Been there done that. For those who still need more info it is simpler than you think. We have tv over fireplace. All components are in office on the other side of one of the livingroom walls. We have a HDMI line that runs from the tv down the wall, inside the baseboards and into the other room. You could do this with crownmolding too. The receiver has a HDMI that goes from the back of it to the line that runs to the tv. You could have the tv line just go into the next room or you can do what we did. We put a plate on the wall like the one the cable tv comes on. The line from receiver screws into the little metal thing on the plate and the line from the tv is inside the box in the wall. All our components plug into the receiver. I also put an outlet behind the tv to plug it in. No lines showing anywhere. We have one of those remotes that work off radio? signal to turn on and off. For those who don't want to do that you could simply put all components in closet. Put a box in wall with plate on both sides. Drill holes into the plate or use a plate with a square opening. Run the cables to the tv through this box. Again, you could move the outlet higher up to hide the plug. Again use the special remote to operate things. One thing to keep in mind!!!!! Buy your HDMI cable online. We paid $3 for a line the stores and installers charge $50 for, no kidding. Do your research. We saved hundreds of dollars.

So, maybe to clarify...Our smaller tv (~10 yrs old) gets lots of use. It is on from about 5-10 pm at minimum on weekdays and more on the weekend. The larger tv doesn't get quite as much use, but it still gets a fair amount. That is about 26,000 hours (I rounded to 50 hours for the weekly average) on the smaller tv in the 10 years. I do not know what is considered average or expected for the life of a flat screen, but I just looked for an answer and the plasmas are supposed to last 100,000 hours and I expect the LED/LCD are similar. That is a lot of tv watching. If we get 100,000 hours, that would mean about 40 years! Four years does not seem like very much time. I would be very unhappy.

Mounting: Once you decide on the spot where you plan to hang your LCD TV, it is time to decide on whether you will be making use of an LCD TV floor stand or a wall-type LCD mount. If you opt to hang your LCD HDTV on a wall, then you also need to determine the optimum height at which you will affix your LCD mount. There are a number of considerations that come into play when setting the screen height. The idea is to come at a level that proves comfortable on your neck. The guideline is that the maximum vertical angle of view i.e. the maximum vertical angle measured at the seated eye height from the front-row center-seat to the topmost part of the screen, should not exceed 35 degrees (more on this in our TV viewing distance article). Nevertheless, this represents the maximum vertical setting. Ideally, the center of the screen should be at eye level when seated. This is the position that will result in a minimum of eye and neck movement during TV viewing. Many may consider that aesthetically, this yields a too low placement for a wall-mounted display. The alternative is to place the LCD mount such that the bottom part of the screen is no higher than the eye level when seated, while the top of the display is no higher than the eye level when standing. Anything between these limits should always lead to a comfortable viewing experience.

Fred S, Thank you for questions. And the information I garnered from them. Mostly I learned that I know very darn little about this technology and what I need or can use. Perhaps I should have waited until I could get to a store and actually look at sets. Our main TV watching is in my small den where i have a fairly big (48?"--can't remember) 3-year old flat screen and a bose surround system with Tivo and Time-Warner cable service. This is where I also have my Mac computer and printer. This is where my husband and I watch tv of an evening and where I check out email and do the morning crossword and ken ken and soduko puzzles as the cable and local news and weather stations buzz by. Evenings we often watch a Netflix movie or a Tivo-saved favorite. We very seldom watch hard copy movies. If I get a Netflix movie on disk, we will watch it here, not on the new tv. The new set will be in the family room where it will largely be "background" noise. It It will probably not be connected to Tivo, because when I bought the Tivo, I bought a life-of-the-Tivo-box contract. If I upgrade to whole house, I have to start paying again. Don't want to do that yet. I really do want good sound and a wide viewing angle. Not Bose quality (although I have an old Bose CD/AM/FM radio in there), but better than any over-the-counter tv I have ever had. However, there is no reason at all to buy a set that has more resolution than we will be able to see. I can't buy side bars that will improve something that isn't in the sent information. Do I have to have a frame? I have not yet gone looking at actual sets. (I sprained an ankle when my garden tractor bucked me off. One foot was caught between the pedals and I am temporarily limited in range. First time after nearly 10 years of using that sucker all over our hilly terrain). On Amazon some sets look almost frameless. The one I have has a 1 1/2 to 2 inch frame around it. I would love to have none at all--or at least the minimum frame and the absolute minimum depth. I hope this isn't uselessly wordy. I would appreciate any guidance that will help me when I go in to talk to salesmen.