After visiting this site very often through search results, I finally became a member. Timing is everything when purchasing a television. I'll give you a rundown on what I went thought this fall. I was sold on the samsung 7000 series televisions. I was a sony fan for years and this one really got me over the brand name. They make a few sizes but the 46" was what we considered to be a good size for the room we are going to use this in our soon to be built home. You can also get it in 55" It does 3D if you want that. It has what they call "smart hub" which somewhat arranges apps so that you can get news, weather, facebook, some free 3d content that is actually not too bad, netflix, hulu+, vimeo (which I really like and was happy to see here. It also has wifi built in for your network. A basic internet browser, movie rentals, computer input, smart phone remote capability. A lot of this stuff won't cater to the masses, and that's fine as you should consider this an extra to the amazing picture the TV can put out. The 7000 series has a 240hz refresh rate. You want this over a 60 or 120. It's hard to explain, but it looks much better to my sensitive LCD eyes. Enough with the sales picth for the 7000 series... Back to timing. In August, I saw the TV I wanted 46" with blue ray player and 2 pairs of 3d glasses for 1,499. I figured I would wait until Black Friday... Well Friday and cyber Monday came and went and I didnt see it for sale, but the 55" was dropped to $1799 and the 46... $1699 lol. I waited and eventually before Christmas, they went back to 1499 with the blue ray player and 2 pairs of glasses. This is in contrast to 1799 without anything. Now this is my strong consideration to you as far as a blue ray player goes... Get the Playstation 3. It plays your blue rays, it streams netflix and hulu+ (Better then the samsung TV which sometimes is slow to stream videos). It plays video games, has a basic internet browser, can stream movies from a computer on your network (I have a 2 TB drive connected to my network and I can view and stream them to the TV through the PS3.) for $200 it's a no brainer. If you get the Samsung with the blue ray player, you can always sell the extra player if you don't need it (but the player can also stream netflix and hulu and all that stuff.) So in short... I recommend a Samsung 7000 46 or 55 (Be patient and wait until the sale hits... They will do it again) and get the PS3 for your media hub. We have this setup, and don't have cable... And don't need it! I calculated that in 26 months, without cable my TV and ps3 will be paid for with the savings... I will be on the lookout for a 55" 7000 series for the living room once our house is finished in March. I've got the xbox 360 out there to do a similar job. Good luck on your decesion. The game consoles are a far better solution to a stand alone player/streamer as they are constantly updated to meet the times. Also they are working on offering some sort of tv streaming services. Time will tell.

My DD and DSIL gave me Netflix and Roku for Christmas. Roku enables the streaming, although you can do it with BluRay, Playstation, and probably other devices. My understanding is that the basic one-DVD-at-a-time Netflix subscription ($7.99 or $9.99 per month, I forget which) also entitles you to stream online or to your TV. Not all Netflix movies and TV shows are available for streaming, but many are. You can have a regular queue of titles you want to receive by mail, and an Instant Queue of titles you want to stream. In addition, you can go looking (via your TV) for other titles at any time. I was never much of a TV watcher, but I'm enjoying having this available to me. I've been watching some of the shows I was curious about but never got to see on TV. And when my DGD is here we can watch movies together.

No TV here, not since 1994, when I divorced (@CindyMac!) and my former husband got the TV. We have Prime and Netflix and can access PBS streaming, as we are members. We have a 30" monitor on the wall in our den downstairs (not a "smart" tv, there is a shelf for the dedicated, old and tired laptop) we also have a newer, nicer, good screen quality laptop if we want to watch in bed. We have a not-ironclad rule in our house that the TV doesn't go on until the sun goes down, so in the summer, we don't watch much at all, in the winter, that's our TV time (and when it's absolutely miserable and raining in the summer). As to what else we do, we are early risers, so in bed no later than 10 most nights, and eat dinner at 7-7:30, so there's time for an episode of a Netflix/Prime show, but we also read, I do needlework (OK, rarely, but I do do it), crossword puzzles and listen to music, Sirius/XM is so worth the $200+- a year, there is an amazing variety of music and other programming available, and a true bargain IMO. We also listen to NPR, that and the NYT online are our main sources of news, I detest TV news, except PBS News Hour, I cannot take the preening anchors delivering bad news "with a gleam in her (his) eye" (credit: The Eagles). I also detest all those G rated shows, when we visit DH's family (children long grown and gone), we must suffer through Big Bang, Seinfeld reruns, Modern Family, et al, ugh, they might as well be Three's Company IMO, insipid, overused plots, laugh tracks, bad acting, lazy writing and golly gee, most everyone is white and rich, with houses to match. No thanks. If I'm watching TV I want it to be adult; nudity, language, grit, detailed and "slow burn" plot lines, so no network shows for me, although I do plan on checking out Atlanta, I've heard it is good, and fairly sophisticated. And yes, I do have a kid, she's now 19, and when she was 6, we bought a used 13" TV with built in DVD/VHS player so she could watch Arthur, her absolute fav. We checked tapes and DVDs out from the library, and she was able to watch Arthur, Zoom and other non-commercial shows. She didn't turn our culturally or socially bereft, and wasn't even ostracized in our small, rural school, TV watching is so bifurcated now no one expects others to watch exactly what they do. I say unplug, you will be glad you did.

I admit watching good TV is one of my favorite hobbies, and I look forward to checking out these recommendations. I second Episodes with Matt Lablanc. I also loved Enlightened on HBO with Laura Dern, quirky character and heartwarming. I also enjoyed Jimmy Carter Rock n Roll President on Netflix (I'm a Georgian) and the documentary Crip Camp, a great story about birth of disability rights movement.