It’s similar to console hacking. If there is no known exploit, the device is not yours. LG patched the exploit that made that possible for my smart TV and know I need to wait for another to be doscovered. Unfortunately the Smart TV hacking community is not that active.

https://github.com/RootMyTV/RootMyTV.github.io

https://xdaforums.com/t/getmein-one-time-rooting-jailbreaking-tool-for-webos-lg-tvs.3887904/

I bet somebody’s done it. There are people in the Linux world who dedicate themselves to getting it to run on anything - a TV, a toaster…

But it would probably be a lot easier to just run Linux on a Raspberry Pi or something and use the TV as a monitor.

Why has no one mentioned Projectivy?

It’s a regular app, doesn’t require root (though it benefits from it). It’s free unless you want complicated parental controls (I pay for it but otherwise have no relation to it).

I have a Bravia TV, and with it I no longer have ads, I can change exactly what apps show up, including hiding Sony apps, and can totally customize the whole window.

Finding it was a huge relief for me, as there’s no point setting up parental controls for a small child when ads showing horror products show up anyway.

Hope that helps.

It should be a thing because most (all?) “smart TVs” run some variety of Linux, which, as Free Software, is supposed to guarantee the device owner’s right to modify the software running on the thing. However, in most (all?) cases, the practical ability to do that has been destroyed by subverting encryption functions against the owner in a process called Tivoization.

In other words:

1. No, it isn’t really a thing,
2. It’s wrong for it not to be a thing, and
3. You should be pissed off about it.