TV Buying Guide

Size: distance from couch matters

• 6 feet from TV — 50-55" sweet spot.
• 8 feet — 65" sweet spot.
• 10 feet — 75-85" comfortable.
• Bedroom (over 6 feet) — 32-43" enough.
• Quick formula: distance in inches ÷ 2 = ideal screen size in inches.

OLED vs QLED vs LED

• OLED (LG, Sony) — best picture. Perfect blacks. $1,200-3,000.
• QLED / Mini-LED (Samsung, TCL, Hisense) — very bright. Good for sunlit rooms. $700-2,500.
• LED (most TVs) — basic. Fine for casual viewing. $300-1,500.
• For most seniors: QLED in living room, basic LED in bedroom.

Smart TV platform

• Roku TV (TCL, Hisense, some others) — easiest interface. Most senior-friendly.
• Google TV (Sony, Hisense, others) — strong if you use Google.
• LG webOS — clean, simple.
• Samsung Tizen — slick but pushes ads.
• Fire TV — Amazon-heavy.
• If unsure: get a TV with the platform you already use OR add an Apple TV / Roku Stick to ANY TV.

Brand picks

• LG OLED C-series — best premium picture. Senior-friendly remote.
• Sony Bravia — best motion handling. Premium.
• Samsung QLED — bright, vibrant.
• TCL 6-Series Mini-LED — best value premium.
• Hisense U7/U8 — best mid-range value.
• Vizio — strong budget pick.

Senior-friendly features

• Voice remote — say "Watch CBS" instead of fumbling through menus.
• Closed captions easy on/off — should be one button on remote.
• Dialogue/voice mode — boosts speech clarity.
• Auto-light adjustment — TV dims/brightens with room.
• Big print menus — settings allow text size in some TVs.

Don\'t forget the sound bar

Modern thin TVs have terrible sound. Pair ANY new TV with a $200-300 sound bar (See our TV Sound Bar Picker.) — single biggest watching experience improvement.