LG Renews Pledge to Bring AirPlay 2 and HomeKit Support to Select 2018 TV Models

[MacRumors]

After LG disappointed swathes of customers by saying it had "no plans" to bring promised AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support to select 2018 TVs, the company has now renewed its pledge to do so by the end of the year.

Today's announcement was made by LG UK's official Twitter account, the very same account that last month told its customers that AirPlay 2 and HomeKit would not be coming to its pre-2019 TVs, despite previously giving customers assurances that they would do so this year.

The original tweet has since been deleted, and it's not clear whether this latest u-turn is the result of poor communication within the company or a reaction to the outpouring of negative customer comments that its earlier statement elicited. Either way, owners of 2018 LG smart TVs that have LCD models with "SK" or "UK" in the name or OLED models with "B8" through "Z8" in the name are likely to welcome the development.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1302899676576968706

AirPlay‌ 2 support will enable users of the above TV models to stream videos, music, podcasts, and more directly from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to their LG smart TV, with no Apple TV necessary. With ‌HomeKit‌ support, they will be able to control their TV's power, volume, source, and more using Siri or the Home app on ‌iPhone‌, ‌iPad‌, and Mac.

LG today also officially announced worldwide support for Apple's TV app on select LG 2018 OLED and Super UHD TVs, with support for UHD TV models to follow. The announcement follows scattered reports last month that the Apple TV app had begun showing up for some users.

Article Link: LG Renews Pledge to Bring AirPlay 2 and HomeKit Support to Select 2018 TV Models

 

[Madonepro]

Surely a win for Mac Rumors ?

 

[m11rphy]

I was one of the original signatures on the petition that was set up, it feels like this battle has been going on forever. I really hope LG stick to this, I have a C8 OLED and I would like to get the new GX OLED but I want to see LG follow through with their promise before I spend anymore money with LG

 

[farewelwilliams]

for now until they cancel it again.

 

[aliea13]

Hallelujah!

 

[richard779]

I will wait until I see it

 

[SaxPlayer]

I complained directly to LG about lack of support for AppleTV+ on older sets. I specifically mentioned 2017 as that’s the year of manufacture of my set. I’m hopeful 2017 sets will get the app at some point as they’re perfectly capable of running it. Airplay 2 support is unlikely but personally I’d settle for AppleTV+ support.

 

[newyorksole]

I just bought my first LG TV on Friday and am loving it. Just a tad over $200 and has AirPlay 2, 50” and UHD.

I should test out AirPlay today.

 

[4jasontv]

I was one of the original signatures on the petition that was set up, it feels like this battle has been going on forever. I really hope LG stick to this, I have a C8 OLED and I would like to get the new GX OLED but I want to see LG follow through with their promise before I spend anymore money with LG

At what point does it no longer matter for you?

I had an LG tv and it had verticals bars. LG took my TV for 7 weeks only to return it un-fixed claiming it was working as normal. Even the repair person who picked it up and saw it clearly had an issue.

Of course after that long I couldn’t return it. So for me, it doesn’t matter if LG offered to fix it because I would t buy another.

 

[Madonepro]

I complained directly to LG about lack of support for AppleTV+ on older sets. I specifically mentioned 2017 as that’s the year of manufacture of my set. I’m hopeful 2017 sets will get the app at some point as they’re perfectly capable of running it. Airplay 2 support is unlikely but personally I’d settle for AppleTV+ support.

What is Apple TV+ support? Don't you just plug it into hdmi?

 

[Nozuka]

What is Apple TV+ support? Don't you just plug it into hdmi?

You don't need an Apple TV anymore. It's an App directly on the TV, like netflix.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

I wish their monitors got that kind of attention. The ultrawide curved displays are wonderful to look at, but hamstrung by their software. Still waiting on automatic input switching that works, stable audio switching, & a 2-source Picture in Picture mode, 4 years later...

 

[innerpurpose1]

Other manufacturers such as TCL we’re promising AirPlay 2 support as well… No doubt their product managers teamed up with the finance department to push that out so they can sell more TVs. But the good folks at LG decided that their customers had already paid enough, so they’re letting the poor bastards have their cake.

 

[m11rphy]

At what point does it no longer matter for you?

I had an LG tv and it had verticals bars. LG took my TV for 7 weeks only to return it un-fixed claiming it was working as normal. Even the repair person who picked it up and saw it clearly had an issue.

Of course after that long I couldn’t return it. So for me, it doesn’t matter if LG offered to fix it because I would t buy another.

Its a good question, I have homebridge set up so I have full HomeKit control anyway so I guess its more about the principals. 1.Vizo did an update to their old sets and so quickly. 2. If apple can release updated OSs for all their products (some as cheap as the $200 Apple TV box) for a good 6 years then why cant LG offer the same support to a $3K for than 2 years?

When I get a new OLED TV LG only ticks the boxes of features I want, their lack of support is what worries me. the other options are all lacking something

Sony - Runs android and that doesn't sit right with me, no HDMI 2.1
Panasonic - No homekit, No NDMI 2.1
Philips - Android and no homekit , No HDMI 2.1

I wish Apple would just release a proper OLED TV I would happily pay a hefty Apple Premium (Tax)

 

[easy4lif]

My 2 cents...

Apple corporate got involved, prob threaten to stop all future contracts of lg panels for Mac and iOS. Said “Don’t end up like Nvidia” (blacklisted)

 

[Mr Fusion]

I've used AirPlay 2 on my 2019 LG OLED, and also AirPlay via the Apple TV 4K.

AirPlay thru the TV directly was terrible. 4K videos practically don't stream with extremely choppy audio & video, as if the processing power of the TV can't handle it. The AppleTV displayed the same videos smoothly.

I can't imagine the situation on older TV models would be any better.

 

[Anson_431]

Well on a positive note at least they sort of unfixed the poop they stirred up lol

 

[futbalguy]

I've used AirPlay 2 on my 2019 LG OLED, and also AirPlay via the Apple TV 4K.

AirPlay thru the TV directly was terrible. 4K videos practically don't stream with extremely choppy audio & video, as if the processing power of the TV can't handle it. The AppleTV displayed the same videos smoothly.

I can't imagine the situation on older TV models would be any better.

Yea people complain about their old TVs not being supported but sometimes it really is true that it doesn’t work well on old hardware. I have an lg c9 with airplay and the performance is ok but not as good at higher resolutions like you said.

 

[Infinite Vortex]

You don't need an Apple TV anymore. It's an App directly on the TV, like netflix.

Well, partially. There are still some big plusses to having an Apple TV box like being able to play content from a shared iTunes library (both audio and video) on a computer/NAS device. I can Airplay to it… not from it. The TV app will only play content from AppleTV+ and/or iTunes purchased content and the Apple Music app will only connect to Apple Music. So unless you're fully invested into the stream thing it's not the better option.

As my TV has a PLEX app I'm wondering if I should go down that road for my local library instead.

 

[EugW]

As mentioned before for the previous article, their previous statement of “no plans” was just non-committal corporate speak. Lots of companies, including Apple, talk like this before products or updates are actually available. Everyone, including MacRumors, made a mountain out of a molehill.

I’ll provide the example again where LG Canada said they had “no plans” to sell the 48” CX OLED in Canada, and then just a few weeks later the 48” CX OLED was available at Best Buy Canada.

 

[SaxPlayer]

What is Apple TV+ support? Don't you just plug it into hdmi?

Fair question, but to clarify I mean having the AppleTV+ app built in (as they do for Disney+, Netflix, BritBox, BBC iPlayer and many many other streaming services). I'm not referring to AppleTV hardware (note the plus symbol). I don't want to buy an AppleTV unit just for AppleTV+ when all the other streaming services I access are all built in to WebOS on my LG TV.

 

[Kevrani]

I'm glad they've relented. The fact LG were effectively only supporting current year models, was putting me off buying from them again. Here's hoping they follow through!

 

[Amazing Iceman]

In the meantime, Sony remains silent about their promise to bring AppleTV+ to their latest models. I hope they didn’t escape from the party.

 

[EugW]

I'm glad they've relented. The fact LG were effectively only supporting current year models, was putting me off buying from them again. Here's hoping they follow through!

No. The TVs in question are two years old, from 2018.

LG’s mistake here was announcing support for the 2018 models prematurely. If they had just kept their mouth shut, they could have avoided most of the bad press.

Basically it sounds like their technical group said internally they could make this work, and then their marketing group ran their collective mouth off before everything was solidly in place. Bad PR practice.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

I have an 2018 LG SK series TV, and it's great. Great with the Apple TV 4K, and plays PS4 games with very little latency.

I'll be honest though, I bought the TV not expecting to receive any form of post-purchase support. If this does happen, it's a nice thing, but won't be the end of the world for me if it doesn't happen.