First off, ignore wattage ratings. They're complete bullshit to begin with, and they tell you *zero* about how something will sound or perform. I could demo two systems for you, one at 25W the other at 1000W. Either could be the significantly better sounding system, just depends on what I pick
The best judge is your ears, if that's possible. Try to find some setup somewhere and take a listen. Barring that, read reviews and see if you can find a pattern of people sharing reports of how the system sounds when playing back reasonably specific types of material.
For ease of use, many sound bars are designed to be more or less passive in normal use. Some will use the ARC (Audio Return Channel) feature of HDMI, others will use Toslink (fiber optic audio out) to get their signal directly from the TV. That way you don't have to switch sources - whatever is on TV comes out of the sound bar. Volume control can be somewhat more tricky, but if you stick with the same vendor as your TV it's usually pretty automatic. Other setups may require you to program the remote to send volume commands to the sound bar instead of the TV. Mine is this way, I have a TCL RokuTV and a Vizio 5.1 soundbar setup (rears are in-walls instead of the included cheapy speakers). I programmed the Roku remote to control the soundbar volume, connected it via optical cable, and I never have to touch anything. One simple factory remote.
The best judge is your ears, if that's possible. Try to find some setup somewhere and take a listen. Barring that, read reviews and see if you can find a pattern of people sharing reports of how the system sounds when playing back reasonably specific types of material.
For ease of use, many sound bars are designed to be more or less passive in normal use. Some will use the ARC (Audio Return Channel) feature of HDMI, others will use Toslink (fiber optic audio out) to get their signal directly from the TV. That way you don't have to switch sources - whatever is on TV comes out of the sound bar. Volume control can be somewhat more tricky, but if you stick with the same vendor as your TV it's usually pretty automatic. Other setups may require you to program the remote to send volume commands to the sound bar instead of the TV. Mine is this way, I have a TCL RokuTV and a Vizio 5.1 soundbar setup (rears are in-walls instead of the included cheapy speakers). I programmed the Roku remote to control the soundbar volume, connected it via optical cable, and I never have to touch anything. One simple factory remote.