LG and Samsung are making TV screens disappear

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall sentiment & use cases

  • Many see transparent TVs as visually striking but largely a gimmick for home use, similar to past 3D-TV and curved-screen fads.
  • Strong consensus that near-term value is in commercial/signage: shop windows, museums, theme parks, airports, subway/elevator windows, stage backdrops, heavy machinery cockpits, etc.
  • Some are excited about niche scenarios: bar counters or glass walls doubling as displays, teleprompter-style setups with a camera behind the screen, Zoom/desktop displays that allow better eye contact.

Home & architectural integration

  • Several people dislike the “black mirror” look of a powered‑off TV and would prefer something that visually disappears, but doubt transparency actually solves this: cable clutter, hidden boxes, and room layouts still revolve around screens.
  • Suggestions for simpler alternatives: TVs that mimic wall color, fabric covers, “art frame” TVs, or just better integration into cabinetry or walls.
  • Using them as windows is criticized: poor visibility in sunlight, privacy issues, awkward viewing angles, and loss of natural light unless paired with shades.

Technical & visual limitations

  • Key drawback: no true blacks; background always shows through unless you add a blackout layer (e.g., rolling black cloth or LCD shutter), largely defeating the point of transparency.
  • Concerns about performance in bright rooms and outdoors; emissive displays struggle to compete with sunlight, and projectors plus semi-transparent screens are seen as even more inefficient.
  • Discussion contrasts transparent OLED, MicroLED, and transparent LCD; transparent LCD needs backlights and inverts transparency/opacity behavior.

Ads, business models, and dystopian futures

  • Very strong concern that transparent windows + displays will be used to saturate public space with ads (subway windows, building glass, gas pumps, etc.), evoking cyberpunk/“Blade Runner” dystopia.
  • Some advocate ad bans or heavy taxation in public spaces; others note existing examples of cities regulating outdoor ads.
  • Broader frustration with “enshittified” smart TVs: intrusive home‑screen ads, auto‑playing content, tracking, and unreliable software.
  • Workarounds discussed: never connecting TVs to the internet, using external boxes (Apple TV, Shield, Roku alternatives), Pi‑hole/DNS blocking, or even replacing TV logic boards with generic scaler boards to get a “dumb” display.

Alternative display ideas

  • Interest in combining transparent emissive layers with e‑ink or e‑paper for dual‑mode displays.
  • Some see more promise in AR/VR and automotive HUD applications, where see‑through displays can overlay information without fully replacing the outside view.