Hi aduncan Thank you checking with me! I had a deadline for yesterday and didn't cehck the boards. I haven't signed up for notifciations too. I happened to check the boards and saw this in the first few pages. The information which you guys gave me was very useful. The installer also suggested the same thing and a IR repeater/finder so that we could use a remote in front of the TV while the setup will be hidden on the other side of the TV in the office room. We don't have a closet close by and he gave this suggestion which I liked. He suggested to add ethernet jacks in a couple of places in the house and gave me suggestions for a speaker bar to be placed on top of the TV. He said that it will be thin so I don't have to worry about the looks. He suggested using a sling box to view the video content from the DVR. But that could be used for viewing the content only on a computer not on a tv. I could go to the route of satellite connection with multiple DVRs for that. All in all, it was a great meeting. He hasn't given me the quotes yet though! I can decide what I want then.

david_cary - where did you find a wall mount for so little $$? DH and I are buying a 42" plasma (about 50 lbs) and I'm having trouble finding a tilting (not even full-motion) wall mount for much less than $100 (US). Then I have to do a channel cover and paint to hide cords to DVD player and power below, since I plan on using the coffee table (18" high - haven't figured out yet what height to mount TV) for DVD player (and maybe DH will want to buy surround sound) since I just have it shoved up against a different wall right now - the kids like to sit on floor in front of sofa so I can't put table or ottoman there. This is exterior wall so don't want to fish wires through insulation.

I had the same problem with my tv.. and I ended up buying a taller console. I don't like anything "busy" around the viewing screen. Lifting the screen was perfect and made a big difference. Plus, I like the viewing angle better now too. An idea for your mantle-- I have two pictures resting on the mantle but overlapping. My situation/tastes are a little different but I think the basic idea could still work for you. Both my prints are matted with a lot of "white space" and they are somewhat related (both are B&W. One is a landscape and the other a tree) I also have a vase on the mantle with.. hahah don't laugh.. interesting "sticks" from the yard-- one of which hangs over the artwork. I think it pulls together pretty well and it addresses a big design hurdle (the entire wall above the mantle is a mirror plate). Your room is really cozy and personal.. I think you'll be very happy with a painting your daughter made just for you. In the meantime I think adding some height and matting your existing prints and putting them in larger frames will definitely make the mantle area more visually interesting. Good luck!

Behind our TV is an electrical outlet and a cable outlet (the one with the little round cable thing that you screw the cord onto. The tv is plugged into both. The cable outlet runs into the closet on the left side of the photo. That is where all of our things are hooked up. The cable is screwed into a box, in the closet, which is made for remote sensors. There are "outlets" on the box, which you use to connect your dvd/vcr/satellite/surround sound into. The remote sensor is installed near the bottom left of the fireplace. But you can also get a sensor that just peeks out from your tv...very small and not noticeable. There is a basic cable wire (very cheap) that runs from the sensor on the wall, into the closet and also plugs into that same box as everything else. Then there are small sensors that you place on your dvd player/satellite receiver/surround sound. They just stick on the front of them. Now you can control all of your items even though you can't see them, via the remote sensor. I'm sure this sounds completely confusing, because I'm not good at explaining things like this. All of our wires do run through the walls, but you can also run them through the attic if you need to, or just do small holes, or even just "hide" the necessary cords. We have just one cable cord that goes from the box behind the tv into the closet, and then one cable cord that goes from the remote sensor on the wall into the closet. So we only really ran 2 cable cords. We purchased our supplies from smarthome.com. The whole setup was under $100.