Should I or shouldn't I ???

Wife insists that "everyone does it".

Gig'em...
abat51...

[This message has been edited by abat51 (edited 8/26/2014 12:58p).]

Only con is you didn't get a bigger screen!

Cons...
-Too high and not the optimal viewing angle from a sofa.

-Can get hot if the fireplace isn't shielded well.

-Looks stupid.

-Too many stupid people do it, and you don't want people to think you're stupid.

[This message has been edited by tfunk02 (edited 8/26/2014 1:17p).]

Ours is above our fireplace and has been since we moved in 6 years ago.

We love it. We don't watch a ton of TV, but enough that we'd notice if it was really that big a deal regarding viewing angle.

Pros for us are that it looks nice and clean, smaller footprint (i.e. isn't occupying space on the floor) and it is out of the reach of our 3 children.

Cons are that it is a pain to hook up devices (especially some of the ports that aren't visible while it is mounted) so when I have to hook anything up (every fall, for instance, I get U-verse cable, then cancel after the season and go to an OTA antenna through a slingbox) it can be a pain.

Get rid of the fireplace instead unless you live in a cold place. You watch a lot more TV than you use the fireplace.

Yes I am serious. (When we remodeled we moved our fireplace to a less prime location).

- TV above fireplace is too tall (should be at eye height from seated position)
- bad for surround sound
- bad for wiring
- limits use of mantel for decorative stuff

Agree with Spicewood.

Last Christmas I moved the TV at my folks place above the fireplace, where it used to sit on a stand for many years at the optimal viewing location. They wanted it "up", perhaps because their typical viewing position is reclined in the recliners ( ) and also so they could see it over those chairs from the kitchen table. I don't like it up there at all, but that is what they wanted so I did it.

Like Spice, I don't get why builders in TX put in elaborate fireplaces in prime locations of great rooms/dens/living rooms when there is really no need for one at all. My parents' house was a fairly high-end spec home (built in 2001) that has a lot of great features...except the damn fireplace. There are built-ins on either side which are great, but one of them has a big cutout for an old 4:3 big screen projection TV. It is in the corner of the big room, but not angled, so it really limits TV viewing possibilities and is now useless since an appropriately-sized 16:9 won't fit in there at all. So, to the fireplace it went.

We have a 60" LED mounted above our fireplace in our current home. We are about to build a new home and won't do that again for multiple reasons. I don't think it looks very good to have your TV be the focal point of your house, you have to look up to watch TV, and running wires and so forth to it can be a PITA.

Finally someone gets it. Why do people put a dang fireplace in houses in Texas? My wife and I think they are a huge pain. I don't know how many houses we looked at where we thought "if only that fireplace wasn't right there". We did end up with one of course but we found something where it didn't interfere.

I do like the idea of getting it off the ground. Our living room is fairly small, I believe it is around 17 x 18.5 ft. The fireplace is on one of the shorter walls. I'd prefer to put it there or mount it to the wall that it is currently on (one of the longer ones), however I've never seen a mounted TV by itself look good.

As stated, the hookups....

You need conduit running for behind the TV to where you will house your media devices: TV box, Blu Ray player, Roku Box, Surround sound receiver, etc.

As would need IR remote to control hidden media boxes

Mine is above my fireplace but I have a large ledge I can set everything on, hidden. Got lucky.

You need an RF remote if you don't have line of sight.

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Why do people put a dang fireplace in houses in Texas?

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Tradition most likely. I know it'd be strange to see a living room without one. I prefer to have one, especially if the house has gas for gas logs. I don't like seeing TVs above one, though. We keep ours inside of a tall entertainment center where we can close the doors when not watching (only negative to it is that we're limited to about a 38" TV, but that's plenty large enough for us).

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You need an RF remote if you don't have line of sight.

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Meant to say this

I really enjoy our fireplace. Up here in northeast Texas we get quite a few cool winter nights and I use it quite a bit.

Just had ours mounted few weeks ago. Dish remote works great even mounted behind TV. Slight tilt fixes viewing angle.

While I agree fireplaces in Texas seem pointless, I had a friend that had a house with no fireplace. When they went to sell it, that received much negative feedback about the lack of fireplace. Took them forever to sell.

I think it's one of those things that people envision themselves using a lot more than they actually do.

I've been looking at homes lately. It seems that around 2010 builders realized the focal point fireplace was stupid. It seems like in the newer homes, the fireplace is off to the side and a large open wall is left available.

This is the nerdery.... so... I dont feel even a little bad about this.

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I think it's one of those things that people envision themselves using a lot more than they actually do.

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My mom had a fire blazing as soon as the temp dropped below 60 degrees. I hated cleaning the damned fireplace.

I have never used the fireplace in any apartment or house I've owned.

When we moved into our new house, above the fireplace was the only suitable option for locating the television. In the end, I think it turned out looking very nice. As far as locating all of the equipment, I just ran one HDMI cable in wall, and added an outlet above the fireplace. Everything else is hooked up thrugh a reciever which is remotely located. Also - as far as RF remotes go, if you are planning on using COmcast, the new remotes can be set for RF or line of sight.

Don't worry about what everyone else thinks looks good. Do what you are going to enjoy, and makes you happy. You and your family are the ones living with it.

My FIL is building a house on top of a hill in austin... the living room will have a fireplace centered on the wall opposite the kitchen. He is going to put an 80" tv on the fireplace. then we are putting all of the components for the house in one media cabinet.

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I've been looking at homes lately. It seems that around 2010 builders realized the focal point fireplace was stupid. It seems like in the newer homes, the fireplace is off to the side and a large open wall is left available.

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I wish this design was used more. I hate living rooms with the fireplace in the center of the main wall leaving no place for the entertainment center. It was a major deal breaker when I was house shopping.

My parents built a home three years ago. No fireplace. Not one person has noticed.

You have two options

-Don't do it. It looks awful. I don't care if yours looks great, it doesn't. It looks like poop and you know it.
-Drywall it in and put TV on a better eye level. This also allows you the chance to run very clean internally routed cables and maybe a nice built in AV cabinet.

how do you handle hooking up game system and cable box ect without it looking like garbage.

I'd like to see a pic of a nice setup.

You use an a/v receiver and everything is plugged into that. Then 2-3 wires (power, HDMI, ethernet) are run in the wall to the back of the TV.

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We love it. We don't watch a ton of TV

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That should answer your question. You and your wife should sit on your sofa and stare at the spot above your fireplace where your wife wants the TV placed for 5-10 minutes, your neck will get sore, you'll reconsider, she'll insist "it's fine". You being a man will decide that at the very least the TV gets it's own room. Women think of TVs as an obstacle to overcome, but it's not 1880 anymore no one in their right mind sits and stares at the fire for hours at a time.

I just bought a new home on the northwest side of Houston. The home has a very nice fireplace on one of the 3 walls. One of the other walls is all windows, and the third wall is along what I would consider a walking path that needs to be clear of obstacles. This means that the only place to put the tv is over the fireplace. At least there is a big mantle for everything to go on.

Agree with everyone who says that TVs mounted up high are dumb, and also those who don't know why we still have fireplaces in Texas.

I have my TV sitting directly in front of my fireplace, on a nice TV stand. It's a 65" Panny ZT and completely covers up the fireplace. Right above it is the mantle, which in this configuration is totally useable,and has some Korean vases and other stuff on it.

I don't think one person has commented on this "weird" TV placement. My wife only questioned it for a minute, but we've literally never used any fireplace in over seven years of marriage and we do watch around three hours of TV together a week.

To the folks who are saying it's okay to mount your TV in an awkward position because you don't use it very much - why are you on this forum? Most of us watch more college football than what you're claiming is your total TV intake.

How high is too high, or at what viewing angle would you say is too extreme? I'm debating lowering our mantle to 4'4 off the ground (it doesn't have a built up base) and we sit about 17 ft away. Since this is a 1993 home and the fireplace is the focal point of the living room, this wall is really the most ideal location for all the furniture.

If I had a Panny ZT - I'd put in the very best location to take advantage of its awesome picture quality.

I faced this debate a few months back when trying to decide a place for our TV. I will admit that I was very hesitant to placing the TV above the fireplace for all the reasons mentioned above.I made a list of all the pros/cons of having it above the fireplace and for me the pros out weighed the cons. The biggest decision factor for me was the closet behind the fireplace that I was able to stow all of my components in and have a clean install with minimal work/extra wiring. I bought a RF converter off ofAmazon allowing my IR remotes to still work. Here's a few pictures of my set up. The TV is a65" Sony, FWIW.

For one of the posters earlier, I have my XBOX One hooked up and when I game/skype the kinect cord is long enough to reach around and I set it on the mantle. I didn't want to leave my kinect hooked up on top of the tv or placed on the mantle full time.



I still haven't got around to fully organizing the media closet, but this is currently how it is set up.

Agree that putting a tv over a fireplace is a last resort but disagree on lack of value of a fireplace. We use ours a lot here in Dallas. We've lost power for 24+ hours twice in the last two years and it came in very handy.