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 can root the firmware to make it go brighter. (Though this is screen works well in medium or dimly lit rooms. It does not shine in very bright rooms).
Plenty of YouTube videos singing the C series praises as a TV / Monitor.[1] LG webOS is also trivial/friendly to root in developer mode and network control of the tv is a nice to have.
Would avoid Samsung. I love the matte on the Frame and the design of the Serif but the OS is frustrating / impractical to root.
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 :/.
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.
> same hardware as the higher end models but needs a firmware bit flip
I have a C1, and I got the technician's remote to try this. But it didn't work in my case - it seems that only some of them use the same hardware, probably based on supply chain needs. Still though, amazing screen. Takes a bit messing around with picture settings (there's some good guides online) but I've never found the "TV" parts to get in the way, just connected it via HDMI, put it in PC mode, disable wifi, and it's good to go. I guess I've been using it around 4 years now.
The only serious issue is the shininess of the screen. It's not terrible but I did have to rearrange my office a bit to make sure it wasn't facing a window.
I second this simply because LG is the least evil of all smart TV manufacturers _and_ has the best panels and (usually) connectivity.
I think LG made the 5K iMac panels.
Less evil than Sony? I have an LG TV. I can't recommend it purely because they have the audacity to omit a play/pause button from the remote control. Pausing requires pressing the "centre" button one, two or three times depending on which app you are in. Pure insanity.
WebOS is trash too.
Probably going to buy a Sony next time.
What's more devastating is that the CX and C1 actually had pause buttons, then they took them away around 2021/2022. It kills me that they have a dedicated button for Alexa and another for Sling (whatever that is) but none for pause.
You can disable most of the WebOS trashiness by Googling and digging through the settings. Once you get all the ads fully disabled, the OS is extremely clean and snappy.
And FYI Sony's OLED panels are made by LG. The Sonys are a bit better because of the software, but they're almost always more expensive, but if you can score a good deal they're definitely the way to go.
At least on the cx (I don’t see a point in upgrading for years) if you root webos you can redefine buttons on the remote. It’s great because I was getting infuriated by accidentally starting streaming apps that I never use and the cell phone apps as a remote alternative are utter trash from a usability standpoint.
I just can’t understand why there is a need for a remote app to do anything besides start to a tv remote. Well, I can, the poison apple of advertising as an additional revenue stream, but it’s still infuriating. I have an older Roku TV and that app has progressively gotten worse. it used to just be ideal, start, auto connect to the last connected tv, and immediately go to the remote. Now it’s a bunch of promotional content by default and you have to tab over to the remote. LGs is far more obnoxious and difficult to navigate. Absolutely inexcusable for displays that can cost $2500+
I've owned Sony, Samsung, LG, TCL, Pioneer, Toshiba, Sharp, Amazon, and a variety of other flat panels over the years. I actually love the simplicity of the LG remote with the center button for play/pause. I don't need it to glow in the dark. I don't need to turn on my phone to find the button. I know exactly what button to press. Happy C1 owner over here since 2022. Still can't believe the quality of the image.
Same, bought an LG TV and remote is straight up disaster. I have huge hands, huge thumb etc, pressing on the center button means I get to press the other up, down, left, right buttons.
And don't even get me started with creating an LG account just to get anything working on the TV like downloading a system update.
I bought the Samsung Frame TV and I love it, but you're correct about Samsung's OS (it's sluggish, filled with ADs and by far the worst TV OS that I've used so far)
Contrary experience from me: i hate my samsung frame, especially because of the ads. And more especially because of that samsung tv channel which autostarts. And I hate it even more because these ads change the menu in such a way that you cannot navigate it blindly because it inserts itself as a button mid way in the menu bar. You cannot disable or disable those things easily. Built in airplay is unstable.
Bought and connected an apple tv, always switch on the tv with that. Most problems solved.
I have considered doing the same, but I decided to stick with the default since I love the Art Mode. I also bought it primarily as decoration, so it serves its purpose just fine. (I wouldn't buy it as primary TV however, because of the previously mentioned OS annoyances)
If you disable internet access for the device at the router level, the ads, the autostarting tv, etc all go away.
I got my Frame with the house we bought. I never put it on my network. It's irritating that it powers-on many times to the wall art display function versus just being a TV. I definitely wouldn't have bought it standalone.
>It's irritating that it powers-on many times to the wall art display function versus just being a TV.
I personally love the Art Mode, but while browsing the service menu I've noticed that you can permanently disable it. You can make the secret menu appear by pressing some special combination or by pressing 2 buttons on the service remote[0].
[0] https://www.amazon.com/AA81-00243A-Replaced-Service-Control-...
Agree. I have two recent Samsung smart tvs. The screen quality I like (OLED) but everything else about them I hate. I use a PS5 as an entry point for the tv, after the atrocious “tv boot up to functional time” which is a phrase I never considered having to say 20 years ago.
Ads? I thought HN crowd already know how to use a pihole or at least adguard dns. I got Samsung TV's in every room because they are easy to use with a Galaxy phone, using it as a remote and a keyboard. Also wireless DEX is soooo underrated. Want a specific app on tv? no problem. I'm basically using them as displays for my phone.
I've set up a Proton VPN wireguard connection for my TV with Tracker+Ad block on my router. I'm still somehow getting served ads, despite the VPN working properly. Maybe there's a bug in my router config. I will review it later.
(In Proton's Wireguard Configuration Wizard, I've selected "Block malware, ads, & trackers" - see: https://protonvpn.com/support/netshield)
My smart TV is used as a dumb TV and not connected to the internet because I cannot trust it to work in my interests...
++ 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.
all the methods to root have been patched in the latest webos version :(
Even the USB key .mp3 homebrew?
https://cani.rootmy.tv/?q=OLED42C2PUA at least here the one listed method for webOS 24 is patched.
What is the method you mention? A top google result seems to be [1], which says
> All release versions of webOS 9 ("webOS 24") are patched. This means 2024 models and older TVs that have been upgraded to webOS 9 will require another exploit such as faultmanager-autoroot [2].
and [2] says
> As of 2025-08-24, the latest firmware for essentially all LG models running webOS 5, 6, 7, and 9 is patched.
[1] https://github.com/throwaway96/dejavuln-autoroot
[2] https://github.com/throwaway96/faultmanager-autoroot
> same hardware as the higher end models but needs a firmware bit flip
Is this firmware bit flip known? couldn't find anything off google.
https://cani.rootmy.tv/
This is incredible. I had no idea that there is a Homebrew channel!
I have one of them (don't remember which number) and OLED part is very nice. I haven't done anything with the TV itself, but I forked an old library (https://github.com/iguessthislldo/libLGTV_serial) to control it remotely through serial and Home Assistant without connecting it to my WiFi. I originally set this up for a much older 1080p LG TV, and was able to use it with a newer one with a few modifications.
edit: Apparently I specially have C3PUA according to the model data I added. Also if anyone is interested in this, I can update the README because I didn't change it after I forked it.
I really wish there were alternatives for the millions of us out there who love the Frame concept but hate the Samsung OS.
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.
I have CX, works without issues here. I'm watching raw .mkv and .mp4 files with DV, HDR and Atmos.
I was looking for a 40-43in 4K TV for PC monitor use, considered the LG C series, but it wouldn't work in my bright room.
I went with Samsung QN90C instead and I'm super happy with it. It's very bright, fights glare well, and there's Jellyfin for it.
Thanks that's great to know! I've got one to tinker with.
I have a C2 OLED and it is a really nice TV. I've never connected it to the internet or tried to root it though. It behaves as a simple no-frills display.
How much pause should oled burn in give you though? Both from the buying used perspective and using as a secondary monitor where there might be fixed ui elements?