When I set up my new LG C5 TV last year, I was mesmerized not only by its design but also by its feature set. Seeing just how thin the TV was and how good the picture looked made me think about how far TVs have come over the past two decades. New panel technologies like OLED, Mini-LED, and RGB have made TV pictures look better than ever, while smart capabilities have introduced so many features that I frankly couldn’t have imagined using on a TV 20 years ago.
However, while LG smart TVs come loaded with all sorts of features designed to make your everyday viewing experience better, not all of them actually do. In fact, some of your LG TV’s features can make your viewing experience much worse. Motion smoothing is a perfect example. It’s enabled by default on LG TVs, as well as most other smart TVs, and makes movies and TV shows look like soap operas unless you turn it off.
Over the past year, I’ve experimented with all sorts of features on my LG TV and discovered several that are worth turning off to improve the everyday experience. Best of all, you don’t have to spend a dime to make these changes and upgrade your TV. All it takes is a little time exploring your LG TV’s settings menu, and you’ll be left with a much better TV on the other side.
Your LG TV doesn’t have to look like an ad billboard
The first thing that really bothered me about my LG TV when I started using it was all the ads and recommendations cluttering up the home screen. To be fair, this isn’t just an LG TV problem. It’s something you’ll find on pretty much every smart TV nowadays, as TV makers keep shoving more ads onto their home screens to bring in extra advertising revenue.
Unlike many other smart TVs, however, LG TVs let you turn off these home screen ads. That way, when you turn on your TV, its home screen won’t look like an ad billboard anymore, and instead actually be useful. Here’s how:
1. Open the Settings menu on your LG TV by long-pressing the settings button on your remote (the gear icon).
2. Navigate to General > System > Additional Settings > Home Settings.
3. Turn off Home Promotion.
4. Turn off Content Recommendation.
With both turned off, all the ads that were once on your LG TV’s home screen will instantly disappear. Additionally, if you want to go a step further, you can also turn off screensaver ads that automatically appear when your TV goes idle by going to Settings > General > System > Additional Settings > Screen Saver Settings and turning off Screen Saver Promotion.
Turn off Energy Saving Step
Make your TV brighter in an instant
Even almost a year after getting my LG C5 TV, I’m still impressed by its OLED display and just how vivid it looks, whether I’m streaming, playing games, or watching 4K Blu-rays. However, when I first started using the TV, something seemed off about its brightness. That’s when I discovered the Energy Saving Step feature and its Auto Power Save picture mode.
By default, LG TVs come with energy-saving features enabled that reduce your TV’s brightness to conserve power. If you’re looking to reduce your TV’s energy consumption and save a few bucks on your electricity bill, these features can certainly come in handy. But if you’ve spent a lot of money on your LG TV and want to get the best picture quality possible, I think it’s worth turning them off to get the most out of your TV’s brightness.
The first energy-saving feature is the easiest to disable: Auto Power Save. To turn it off, simply switch to a different picture mode, such as Standard, Cinema, or Vivid, and you’ll immediately notice an improvement in brightness.
The next setting, Energy Saving Step, uses a built-in sensor to detect how much light is in your room and dynamically adjust your TV’s brightness accordingly. However, I always found that even when my room was dark, the TV never got as bright as I wanted it to. So, I decided to turn this feature off entirely to get the brightness I wanted. Here’s how:
1. Open the Settings menu on your LG TV.
2. Go to General > Energy Saving > Energy Saving Step.
3. Select Off.
Quiz
LG Smart TVs
Trivia Challenge
From OLED breakthroughs to webOS wizardry — how well do you really know LG’s television legacy?
webOSOLEDHistoryFeaturesTechnology
In what year did LG Electronics first launch its Smart TV platform under the ‘LG Smart TV’ branding?
Correct! LG officially launched its Smart TV lineup in 2011, bringing internet connectivity and app access to its televisions. This was part of a broader industry push to turn TVs into connected entertainment hubs.
Not quite — LG introduced its Smart TV platform in 2011. While connected TV concepts existed earlier, 2011 was the year LG formalized and branded the experience, coinciding with a wave of smart TV launches across the industry.
LG acquired the webOS operating system from which company to power its Smart TVs?
Correct! LG acquired webOS from HP in 2013, which had originally obtained it through its purchase of Palm in 2010. LG repurposed the mobile OS into a smart TV platform, debuting it on TVs at CES 2014.
The correct answer is HP, which inherited webOS through its 2010 acquisition of Palm. LG bought the platform from HP in 2013 and transformed it from a struggling mobile OS into the backbone of its Smart TV ecosystem.
LG became the first company to mass-produce large-screen OLED TVs for consumers. What screen size did their landmark 2013 model feature?
Correct! LG’s groundbreaking 55-inch OLED TV, the 55EM9600, made history as the first commercially available large-screen OLED television. Despite its eye-watering price tag of around $15,000, it marked a turning point for display technology.
The correct size was 55 inches — LG’s 55EM9600 launched as the world’s first mass-produced large-screen OLED TV. It was an engineering marvel at the time, though its steep price kept it out of most living rooms initially.
What is the name of LG’s AI-powered voice assistant integrated into its Smart TVs?
Correct! LG’s AI platform is called ThinQ AI, which powers voice commands, smart home integration, and personalized content recommendations across LG’s Smart TV lineup. LG TVs also support third-party assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
The answer is ThinQ AI — LG’s proprietary artificial intelligence platform that underpins voice control and smart home features on its TVs. ThinQ also connects LG’s broader ecosystem of home appliances under one unified AI umbrella.
LG’s QNED TV technology combines quantum dot filters with which other display enhancement technology?
Correct! LG’s QNED technology combines quantum dot and NanoCell filter layers with a Mini LED backlight system, allowing for more precise local dimming zones and improved contrast compared to traditional LED LCD sets.
The right answer is Mini LED backlighting. LG’s QNED TVs layer quantum dot and NanoCell technologies on top of a Mini LED backlight, creating a panel that punches above its weight in contrast and color accuracy compared to standard LCD displays.
Which unique hardware accessory, shaped like a magic wand, does LG provide to navigate webOS on its Smart TVs?
Correct! The Magic Remote is LG’s iconic gyroscopic remote control that lets users point and click on screen like a mouse. It also supports voice commands and scroll wheel input, making webOS navigation feel fluid and intuitive.
It’s called the Magic Remote — LG’s signature motion-sensing remote that uses a gyroscope to let users point at the screen and select items like a cursor. It’s been a hallmark of the LG Smart TV experience for over a decade.
Before the LG name existed, the company was formed from the merger of two South Korean firms. Which two companies merged to create LG?
Correct! LG stands for Lucky Goldstar — the result of a merger between Lucky (a chemicals company) and Goldstar (an electronics firm). The company rebranded to LG in 1995 as part of its push to become a globally recognized consumer electronics brand.
The answer is Lucky and Goldstar. LG is literally an abbreviation of those two company names, and the brand adopted its current identity in 1995. Goldstar was already known for producing televisions before the rebrand elevated LG to global prominence.
LG’s G-series OLED TVs use a special panel mounting design that places the TV flush against a wall with virtually no gap. What is this feature called?
Correct! LG’s Zero Gap Wall Mount system allows the G-series OLED Evo TVs to sit just millimeters from the wall, giving them an art-gallery aesthetic when mounted. The design eliminates unsightly gaps and cable clutter for a sleek, built-in look.
The correct term is Zero Gap Wall Mount, exclusive to LG’s G-series OLED lineup. The innovative mount lets the TV sit almost perfectly flush against the wall, mimicking the look of a framed painting — a concept LG calls its Gallery series design philosophy.
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Turn off the LG logo and No Signal Image
This makes turning off your TV much faster
Every time you turn off your LG TV, you’ve probably noticed that it doesn’t power off immediately. Instead, it displays the LG logo for a few seconds before finally shutting down. However, there’s a way to change this so that your TV turns off immediately without flashing the LG logo every time. Personally, I prefer this, as I’d rather my TV just turn off when I press the power button than display the LG logo and then do it. You can also make the no-signal screen a lot cleaner, so instead of constantly changing colors, it displays a simple black-and-white screen.
To make both of these changes, you’ll actually need to open a hidden settings menu on your LG TV. Here’s how to find it:
1. On your LG TV remote, press the Settings button (the gear icon) three times in a row.
2. You’ll see a new settings menu appear on the right side of your screen, titled “Select menu option.”
3. Scroll down and turn off Show Logo when turning off the TV.
4. Turn off No Signal Image.
Now, when you press the power button on your LG TV remote, the TV will immediately power off instead of flashing the LG logo first. Additionally, with No Signal Image turned off, you’ll notice that when you’re on an HDMI input with no signal, the screen will simply display white text reading “No Signal” against a black background rather than cycling through bright colors.
These two settings aren’t quite as dramatic as disabling energy-saving features or getting rid of home screen ads, but I’m glad I turned them off. My LG TV now shuts down much faster, and the No Signal screen doesn’t blind me at night anymore.
Turn off Wi-Fi
Depending on your circumstances, you might not need Wi-Fi
One of the best changes I’ve made to my LG TV lately is simply turning off its Wi-Fi. There’s been a lot of discussion recently about LG TVs and privacy concerns after Gamers Nexus investigated and accused LG of invasive tracking and data collection on its TVs. LG denied these allegations, but the investigation got me thinking about whether my TV really needs to be connected to Wi-Fi all the time. The simple answer is no.
Turning off Wi-Fi is an easy way to cut off internet-dependent ads, tracking, and background processes on your TV with the flip of a switch. And if you’re like me and no longer use your TV’s built-in streaming apps, instead relying on an external streaming device like a Fire TV Stick or Roku, there’s really no reason to keep it connected to Wi-Fi. Your streaming device takes care of everything. To turn off Wi-Fi on your LG TV, all you have to do is go to Settings > General > Network.
That said, if you rely on your TV’s built-in streaming apps, turning off Wi-Fi obviously isn’t the best option. You’re better off disabling features like home screen ads and ACR individually instead. But if you don’t actually need your TV connected to the internet, turning off Wi-Fi is the way go.
One thing I do recommend, however, is turning Wi-Fi back on occasionally, so your TV can check for and install any available software updates that can help fix bugs, keep features up to date, and improve performance.
Honorable mention: Turn off ACR
If you plan to keep your LG TV connected to Wi-Fi and want to severely limit its data-tracking abilities, turning off ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) is the best thing you can do. LG calls its version of ACR “Live Plus,” and you can turn it off by going to Settings > General > System > Additional Settings and toggling it off.
