Enlarge / A marketing image for Vizio's P-series Q9 TV. (credit: Vizio )

Vizio has agreed to pay $3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the company misled customers about the refresh rates of its TVs.

In 2018, a lawsuit [ PDF ], which was later certified as a class action, was filed against Vizio for advertising its 60 Hz and 120 Hz LCD TVs as having an "effective" refresh rate of 120 Hz and 240 Hz, respectively. Vizio was referring to the backlight scanning (or black frame insertion) ability, which it claimed made the TVs look like they were operating at a refresh rate that was twice as fast as they are capable of. Vizio's claims failed to address the drawbacks that can come from backlight scanning, which include less brightness and the potential for noticeable flickering. The lawsuit complained about Vizio's language in marketing materials and user manuals.

The lawsuit read:

Enlarge / A closeup of the webcam on the Displace TV announced in January. (credit: Dislace)

It's no secret that TV makers are seriously invested in pushing ads. Using TVs for advertising goes back to 1941 , when the first TV commercial aired. But as we trudge our way through the 21st century, TV vendors are becoming more involved in ensuring that their hardware is used to sell stuff and add to their own recurring revenue.

This has taken various forms, but in some cases we're seeing increasingly invasive strategies for turning TVs into a primary place for shopping. The latest approach catching attention comes from startup Displace. Its upcoming TVs will use integrated webcams and NFC payment readers to make it easy for people to buy stuff they see on TV.

Displace hasn't officially released a product yet, so skepticism about the TVs it says it will demo at CES 2024 in Las Vegas next month, as spotted by sites like Wifi Hifi , is warranted. (Displace said it would have images of the newly announced TVs to share next year). The startup is specializing in wireless TVs with hot-swappable batteries that can vacuum suction-mount to a wall and zip-line slowly off said wall when sensing an unstable connection or low battery. The original "Displace TV" that Displace announced in January is supposed to ship in mid-2024. Displace has been taking preorders for those.

Enlarge / A non-Amazon TV displaying a fire. (credit: Getty )

People who buy a Fire TV from Amazon are probably looking for a cheap and simple way to get an affordable 4K smart TV. When Amazon announced its first self-branded TVs in September 2021, it touted them as being a "great value." But owners of the devices will soon be paying for some of those savings in the form of more prominently displayed advertisements.

Charlotte Maines, Amazon's director of Fire TV advertising, monetization, and engagement, detailed the new types of ads that Amazon is selling on Fire TVs. In a StreamTV Insider report from November 1, Amazon said the new ads will allow advertisers to reach an average of 155 million unique monthly viewers.

Some of the changes targeting advertisers, like connecting display placement ads with specific in-stream video ads, seem harmless enough. Others could jeopardize the TV-watching experience for owners.

Enlarge / Sony announced the A95K QD-OLED TV in early 2022. (credit: Sony )

Image retention is scary to see on your OLED TV but often easy to eliminate. Many modern OLED TVs subtly work their own magic when you're not watching in order to remove the problem, as RTINGS demonstrated in a video released Friday. However, TV vendors aren't all doing perfect jobs at implementing OLED screens' compensation cycles.

Temporary image retention differs from permanent image retention, aka burn-in, in that it points to a change in the panel's thin-film transistor (TFT) layer, rather than degradation of the OLED layer. Untreated permanent image retention doesn't lead to burn-in, a Sony spokesperson confirmed to me, but anyone looking at a screen suffering from image persistence will want to eradicate the sticky images, fast.

These temporary artifacts can be the result of heat affecting the amount of light emitted by the OLED pixels and can happen within minutes of usage. But letting the TV cool down by turning it off usually fixes this.

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  The Displace TV has started cascading itself down its zip line.

Wall-mounting a big-screen TV can be stressful. You typically need to bore holes in your wall, making precise measurements and location selection critical. And when it comes to stability, you either have to bet on your own skills or have a handier person enter your home (and, possibly, pay them). The upcoming Displace TV seeks to address these concerns with a nail-less, hole-less mounting system that allows the 55-inch screen to zip line down to foam-padded safety if mount security is jeopardized.

Displace, a startup founded in 2022, announced the Displace TV at the CES 2023 trade show in January. The TV is 4K OLED and wireless, meaning it has no power cord or ports. Similar to LG's OLED M TVs , it gets its content from what Displace calls a "base control unit" computer placed near the television.

Displace is still finalizing the design of its TV's integrated and removable battery packs. (credit: Displace)

This week, Displace demoed new "safety features" for the TV made in response to concerns about the device's proprietary "active-loop vacuum technology." The vacuum tech is supposed to securely adhere the TV to painted, ceramic, or glass walls without holes, nails, or other tools. But it relies on TV battery power.

Enlarge / Robust home theater audio can intensify a scary movie moment. (credit: Getty )

Dolby Laboratories today announced Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, a feature with the potential to add flexibility and simplicity to home theater audio setups. The company says FlexConnect allows supporting TVs to optimize Dolby Atmos audio output among the TV's speakers and paired wireless speakers. Currently, Dolby is only announcing the feature with upcoming TCL TVs, but it could expand elsewhere.

FlexConnect, which will work with Atmos, 5.1, and stereo sound, is about adapting to people's audio setups, with considerations for things like speaker count and placement. The upcoming feature aims to bolster Atmos audio in situations where speaker placement is limited due to obstacles like room size, furniture, or outlet locations.

According to Dolby, FlexConnect will mean users can hear the same experience regardless of where they're sitting in the room, and that audio is tweaked based on each speaker's location and capabilities.

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  You can't tell from this picture, but both the TV and port box on the table need to be plugged in somewhere. [credit: LG ]

Messy cables have haunted TVs for ages. Gaming consoles, sound systems, cable boxes, disc players, and even antennas can all contribute to a cluttered room. But what if all those cables weren't connected to the TV but instead to a separate box far away from the screen?

That's the idea behind the series of TVs that LG listed today. Available in 97-, 83-, and 77-inch panel sizes, the new OLED M-series TVs don't have any ports on the actual TV. They each come with a so-called Zero Connect Box for wirelessly sending information between the ports and the TV from up to 30 feet away.

The TV and the Zero Connect Box both need to be plugged in, though, so this isn't really a "wireless" solution, even though LG is marketing the line as the " first wireless OLED TV ."

Enlarge (credit: Samsung )

After years of resisting the move from LCD to OLED and reportedly going back and forth with LG Display about a potential OLED panel deal, Samsung Electronics has finally decided to buy OLED TV panels from its rival , Reuters reported today, citing three anonymous sources.

LG Display and Samsung have reportedly been doing this dance for years. In 2021, the South Korean firms were reportedly nearing a deal that would see Samsung revive its OLED TV business. But by 2021, a Samsung official was purportedly saying that Samsung's quantum-dot based LED ( QLED ) TVs "have better picture quality than OLED TVs, " and, come 2022, reports claimed that said deal was no longer in the works due to price concerns.

Reuters' report today said LG Display and Samsung have finally agreed on a "high-end TV panels" deal. It cited people it said didn't want to be named as the deal isn't public and said LG Display and Samsung wouldn't comment.

Enlarge / The free Telly 4K TV has a second screen for showing ads. (credit: Telly )

What would you be willing to do for a free TV? If the answer is hand over information about what you watch, search for, and listen to on that TV and for how long, how much money your household makes, what food and brands you like, and your race and be subject to on-screen ads at any time, then Telly's got the deal for you.

The Telly TV announced today (and rumored to be en route since earlier this month) is a 55-inch 4K HDR TV with a five-driver soundbar connecting a second screen called the Smart Screen. The smaller Smart Screen is dedicated to showing ads and can also show relevant content, like news feeds from selected publications, weather, or scores from favorite sports teams. The TV has three HDMI and two USB ports (versions not specified) and a TV tuner and comes with a 4K Android TV streaming stick (you can use your own streaming device or service, but Telly doesn't come with support for third-party streaming apps, such as Hulu, The Verge reports).

Specs-wise, that's nearly all we know about Telly so far because the main thing the company, founded by free TV-streaming service Pluto co-founder Ilya Pozin in May 2021, wants you to focus on is shoppers' favorite four-letter word: free.