Major TV manufacturers use marketing labels in product descriptions to exaggerate the refresh rate of their TVs.
Samsung Motion Rate, Sony MotionFlow XR, LG TruMotion and TCL Clear Motion Index are not accurate numbers indicating the actual refresh rate. Fortunately, more often than not, these designations are just double the real value, so it is easy to convert.
The table below shows how the marketing designations and the actual refresh rates of major brand TVs differ.
Fake refresh rates tend to be higher than real ones, so using them allows manufacturers to sell their TVs as “better” than they really are. Because these fictitious values are different for each company, they also differ from each other. Because of this, it is impossible to directly compare TVs from different brands, especially for people who do not know how to figure out the real refresh rate (which is usually not listed anywhere).
Samsung Motion Rate
Samsung’s Motion Rate (formerly Clear Motion Rate) is easy to recalculate. For the rare 1080p Samsung TVs that are still on the market, Motion Rate will be equivalent to the actual refresh rate. For 4k TVs, it is simply twice the refresh rate of the screen.
Sony Motionflow XR and X-Motion Clarity
Sony are arguably some of the most audacious offenders in overstating their numbers. Next to their marketing names, they list refresh rate numbers. These numbers do not really mean anything either (either 240 or 960 are common). Unlike most other manufacturers, you can’t translate them so easily into real values, but generally 240 means 60 Hz and anything higher means 120 Hz. Starting with the 2018 X900F, Sony has also started advertising some high-end LED models with X-Motion Clarity instead of Motionflow XR. All TVs with X-Motion Clarity have a 120 Hz refresh rate.
LG TruMotion
LG, like other manufacturers, came up with their own marketing term for refresh rate. It is TruMotion. Its value is the same as their motion interpolation function (known as the “soap opera effect”). The numbers are easy to translate, as it is simply a doubling of the real refresh rate. In some countries, it founds with the letters “TM” in front of the value. For example, a 120 Hz refresh rate lists as “TM240”. LG recently started listing the actual refresh rate of their TVs in brackets next to the TruMotion value, which does them credit. LG’s OLED TVs are a bit different in this regard, and they do not use the marketing term TruMotion – instead, they just indicate their actual refresh rate.
TCL Clear Motion Index
TCL followed the other manufacturers in introducing their marketing term as well. Fortunately, the manufacturer simply doubles down on the actual refresh rate. Some smaller diagonal models do not use the name and just show the actual refresh rate. Since all TCL TVs currently available have 60 Hz displays anyway, it does not really matter what marketing terms they use.
Conclusion
In the uphill battle for their market share, manufacturers are trying to find creative ways to present existing technology in an original way. Artificially inflated refresh rates are just one way that marketers use them. Fortunately, most manufacturers are becoming more and more transparent in this regard, so it is not so difficult for the consumer to decipher their terms and know what they are really buying.