I just played around a bit with my Android TV Lollipop (5.1.1) based Sony TV with respect to refresh rate handling and smooth media playback…
Even with ‘Adjust display refresh rate’ being disabled (‘Off’), everything plays buttery smooth. Also after disabling any interpolation (what Sony calls ‘Smooth Motion’). No matter wether content is 24p, PAL (25/50fps) or NTSC (29.97/59.94fps). I assume that the hardware performs some frame rate conversion?
After enabling ‘Adjust display refresh rate’, no change in refresh rate seems to take place when I play different media. I also can’t find any evidence inside the log that a change happens. ‘System Information’ always says that it is at 60Hz, which can be doubted for a European model.
I should be happy that everything plays smoothly. It would be interesting to know how this is achieved though.