New TV- recommendations

[Lesmore]

My wife and I are looking for a new TV. Our old TV is from the 1990's, definitely a dinosaur.

What we are...what we watch:

We have sort of settled on size...somewhere between 40, 42, 42, 46, 47 or 50 inches. Our living room is not big and I sit about 75 inches or so from the TV screen....my wife sits about about 100 inches away from the screen.

The TV room is our living room , big bay window...drapes though. We watch TV ....sometimes day, sometimes night, as we're retired

Demographically...we are a 'mature, couple, our kids are 20 something and have left the nest...so usually it's just the two of us watching TV.

The type of TV we watch includes sit coms, modern movies....I watch a lot of 1930's, 40's, 50's B+W movies from Turner Classic Movies. She likes cooking shows, I like shows such as Highway thru Hell, Ice Road Truckers, some car racing....ie; sportscar, F1.

I also like vintage motorcycle, car and hot rod shows.

Technical questions:

We don't have a clue about modern TV's. We know there is LED, LCD and Plasma.

What are the advantages and disadvantages comparatively ?

What would be best for us, considering our TV watching habits, etc. ?

I'm finding our current TV not so good...sound wise. My ears...along with the rest of me are aging.

I'm not interested in deep base....in fact I do not like it. But I do want very good quality, clear sound

Would a sound bar be worthwhile ? Any other suggestions ?

We have heard that Samsung is an excellent brand. Any suggestions ?

 

[BSAGuy]

LED. Be sure to get a Smart TV. It has built-in internet access so you can stream Netflix or Hulu.

 

[yamaha0343]

I recently picked up a Panasonic LED 120Hz Smart TV in 50". Very happy with it.

 

[tvad]

I'm in the television production business (programming, not hardware), and I'm particular about my home TVs. I owned a brilliant 1990 32" Sony XBR until four years ago, and I still miss that TV.

I replaced it with a highly reviewed Samsung UN40D6400. The Sony was better, even though it was standard definition. Blacks were crisp and deep (unlike the Samsung). There was no "clouding" in dark images (unlike the Samsung...and other LED/LCD TVs). Off angle viewing was spectacular (a real fault of LED/LCD televisions).

Sadly, plasma TVs are no longer made. They had the excellent picture qualities of CRT (tube) televisions including deep blacks and excellent off-angle viewing, but they also had their faults.

Bottom line, if I were to buy a TV today, I'd buy a Sony X900B Premium 4K Ultra because of the excellent picture, and because of the excellent built-in speakers (a real weak point of most LED/LCD televisions). When price shopping, consider that you won't require a sound bar or other supplemental audio components unless you're building a surround sound system. The smallest version of the Sony X900B is 54.6", which is larger than you want, but worth the extra size if you have room for it.

That said, Samsung and Panasonic make good televisions, and if you don't watch from an off-angle (side-to-side, or high/low), then a TV from those manufacturers might perfectly satisfy you and your wife. You will require some type of supplemental audio to enhance the sound, IMO. I use a Zvox sound base, but there are many options.

 

[S_Banks]

Had an old Sony too, think it was the XBR... had the stereo built in the base, big woofer in the base, and what was cool was it "swiveled" via the remote!

Had many tv's in between last one was a JVC 2nd Gen rear projection.

So I did a lot of research via Amazon, ended up with a Samsung series 5 LED 50" but... I got a better model/version through Costco and buying through Costco gave me 2 yrs. warranty versus 1 yr. had I bought one from Amazon.

Sound quality on these thin tv's has improved greatly over the years, I have an older Sony SoundBar that I hooked up to it.