The software in the newer LG OLEDs is so good I haven't bothered hooking up any of my boxes to my new TVs. I'm sure in a few years the UI will start to feel sluggish and it will be time to plug something in, but for now its a great experience, far better than any smart TV I've used before.
Interesting side note - the LG SmartTV OS has a lineage from PalmOS (Apologies in advance if this is common knowledge).
webOS, also known as LG webOS and previously known as Open webOS, HP webOS and Palm webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices such as smart TVs that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initially developed by Palm, Inc. (which was acquired by Hewlett-Packard), HP made the platform open source, at which point it became Open webOS. The operating system was later sold to LG Electronics, and was made primarily a smart TV operating system for LG televisions
I'll partly agree there, the OS is generally solid but the apps individually can leave a lot to be desired.
My go-to example on LG OLED is Spotify. It's so not OLED friendly, it's essentially OLED-hostile. The UI during playback is completely static and nearly seems designed to cause burn-in.
A 'favorite' of mine: The Spotify mobile app will play little animations and videos behind the playback display for many songs and albums, but not the TV app. It seems like the TV platform is generally neglected by Spotify engineering.
It is good, but it's gotten worse. I have an older LG LED TV that had the smart remote, it's about 7-8 years old now and I've replaced the main board once and just ordered another one as it's gone out again. In the mean time I decided to upgrade to a new LG C1 OLED and the picture is stellar in comparison - but the UI has gotten much worse. The remote is just as good as it's always been, however the amount of garbage content on the main screen now is horrendous. It's littered with content I don't want but am forced to look at given I want to use the native apps so I can move my NVidia Shield along with the older LG (since many streaming apps aren't available for the older LG units). My old LG I only connected to the network when I wanted to check for updates, this new one is cordoned off to an IOT device VLAN that only has access to the Internet and there are some holes popped over to Plex so that I can get content streaming to it locally. I also have a specific DNS filtering policy just for the LG TV to cut down on the noise it has access to.
I don't honestly think the experience is good, and I've done a lot to minimize what it has access to. I didn't pay a couple thousand dollars to have a digital billboard in my house. I'd pay a small premium if I could buy a unit that was stripped down and only ran apps and didn't have any other placeholders for content. But... Manufacturers are getting out of control with what they deem OK to do with a device that they claim I've purchased. If nothing else it feels like a prepaid rental at this point - they don't last all that long and they can't seem to help themselves from thinking it's a platform I'm going to shop directly from? Even if it is content - I can't imagine many people want yet another vendor to pay for media content. Especially not LG/Sony/Samsung/etc.
I have a non-OLED LG. Great picture, have not plugged anything in but casting from iPhone is buggy (it was added remotely via an update years after I bought the TV). It's amazing, and with very little bloatware
The magic remote kind of ruins my LG TV for me. I like the UI, but hate that bumping my remote brings up that darn cursor that flies around the screen.
It's switched on after powering up the TV, but then I just press twice the down-arrow on the remote and then the cursor disappears and appears only if I use the scroll wheel (which I never do)... .
Ok, I just doublechecked and I must state that the cursor does appear again if I shake violently the remote (never noticed this since I bought the TV hehe) - if I just move it, put it into my pocket and run with it etc... it does not appear. (btw my TV model is "OLED55C6V", not sure if it's relevant, just fyi)
Maybe it's a matter about setting the cursor "sensitivity" (or something similar)? In the "[TV options] -> Accessibility -> Pointer Options -> Tracking speed" mine is currently set to "slow". I did set it to "high" but in my case it did not make any difference (once I pushed twice the down/up arrow keys it did not reappear unless I actively shaked the remote)... :(
I did install all SW-updates that were available so far for that TV, but I had the same behaviour already in its original "unboxed" state... .
Completely agree. I hated the idea of a clunky "smart" TV and only purchased LG because of the ratings on picture quality. I have a Nvidia shield, Amazon fire tv cube, and a media PC. I recently realized I use none of them, because the LG software is good enough (and there's a Plex app).
I bought one for my grandmother after reading lots of comments like this. She found it baffling, and we went back to Apple TV. Honestly, I found the interface a little confusing myself.
