stops common issues from arising from a monoculture. An example of where we needed a standa
Re: Ewe, gross. Why? (Score:3)
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Google is the patron saint of clumsy UI.
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What's wrong with Android TV?
Google, that's what!
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Java is top heavy, JIT is stupid?
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What's wrong with Android TV?
USA blocking Android going to China. This is an opportunity for the South Koreans to fill a market void created by the US Administration.
Well great... (Score:2)
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All that's left of Palm (Score:5, Insightful)
Sniff.
That's not all that's left (Score:2)
There's also graffiti keyboard for Android [google.com]. Graffiti literally pre-dates PalmOS!
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Yes, it was actually available on the HP OmniGo and Apple Newton. I remember trying the demo out on the Newton - and was fairly impressed by how fast and accurate it was (compared to say.... the Newton's default recognition system).
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Palm also released it for PC-GEOS, which is what the Tandy/Casio/GRiD Zoomer ran. The software for that was their first project.
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I was wondering if this was the same webOS that came from Palm/later bought by HP. Did HP sell/license it to LG?
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PalmOne was bought up by HP who stopped using PalmOS and created webOS for use in tablets and phones, and later HP sold it to LG who used it as a TV OS. You will remember webOS as the phone OS that mimicked an Apple iPod so it could work with iTunes.
The Palm Pre was a smartphone released in 2009 that ran WebOS. Palm was acquired by HP in 2010. WebOS predates the HP acquisition.
Give me a dumb TV (Score:5, Insightful)
All I want to do is plug in MY choice of Internet TV system, be it Android , Amazon, Apple, these options are cheaper to replace if they stop being updated than replacing the whole TV.
Re: Give me a dumb TV (Score:1)
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You realise the Smart TV just becomes dumb if you ignore the OS and Apps right? I mean shit my 10 year old Samsung TV stopped being updated 8 years ago. It still works as well as the day I bought it. Do the Apps work? No idea. I have a Roku for that.
Until the damn thing starts boot-looping. (Score:2)
Seriously. My TV is boot-looping. Have to unplug it at least once a week and let it sit for a minute to fix it.
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Which is the result of what? Magic? Failed update? A TV doesn't start boot looping itself unless it has a manufacturing defect or it attempted to change something itself. Neither of those are prevented with a dumb TV.
Re: Until the damn thing starts boot-looping. (Score:1)
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What are you talking about? You're not actually dumb enough to connect a TV to anything are you?
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I never updated it, or gave it access to the internet, so I'm assuming defect. Got it on a surge protector, and nothing else on that has any issues and no failure indications. The 20 year old stereo receiver and 2 year old TiVo are running fine.
Only 4 years old but that's out of warranty.
Re: Until the damn thing starts boot-looping. (Score:2)
Whoa, your warranty will never expire! (Bill and Ted voice) Awesome! (Bill and Ted guitar riff)
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You realise the Smart TV just becomes dumb if you ignore the OS and Apps right?
Not necessarily. Most Smart TVs use the smart TV section for all kinds of interface stuff it doesn't need to be doing. If it fails, then the whole TV fails.
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I agree with you, but...
First of all, Dumb TVs are an endangered species.
Second: Try to start an "Ask Slashdot" asking for "the best current dumb TV" (Like I did a couple of years back). And you will be either downmoded, ridiculed, or offered dumb sugestions like:
"Use a computer monitor" (ignoring the lack of tunner, remote, EARC and speakers, where are the 65'' or bigger models).
"Use digital signage monitors" (again, no tunner, no remote, no EARC, no speakers and a super loud fan, becuase, digital sigange
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My TCL Roku TV worked perfectly as a dumb TV until I configured the WiFi. I could configure and select inputs, and settings that didn't need smart features were available. I would recommend it for anyone looking for a dumb TV.
Buy a TV, get a PiHole free! (Score:3)
Every one of these ought to come with a PiHole to contain the OS. LG isn't the worst at sending telemetry back to the mothership but they're close.
DoD mandates purchasing "dumb" TVs (i.e. non-wifi models) for most areas and they cost substantially more than regular models, often several thousand dollars more. And no, they can't just buy a regular model and take out the wifi; the purchase order simply won't go through.
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For regular users, the easy way is to not connect it to a WiFi network. Return any TV that requires you to do so.
But if you want a "dumb TV" like DoD, they do make them - look for ones designed for Digital Signage. They're basically normal TV with all the smart stuff removed. They cost more, aren't any higher quality than , a normal TV. They're the screens you see in stores, shopping malls, and other places that show the menus and other things. They're just regular TVs. Sometimes their firmware is modified
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Lol very true; I have a couple of "smart" TVs that have never touched the internet and work perfectly.
The digital signage is a great idea, thanks!
Software Eats Slow Fish (Score:1)
It was ever thus with software. Companies and managers who outright refuse to acknowledge, invest, or encourage software development are doomed to be eaten by it, no matt
Oh please no (Score:3)
I'd like a TV that's just like a dumb monitor, a single HDMI input would be fine. Just turn on and off depending on whether there's a signal to it. Doesn't need to do anything else than display a picture and have factory calibration of correctness. I currently have an LG WebOS TV and I'm definitely picking something else next time, preferrably something as dumb as possible that doesn't need a minute boot, rather just a second or so like the TV I had 15 years ago.
LG makes tvs? (Score:2)
I have an LG DVD player. Works exactly as intended. I put in a DVD and the thing plays. I didn't know they still made tvs. From what I keep hearing, LG, and many others, have bolted on a larger screen to a computer.
Does LG still make tvs where you turn it on and you're good to go, or do have to jump through hoops and advertisements to use what you've paid for?
Proprietary Smart TV OS (Score:2)
The problem with all webOS and those proprietary TV operating system is that there is little app support and the OS will be obsolete within 3 years. If you can't run all apps and update your apps then the smart tv is useless.
Android TV also suffers a little from this but it's been my experience that it has a longer shelf live and much better app support than any other TV OS out there, so my money is on Android TV in the future.
I currently have Nvidia Shield from 2017 (Since my Smart Tv is outdated) and that
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Why do I need apps on my TV/toaster/refrigerator/etc? Why do I need anything other than a basic controller to display content? If I want "smart features" I can get that with a Roku or some other device that's relatively disposable without having to chuck an expensive TV when the vendor decides they're stick of keeping it updated or just want to sell you their latest poo.
I simply want a high quality display device attached to whatever I decide to use to feed it content. I don't want/need another vector fo
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Well given that TV todays have to support digital transmissions, user interfaces and effects you basically need to have a full blown computer with network support integrated into the television, so it kinda makes sense to use the integrated hardware/OS to do extra stuff anyway.
What is actually needed is some kind of a universal app standard among all TV manufacturers and media device manufacturer so that content vendors don't have to create gazillion different apps for every kind of display device out there
Why do you need apps in your TV or Fridge? (Score:2)
Why do I need apps on my TV/toaster/refrigerator/etc? Why do I need anything other than a basic controller to display content?
I'll do the Fridge and TV, the Toaster and the etc. is left as an excersice to the reader. First the Fridge:
In the begining, Oliver Evans invented the Fridge in 1805. As this predated the Electrical telegraph and the Analytical engine, one can safely say that computing and the internet even remotely similar to what we know them today did not existed.
For many years, which became lustres, which became decades, Fridges were analog. You controlled the coldnes by an On-Off control, with a termocopuple, offering
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Why do I need apps on my TV/toaster/refrigerator/etc? Why do I need anything other than a basic controller to display content?
Now thew TV:
In the begining, CRTs roamed the earth, the Internet did not exist.
1960 Noyce, 1965 Moore, 1974 Microprocessor, 1984 Internet.
In the late 1980s, some brave soul decided that, instead of moving knobs and pushing buttons to configure the TV, and having a dial, or many small incandecent lamps to to signal status, it may be interesting to do all with the remote, and signal status by writing numbers and letters (like colour, HUE, contrast, sharpness, etc) on the screen. The public loved it. Manufactu
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As long as I can turn WebOS "features" off... (Score:2)
I like having a nice modern 4k screen, but I don't care for any of the "smart" features. You can, of course, just refuse to give the device network connectivity, but you're still stuck with all the UI bloat.
WebOS is actually nice! (Score:1)
I have been using an LG WebOS TV for the last couple of years now. By far, the interface and system is the best that I have encountered amongst all smart TVs. It's very quick and snappy, the "Magic" remote is really well designed and easy to use. There is a nice suite of apps available covering most streaming platforms and more. Most importantly the interface stays out of the way.
More power to LG if they are planning to open it up to other manufacturers. Hope this ensures that there will be continuing int
HP TouchPad memories... (Score:2)
WebOS came installed on the HP TouchPad from years past. That was HP's forray into the tablet market that ended with a thud. But I do remember that WebOS was a really slick OS. Very smooth and fast. Nice to see that it's not dead quite yet.
Open source edition (Score:2)