alt Hacker NewsRestoring 5 GHz Wi-Fi on an LG C5 by changing its webOS region
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I don't get it, why can't they just change the region in the settings?
I was able to on my LG. Nice TV, worst firmware ever. It had an issue with Wifi. It basically will not connect once or so a week. You needed to change, you guess it, the region. So I will keep changing from Germany to Spain to Ireland to Germany to Etc. I sent pictures, videos, emails, links to youtube videos to LG support, they wouldn't care, they would just deny it. In the end I bought a Fire TV Max and that was it. But what a horrible support experience LG never again.
Nice workaround. Feels pretty stupid that you have to do that. Sounds like they choose the easy way to comply with the regulations. They could probably just have blocked certain frequency ranges.
Although I'm still fully convinced that TVs just got worse for the consumer since they became "smart". My extended family had to replace perfectly good TVs three times because the new version of a streaming app did not work anymore.
Add stuff like running ads on an expensive TV, running spyware that sends screenshots even of your HDMI source back to the company (possibly exposing your passwords and everything), the continuous nagging about new versions and ToS (with dark patterns to accept sending voice data home), and I feel like the only sane option is to never ever give internet connection to these TVs. Use a separate device for streaming.
Since you have ssh access to webos, how is it to remove the telemetry, ads and other such? Is webos better than a generic TCL for such antics? The TCL can be rooted and is android based but I’m not up to date on current rom configurations, etc.
I have a LG TV, but I do not allow it to connect to a wifi network. I don't trust LG, and expect them to do something anti-consumer to my hardware at some point, or to spy on me.
This particular failure is a blessing in disguise.
If LG ever removes or restricts Developer Mode, I am selling my TV the same day.
Android had (has?) a similar issue with the hotspot feature where it will not turn on in a region where 5 GHz is more regulated than in the US but will also not give you any warning about it.
yea... LG policies are real shitty. I didn't have 5Ghz Wifi on my TV. why? cuz I'm in middle east!
lg used to be a great tv/monitor manufacturer. Even webOS was praised amongst users. Their OLED displays were top notch.
Then almost overnight. They have been making very awful decisions across all layers.
Just another case of enshittification or something else?
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It should probably be noted changing the regulatory region of an RF device may result in you using illegal frequencies in your area depending on the combination of which region you're in and which region you're setting it to.