[test6554]

I have resisted the urge to buy a new tv for 11 years. I own the same 48" non-smart Sony I've always had. I have always felt like the grass would be greener if I were to buy one of those 65" LG OLED tvs, but thank you for setting me straight.

This old TV is 5 inches thick, but it turns on in 2 seconds. I hooked an amazon fire tv into one HDMI port. I also have a sonos "connect" hooked up to the audio-out so that I can play my TV audio through my ceiling speakers when I want.

But it's just a display, so I can plug and play the capabilities I want. I can even tell alexa to open up plex while the TV is off and the fire TV must send a signal through the hdmi port because the tv turns on and it loads plex.

[osamagirl69]

Just wanted to chime in since you specifically mentioned the "65" LG OLED", which is the same TV I have (specifically the OLED65B6P). When plugged into the internet it has all of the usual unfeatures (including ads displayed over hdmi input), however if you leave it unplugged from the internet it works great and boots up almost instantly to the last input selected without any fuss. Furthermore, the HDMI CEC commands work as expected (in both directions--control of the tv from the computer and control of the computer from the TV with all of the expected buttons on the remote being passed through). The set is also quite good about supporting legacy S/PDIF (optical) passthrough so I haven't needed to replace my receiver.

So far the only feature I have been unsatisfied is that for some reason the set does not auto-shutoff when the hdmi input is not active. For example, I had it hooked up to a computer which was set to turn the monitor off after 15 minutes and instead of the TV shutting off it displayed an 'input disconnected' screen. As a stopgap solution I set the computer to have a 'screensaver' that is all black instead of turning the monitor off--which works pretty OK since the OLED is completely 'off' when displaying a blank screen. The only downside is that the the electronics in the TV stay running, so the power consumption in this state is about 20w.

[m_eiman]

I have the same experience with my LG. It's perfectly fine as a "dumb" screen. I have an Apple TV 4K and a surround receiver connected to it, and CEC works as intended: when I turn on or off the Apple TV, the LG and the receiver do the same.

I was very weary of buying a "smart" TV, but I wanted a 4K HDR one, and the public display market didn't seem interested in providing that.

Happily, the LG boots (or resumes, or whatever it does) very quickly and the only time I have to touch its remote control is if I've had the TV on for so long without using the remote that it thinks nobody's watching and turns itself off. I suppose there's a setting somewhere to change this, but it happens seldom enough that I haven't bothered.

[ashman5]

Thanks for this post. I'd like to add that the Vizio PQ65 works the same way when using an Apple TV. I refuse to update the firmware for fear that Vizio will force a change that will require an internet connection.

[m_eiman]

If you never connect it to the net, there’s never a need for an update - and no way for them to sneak one in behind your back. It’s a sad world we’ve built, isn’t it?

[nitrogen]

I have this problem as well (display staying on when there's no video signal) with an older PC monitor. I think it might be caused by the HDMI audio continuing to transmit while the video is blank. To test the hypothesis, try disabling your HDMI audio device driver temporarily and see if it fixes the problem (though then you don't have sound...). Of course, it could be something completely different...

[stoobs]

(including ads displayed over hdmi input)

What the hell?

[astrange]

I have one of those LG OLED TVs and everything about it is just fine. It's perfectly fast; the OS is based on Palm webOS, so it's okay, but you still don't have to touch it. They are regularly for sale at less than half retail price if you wait six months.

The only ergonomic problem is devices fighting each other over HDMI CEC; if I turn it on to use the Switch, then the Bluray player likes to turn itself on, force the TV to switch to it, and then start autoplaying a disc!

[Insanity]

Is that a setting? I think mine gives a popup to say it detected new input but does not switch automatically.

I _think_ so anyway because I almost never have 2 devices attached but seem to recall such a popup. Could be wrong :)

[neilv]

I managed to score a similar Sony TV on CraigsList a couple years ago. I plugged it into a DVD-1080p-upscaling Blu-ray player without WiFi. My local public library has a better catalog than Netflix, on disc, so I canceled Netflix. The TV chassis looks a little dated, but the picture and sound are great, and, on principle, I'm violated slightly less than before (by my own "tech" industry).

[eljimmy]

Up until recently I was using a 12 year old 46" Sony Bravia and upgraded to an LG OLED and I have to say, the difference in screen alone was well worth it.

[hn23]

Well, if you have Alexa in your home...what is the difference? Alexa and all these 'smart' gadgets call home. You have a microphone that is always ON. Recordings are stored and manually analyzed by subcontractors of Amazon. There is no fancy AI. Why shouldn't the $Agency use this channel as well?

[T3OU-736]

Panasonic, back in the plasma days, used to have a "professional" line. Those were plasma monitors (no built-in tuner, no sound processing at all), and it had modular inputs. There are 3 slots for I/O cards. Can still find the cards on ebay under the "Panasonic HDMI TV Boards" search results.

[jankiehodgpodge]

Sounds like a digital signage screen. I have a few Samsung digital signage displays from 10 years ago that still work perfectly. Amazing picture even by today's standards and very thin.