This was raised recently. My Googlage suggests that NTSC TVs have the hardware support for 50 Hz but lock it out in the FW, and US TVs typically can't show 50 Hz content at native refresh.
I don't know how people could test that. If you stick a 50 Hz movie on a US console, will it output 50 Hz as here and leave the TV to handle it, or will it send a 60 Hz version?
Well, this was briefly discussed on Doom9 some time ago, see the following post for example, quote:
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1617983&postcount=114 said:
No. Almost all TVs in the US will refuse to show 50hz signals. I was one of the calibrators / speakers at the Value Electronics Shootout last year in New York. I'm from Europe so brought some 50hz test content with me.
Out of the 6 flat panel displays there, an LG Plasma and Sharp ELITE LCD showed the 50hz content. The Panasonic LCD, Panasonic Plasma, Samsung LCD and Samsung Plasma refused to show anything. Kind of crazy in 2012...
Even if they could, support for the 50hz frame rates is optional for BD players sold in 60hz countries. Fewer BD players in the US can play 50hz.
Anyway, even if you have a display that can sync to 50 Hz, it most likely would suck to switch from 60 Hz to 50 Hz, since it would not be instantaneuos. The display would probably blank out (show a black screen) for a few seconds before re-syncing, which would make it useless for gaming.
What consoles would really need is something like
AMD's FreeSync or
Nvidia's G-Sync, plus TV manufacturers really need to start producing TVs that support FreeSync and G-Sync.
And FreeSync and G-Sync need to start supporting lower refresh-/frame-rates better.
That would be the best. That would solve so many issues with consoles.
Actually in one of their latest videos, AMD has announced LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) and bringing FreeSync to HDMI in 2016, see:
Let's hope this will allow the PS4 and Xbox One (which both have a AMD GPU with HDMI output) to enable FreeSync over HDMI and encourage TV manufacturers to start supporting FreeSync in their TVs, either via developing new TVs or enabling it for existing TVs via firmware updates :smile2:.
Now that would be incredible!