Six AVPasión 2026 award winners face Chinese data-access laws

AVPasión released its 2026 annual audio-video picks on Saturday, Nov. 14, 2026, naming 23 winners across 12 video and 11 audio categories.

Tech Times said six of the 23 winners come from China-headquartered brands under Chinese data-access laws, and the list omits corporate ownership and data-policy details. Winners from TCL, Hisense, XGIMI and Luxsin appear without any note about data jurisdiction. AVPasión names no jury, publishes no scoring system, and describes its picks as the editorial team’s own testing, measurements and opinions.

Tech Times names TCL’s C7L as its Mini LED value pick and calls Hisense’s C3 the Best Lifestyle Projector, while XGIMI’s Titan Noir Max takes Best Home Cinema Projector. Seven recognized products rest on previews, partial tests or reviews still pending. The XGIMI Titan Noir Max result rested on a preview, AVPasión never completed its analysis of the Hisense 116UXQ, and testers never directly handled the Samsung S93H, while reviews remain pending for the Technics EAH-A1000, the Luxsin X8 and both Onkyo winners.

Under Article 7 of China’s National Intelligence Law, passed in 2017, organizations and citizens must back intelligence efforts through assistance and cooperation. A 2019 legal report warned that a literal reading might reach subsidiaries abroad of Chinese companies, while Huawei has filed a legal opinion saying its units abroad are not covered.

Tech Times cites a 2024 analysis questioning whether Article 7 requires active information gathering at all. The 2021 Data Security Law requires data handlers to turn data over to authorities in national security and crime cases, per the Jamestown Foundation’s Article 35 analysis, and the Cybersecurity Law, in force since 2017, requires network operators to give technical support to security organs.

Tech Times says the statutes bind Chinese organizations no matter what their privacy policies promise, though how far these laws extend to products sold abroad remains disputed. No public record in the reviewed sources shows a specific data request for these products.

Tech Times reports that sets and projectors with their own operating systems can collect viewing data using automatic content recognition, or ACR, which captures what is on the screen. Texas complaints say ACR can capture screen content as often as every 500 milliseconds. Texas won a temporary restraining order against Hisense on Dec. 17, 2025, and also sued TCL. Hisense denies wrongdoing, and TCL has neither settled nor admitted wrongdoing.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced suits against Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL. Samsung settled Feb. 26, 2026, and LG in May 2026, without admitting wrongdoing; no settlements involving Sony, Hisense or TCL appeared in the sources reviewed.

A Northeastern University study showed that opting out lowered traceable ACR traffic on tested sets from LG, Amazon, Sony and VIDAA. The contents could not be confirmed because most ACR traffic was encrypted.

Tech Times reports that TCL is one of China’s largest display-makers, Hisense operates from Qingdao, XGIMI has its headquarters in Chengdu, and Luxsin’s maker filed an FCC authorization as Shenzhen Luxsin Audio. The Titan Noir Max has no built-in smart platform, narrowing its ACR exposure, though its maker is subject to the same laws. For the Luxsin X8, the app channel is the relevant data path, and Tech Times found no independent audit of its data practices. Hisense’s C3 runs the VIDAA platform, which operates on 30 million devices, and a May 28 WireScreen briefing said no independent third-party audit is publicly available.

Tech Times says no setting changes what Chinese law requires from a manufacturer, and practical steps can reduce commercial exposure but cannot remove the legal condition. The coverage lists turning off ACR before internet connection, using an isolated guest Wi-Fi network, and using an external streamer for a projector without a platform as ways to reduce exposure. On LG sets, the Live Plus setting is ACR.