If you have an LG TV at home, you could be in luck. The electronics giant has just announced that several of its older telly models are getting huge free software upgrades that the company claims makes them “feel brand new”.
Eligible LG smart TVs that run on webOS software will get a big overhaul including a redesigned Home Screen designed to show you things to watch based on your viewing habits and tastes – similar to the recommendations we’re all used to seeing on the home pages of streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+.
LG says every model in its 2022 OLED TV lineup will receive this free software update, as well as the LG OLED Flex, LG OLED Objet Collection Posé, and the LG 2022 QNED Mini LED 8K (QNED99/95 series). According to a report, LG sold 2.74 million OLED TVs in the first half of 2022.
If you have one of these models, you’ll soon also be able to customise your TV to show specific content and services from your favourite apps, including BBC iPlayer and ITVX.
It sounds similar to Roku’s new What to Watch feature for its TVs and streaming sticks that aims to only recommend you shows and movies that you can actually watch. A bugbear on some TV services, such as Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video, is they sometimes recommend you content, only for you to click and discover you don’t currently pay for the service it is is on, or that it is only available to buy for an additional cost.
This can be frustrating when we’re all so used to hitting play on anything on Netflix because we pay the monthly fee without thinking. LG’s updates seem to acknowledge this, and also aim to split content into categories such as music, games, and sport, to help you filter the barrage of things available to you.
“Powering more than 200 million LG Smart TVs worldwide, webOS will continue to evolve through significant upgrades to constantly revolutionise the customer experience,” LG said.
The updates are part of the webOS Re:New program that aims to keep smart TVs fresh and up to date, mirroring how smartphones receive new features over the course of their lifespan. LG said it expects these TV models, which all run webOS software, to get updates for the next five years.
This is a big improvement on the general smart TV market where it’s not unusual for tellies to only ever run on the exact software version they came with in the box. The idea of a smart TV is great, as all your streaming apps are built in without the need for a separate streaming device such as an Amazon Fire TV Stick, but in reality, the software can often date incredibly quickly – especially when we are used to new software update perks on our smartphones and apps.
LG also claims these latest updates improve security of the TVs to keep the latest online threats at bay.
