Buying a new TV- thoughts

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

Not sure if this is the forum to ask advice, but one thing we would like to do, besides watch TV, is to transfer my photos to the new TV so we can view on the big screen. Camera equipment I currently have include a Canon G 12 and Pentax DSLR's....such as my K-5, K10D and Km. BTW, I've never transferred or seen my photos on a TV screen....so I don't have a clue about what kind of TV is necessary or how to do it.

So what TV should we look at for this purpose, among other purposes ?

Demographics:

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 ?

Any other suggestions ?

in terms of LED/LCD & Plasma, I found it best go to ignore all the jargon & waffle, go to a couple of good stores & look at the demo TV's and pick the one I liked best.

As for getting photos onto your Tv, a lot of TV's these days are equipped with a network port (Ethernet) so you can cable it up to your computer and browse images & videos files - you do need some sort of server software running on your computer (DLNA complient is common - DNLA wiki link )

I use Wild Media Server as the software on my P.C. (mainly because my Sony TV is really, really fussy about the video file types it'll play) and gets a lot of use by my kids watching video's backed up from various sources. There are a number of free vendors though so useful to check when you're buying the Tv if any server software is included...

I swear by Samsung TVs. Sony TVs are a little bit better quality but also a bit more money. Vizio makes a good TV that is less expensive but not as good quality. I'd get an LED TV between 40-46" because of your viewing distance. A lot of people say they can't tell the difference between 60hz and 120hz but I'd go 120hz for the F1 racing. I used to think a "smart" TV was ridiculous until I bought one that was on sale and now I think it's actually pretty awesome. You can plug it into the internet and view your pics if you have them stored on a website, stream movies or music, and a whole bunch more. The only complaint I have about my two Samsung TVs is the speakers. I'm sure it's true that most flat screen TVs have poor speakers since the speakers are so small. Sorry but I don't have any experience with sound bars, I have both of my TVs hooked up to stereos.

I'll be in the same situation as you soon. My Panasonic plasma is getting old and starting to "go to the bad" as they say down here. Plasma is pretty much gone. Regular LCD TVs (using CFL tubes as backlights) are old technology, so that leaves LED. LED is just a LCD TV using LED backlights instead of CFL (compact fluorescent). I'd say a 46-inch LED TV is what you're looking at. As for brands, I'd stick with Sony, Samsung, LG or Panasonic. They all have their good and bad aspects. I'd look for the one with the best picture, and not worry about features. You probably won't use most of them anyway. Get one that has true a 120hz refresh rate. Don't worry at all about "dynamic contrast ratio", or other stupid marketing terms.

Good luck. Let us know what you get.

I think it's safe to say any modern HDTV is going to be leaps and bounds ahead of an old tube TV. The soundbar might not be a bad idea, as most new TV's have speakers firing downward. I'm pretty happy with my two year old 50" Sharp led TV that I bought for $500. It's 1080p, 60 hertz refresh rate - nothing fancy. Saving some money on one to me, was worth more than dropping a lot more on a fancy one.

If I was buying a new TV today it would be a LED made by Samsung or Panasonic. I've owned many the past ten years (I have a TV fetish) and those two brands have never let me down. 46" is my preference for a medium sized living room.

Keep in mind the sound on these new TV's is not the greatest for medium to larger sized rooms. You may want to look into purchasing a separate powered sound bar if you already do not have a receiver and surround speakers in the room.