Strategy: Buy the nicest performing, dumbest TV you can afford at the size you think fits your room best. What follows are my recommended specs and why. Spend an extra day to get something that matches this description and you'll be very happy for years to come.
Who:
- Brands: Panasonic and Samsung are the top two brands in this field right now. Vizio is an upstart that should also be considered.
What:
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42-50" diagnonal size. See: http://crutchfield.com/screensize
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LED-backlit LCD: get this. -- LED: the lighting that allows you to see the picture on the LCD, which is the panel with creates the picture from combinations of red, green and blue pixels.
Most LCD panels are matte or less glossy than plasmas. LED backlighting allows the picture to be bright enough (significantly brighter than plasmas) to compete with the windows in your room, and the sun has always been a problem with seeing your TV. Even at night, house lights reflecting off the windows are visible on the TV screen! If your TV brightness is strong enough, then you may considerably improve your viewing enjoyment.
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1080p resolution: since you tend to keep your TVs for a while, you should get the higher standard. Your DirecTV receiver outputs this standard. Plus, it's helpful for larger screen sizes. Notice that your current TV doesn't look as sharp as mine, despite the same resolution. That's because my TV is smaller, and the pixels are smaller. 1080p pixels are smaller than 720p pixels would be at the same size display.
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120mHz refresh rate, minimum. Important for watching fast-moving things like sports, which can appear blurry at slower rates.
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IPS: a style of LCD panel which allows for improved picture for people not sitting straight in front of the TV. A plus, but not a deal breaker. All Apple displays are IPS. If Apple likes it…
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3D: silly. But if it comes on your preferred set, it won't be an issue since it only kicks in for 3D content, which you don't have.
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"Smart TV": Apps for TV. Unnecessary, and as you might guess, TV makers are terrible at making software. If your TV has these, you may simply not use them. Better than "Smart TV"? An Apple TV.
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Internet connectivity: a plus. Not for apps, but because you can update the software that runs your TV. This would allow for bug fixes and possibly improvements to its operation. In your case, this would need to be WiFi, since you don't have ethernet connectivity in your house.
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Video Inputs: as many HDMI ports as possible. DVIs don't hurt either, if you're interested in hooking up your Mac… but using an Apple TV would be a better way of (wirelessly) displaying content from your Mac or iPad to the TV.
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Built-in sound: don't believe anything they say, anything aside from a Bose TV will have terrible audio. Bose, BTW, now makes TVs. But they're expensive (starting at $5000! But they come to your house and install it themselves, which granted, is cool). Their video specs, however, are not impressive. They've snuck "Wave radio"-style audio into it (making a fat TV for a "flat panel") so I'd wager it sounds better than everyone else's TVs.
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Digital Audio Output: useful if you get a decent audio system to complement your TV. Our TV audio is all-digital (we use optical digital audio) and it sounds better than analog (I checked)… would probably sound better if we had a better audio system (ours is an entry level receiver from Yamaha, who makes really nice audio stuff) hooked up.
in lieu of built-in sound, if they want better than built-in speakers you can look for a sound-bar type system that integrates well with the TV. my parents have a 55" samsung and we bought them a samsung sound-bar that integrates 100% - the TV remote controls the volume level of the sound bar, it turns on/off with TV.
Sony is kind of the safe-and-steady quality brand. they don't beat their competitors to market with features, but they always have the best looking panels and the most vetted/stable features.