Shopify TV schema for AI agents: "QLED" is not OLED, "Motion Rate 240" is not 240Hz, and one HDMI 2.1 port is not four

The naming crisis: five panel types, two similar-sounding names

Television retail has a naming problem that predates AI shopping agents but is uniquely damaging to them. Samsung introduced "QLED" in 2017 as a marketing name for their quantum dot LCD televisions. LG and Sony had been selling OLED TVs since 2013. The two names share four of five letters, sound nearly identical when spoken, and describe fundamentally opposite display technologies.

OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) TVs have self-emissive pixels. Each pixel generates its own light and can switch off completely — producing true black (infinite contrast ratio). The organic layer degrades over time, creating burn-in risk from static content. QLED TVs from Samsung use a standard LED-backlit LCD panel with a quantum dot color filter between the backlight and the LCD layer. The backlight cannot be fully turned off — it uses local dimming zones to approximate black. No burn-in risk, but no true black either.

A third panel type compounds the confusion: QD-OLED (used in the Samsung S90C/S95D and Sony A95L). QD-OLED combines an OLED emitter layer producing blue light with a quantum dot color conversion layer. It achieves OLED's true-black capability with significantly higher peak brightness than standard WRGB OLED. Samsung makes both QLED (LCD) and QD-OLED panels — the same brand, opposite base technologies, sharing the "Q" prefix.

An AI agent tasked with recommending "the best QLED TV for a dark room" and "the best OLED TV for a dark room" will produce nearly identical results if panel_type is not encoded as a controlled vocabulary field. The product title string "QLED" is ambiguous — it could be Samsung's LCD QLED or it could be misapplied to QD-OLED. Only explicit panel_type encoding resolves this.

Five panel types — controlled vocabulary

Note that Samsung's "Neo QLED" lineup (QN90C, QN95C, QN900C, QN950D) is mini-LED LCD — not standard QLED and not OLED. The "Neo" prefix indicates mini-LED backlighting with thousands of local dimming zones. These should be encoded as panel_type: 'mini-LED LCD', not 'QLED (quantum dot LCD)'. The marketing distinction matters to Samsung; the technology distinction matters to AI agents.

The motion name decoder: "Motion Rate 240" = 120Hz native panel

Every major TV manufacturer uses a proprietary marketing name for their motion processing technology. Every single one of these names applies a multiplier to the native panel refresh rate. None of them represent the actual panel scan rate, the maximum content frame rate the TV accepts, or the Hz displayed on screen during gameplay.

The result: "Motion Rate 240" (Samsung), "TruMotion 240" (LG), and "MotionFlow XR 960" (Sony) all describe 120Hz native panels. A buyer searching for a TV for PS5 4K/120fps gaming who sees "Motion Rate 240" might reasonably assume the TV supports 240fps content. It does not. The PS5 can output at most 4K/120fps, and it requires a TV with a 120Hz native panel and at least one HDMI 2.1 port. "Motion Rate 240" confirms the panel is 120Hz native — but the number itself conveys nothing about the actual content frame rate ceiling.

Manufacturer motion name decoder

Two fields are required to encode this correctly: native_refresh_hz as an integer (60 or 120 — or 144 for the 2024 LG G4 OLED's HDMI 2.1 144Hz mode) and manufacturer_motion_name as the exact marketing string from the manufacturer spec sheet. An AI agent filtering TVs for "PS5 4K/120fps gaming" must filter on native_refresh_hz = 120 — not on the manufacturer motion name string. The manufacturer motion name is useful for display purposes but cannot be parsed reliably for gaming compatibility queries.

The HDMI 2.1 port count trap: one port vs four

HDMI 2.1 enables 4K/120Hz with HDR, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate), and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) simultaneously. HDMI 2.0 is capped at 18Gbps — it cannot carry 4K/120Hz with HDR overhead. For multi-device gaming setups (PS5 + Xbox Series X + gaming PC), the number of HDMI 2.1 ports on a TV determines whether the buyer needs an HDMI 2.1 switch or not.

Here is the problem: nearly every TV is marketed as "HDMI 2.1" when it has at least one HDMI 2.1 port. But "HDMI 2.1" in the product title tells a buyer nothing about how many ports are HDMI 2.1 — and the difference between models is substantial.

HDMI 2.1 port count by model (2023–2024)

Encode hdmi_21_port_count as an integer (0, 1, 2, 3, or 4). Encode hdmi_20_port_count as an integer. Encode hdmi_21_ports_note as a descriptive string specifying which physical port numbers are HDMI 2.1 (e.g., "Ports 3 and 4 are HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps). Ports 1 and 2 are HDMI 2.0 (18Gbps). Port 2 is eARC."). A buyer setting up multiple 4K/120Hz devices needs to know which port numbers to use, not just a total count.

VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode) are also HDMI 2.1 features worth encoding separately. Encode vrr_standards as a comma-separated list: 'HDMI VRR' (required for PS5 VRR), 'FreeSync Premium' (AMD GPUs), 'G-Sync Compatible' (NVIDIA GPUs). Encode allm as a boolean. Encode input_lag_4k120_ms as a decimal number in milliseconds — this is the latency that competitive gamers care about, and it varies from 1.0ms (LG G4 in Game Mode) to 8ms+ (some budget 120Hz models).

The HDR format split: Samsung doesn't support Dolby Vision

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is not a single format. Four different HDR standards coexist in the consumer TV market with different metadata approaches, decoder hardware requirements, content licensing models, and — critically — different streaming service availability on different TVs. An AI agent recommending "the best HDR TV for Netflix" needs to know whether the TV supports Dolby Vision, because Netflix serves Dolby Vision to compatible TVs and HDR10 as a fallback. On a Samsung TV, Netflix always serves HDR10.

The split is simple but not obvious from marketing copy: Samsung TVs support HDR10+ (dynamic metadata, developed by Samsung and Amazon). LG, Sony, and TCL support Dolby Vision (dynamic metadata, developed by Dolby). These are competing standards. A Samsung TV cannot decode Dolby Vision streams. An LG TV can decode both Dolby Vision and HDR10+.

HDR format support by major brand (2023–2024)

Encode hdr_formats as a comma-separated list of the formats the TV actually supports: 'Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG' for LG OLED, or 'HDR10+, HDR10, HLG' for Samsung. This list becomes the structured data field an AI agent checks when a buyer asks "which TVs support Dolby Vision for Netflix?" — Samsung is correctly filtered out.

The practical content impact: Netflix serves Dolby Vision on Apple TV 4K, Google Chromecast with Google TV, LG Smart TV, Sony Smart TV, and most non-Samsung streaming devices. Disney+ serves Dolby Vision on compatible TVs. Apple TV+ is Dolby Vision exclusively. A buyer who uses an Apple TV 4K connected to a Samsung TV will receive Dolby Vision on the Apple TV 4K's output signal — but the Samsung TV will convert it to HDR10 before display. The buyer sees HDR10, not Dolby Vision.

eARC vs ARC: your $500 Atmos soundbar is playing 5.1 Dolby Digital

ARC (Audio Return Channel) was introduced with HDMI 1.4 and allows a TV to send audio back to a connected soundbar or AV receiver via the same HDMI cable. ARC has a bandwidth ceiling: approximately 5Mbps. This is sufficient for 5.1 Dolby Digital (lossy, up to 640kbps) or DTS 5.1. It is not sufficient for Dolby Atmos TrueHD (lossless, up to 18Mbps) or DTS:X.

eARC (Enhanced Audio Return Channel) is an HDMI 2.1 feature with approximately 37Mbps bandwidth — sufficient for Dolby Atmos TrueHD lossless passthrough. The channel uses a separate secondary path in the HDMI cable specifically for audio return, bypassing the data bandwidth constraints of ARC.

The buyer scenario that produces post-purchase regret: a buyer purchases a $500 Dolby Atmos soundbar (e.g., Sony HT-A7000, Samsung HW-Q990C). They connect the soundbar to their TV's HDMI ARC port. Their streaming source (Apple TV 4K, streaming service) is connected to another HDMI port on the TV. The TV passes audio back to the soundbar via ARC — at 5.1 Dolby Digital. The soundbar displays "Dolby Atmos" on its indicator (because the Dolby Digital stream may carry the Atmos flag in a lossy format), but it is not receiving lossless Atmos object-based audio. The buyer has a $500 soundbar receiving the same audio quality as a $150 soundbar.

AI agents recommending TV + soundbar combinations for lossless Dolby Atmos must check: (1) tv.earc = true, (2) soundbar.earc_input = true, (3) soundbar.dolby_atmos_truehd = true or soundbar.dts_x = true. All three conditions must be true for the buyer to actually experience lossless object-based audio. Any one missing breaks the chain.

For reference: all LG OLED TVs from 2019+, Sony Bravia from 2019+, and Samsung QLED/Neo QLED from 2019+ support eARC. Older 2017–2018 TVs have ARC only. The eARC port on LG TVs is port 2 (labeled ARC/eARC). On Samsung TVs with One Connect box (QN85B, QN90B+), the eARC port may be port 1. Encode the specific port label in tv.earc_port to give buyers physical setup guidance.

Complete JSON-LD and Liquid snippet

JSON-LD — LG G4 OLED 83-inch example

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "LG G4 OLED evo 83-inch 4K Smart TV (OLED83G4PSA)",
  "brand": { "@type": "Brand", "name": "LG" },
  "description": "LG G4 OLED evo gallery TV with WRGB OLED evo panel, native 144Hz via HDMI 2.1, 4× HDMI 2.1 ports (all ports), Dolby Vision IQ, HDR10, HLG, G-Sync Compatible, FreeSync Premium Pro, HDMI VRR, ALLM, eARC on port 2, 1ms input lag at 4K/120Hz in Game Mode, webOS 24 smart platform.",
  "additionalProperty": [
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "panel_type",
      "value": "OLED (WRGB evo)" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "manufacturer_panel_brand",
      "value": "LG Display — WRGB OLED evo (Gallery-class)" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "screen_size_in",
      "value": "83" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "native_refresh_hz",
      "value": "144" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "manufacturer_motion_name",
      "value": "TruMotion 240 (144Hz native panel via HDMI 2.1)" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "hdmi_21_port_count",
      "value": "4" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "hdmi_20_port_count",
      "value": "0" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "hdmi_21_ports_note",
      "value": "All 4 HDMI ports are HDMI 2.1 (48Gbps). Port 2 is eARC." },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "hdr_formats",
      "value": "Dolby Vision IQ, Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "earc",
      "value": "true" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "earc_port",
      "value": "HDMI 2 (ARC/eARC)" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "vrr_standards",
      "value": "HDMI VRR, FreeSync Premium Pro, G-Sync Compatible" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "allm",
      "value": "true" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "input_lag_4k120_ms",
      "value": "1.0" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "local_dimming_zones",
      "value": "N/A — self-emissive OLED (per-pixel control)" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "burn_in_risk",
      "value": "Yes — LG includes Pixel Refresher (auto-runs every 2,000 hrs), Logo Luminance Adjustment, and Screen Shift. Avoid extended static content (news tickers, HUD elements in games at constant brightness)." },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "dolby_atmos_passthrough",
      "value": "Yes — eARC (port 2) passes lossless Dolby Atmos TrueHD at up to 37Mbps to compatible soundbars" },
    { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "smart_platform",
      "value": "webOS 24" }
  ],
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "priceCurrency": "USD",
    "price": "3499.00",
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
    "itemCondition": "https://schema.org/NewCondition"
  }
}

Shopify Liquid snippet — tv.* metafields to JSON-LD

{% comment %}
  In snippets/product-schema-tv.liquid
  Renders TV-specific additionalProperty entries from tv.* metafields.
  Call from sections/product-template.liquid inside the Product JSON-LD block.
{% endcomment %}

{% assign tv_panel = product.metafields.tv.panel_type %}
{% assign tv_native_hz = product.metafields.tv.native_refresh_hz %}
{% assign tv_motion_name = product.metafields.tv.manufacturer_motion_name %}
{% assign tv_hdmi21 = product.metafields.tv.hdmi_21_port_count %}
{% assign tv_hdmi20 = product.metafields.tv.hdmi_20_port_count %}
{% assign tv_hdmi_note = product.metafields.tv.hdmi_21_ports_note %}
{% assign tv_hdr = product.metafields.tv.hdr_formats %}
{% assign tv_earc = product.metafields.tv.earc %}
{% assign tv_earc_port = product.metafields.tv.earc_port %}
{% assign tv_vrr = product.metafields.tv.vrr_standards %}
{% assign tv_lag = product.metafields.tv.input_lag_4k120_ms %}
{% assign tv_burn = product.metafields.tv.burn_in_risk %}

"additionalProperty": [
  {% if tv_panel != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "panel_type",
    "value": {{ tv_panel.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_native_hz != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "native_refresh_hz",
    "value": {{ tv_native_hz.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_motion_name != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "manufacturer_motion_name",
    "value": {{ tv_motion_name.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_hdmi21 != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "hdmi_21_port_count",
    "value": {{ tv_hdmi21.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_hdmi20 != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "hdmi_20_port_count",
    "value": {{ tv_hdmi20.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_hdmi_note != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "hdmi_21_ports_note",
    "value": {{ tv_hdmi_note.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_hdr != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "hdr_formats",
    "value": {{ tv_hdr.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_earc != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "earc",
    "value": {{ tv_earc.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_earc_port != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "earc_port",
    "value": {{ tv_earc_port.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_vrr != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "vrr_standards",
    "value": {{ tv_vrr.value | json }} },
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_lag != blank %}
  { "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "input_lag_4k120_ms",
    "value": {{ tv_lag.value | json }} }
  {% endif %}
  {% if tv_burn != blank %}
  ,{ "@type": "PropertyValue", "name": "burn_in_risk",
    "value": {{ tv_burn.value | json }} }
  {% endif %}
]

Metafield reference table — tv.* namespace

5 common TV schema mistakes