We put our tv in the niche above the fireplace in our last house and it melted the feet....

Some TVs supposedly are as bright as can be, in bright rooms. Wish that my laptop was the same!!!

We are also building and will put the TV over the fireplace. I am concerned that the TV will be too high. I purposely had them build the mantle a bit lower than I might have if we weren't going to do the TV there. They key is to have the couch (or seating) placed back far enough so that you don't have to look up too much. I think our couch will be a bit too close (about 11 feet, I think). Anyway, you can google this and find out some recommendations. In our new house, this was really our only option. I have a feeling it will be fine, but that we will watch a long movie on our basement TV, which will be on the wall but lower. Hope this helps. Overall, I don't have a huge problem with this. BTW, jennifer4268 (right name?) showed her TV over fireplace. She has a painting mechanism that can cover the TV. Pretty neat.

I wanted to be able to stand in front of the gas fireplace and watch TV at the same time. So I designed an entertainment center that houses a 52 inch Sharp LCD TV at one end and a gas fireplace at the other end. The 2 ends are angled in to each other with display shelves in the middle. We love it. Soon as I learn how to post pictures here, I will post a picture of it

Good Luck

Gary

Ours would be too high over the mantle. The fireplace wall is also a brick with a pattern that would make mounting one there difficult. We got a flat panel TV at the holidays with the plan of placing it on the wall between two windows where the old TV would have blocked traffic. We got the plasma so we would have better side viewing, but we discovered we didn't like the TV there as much as we had hoped (we set it on a piece of furniture to test before wall mounting, fortunately). It went back into the corner between those windows and the fireplace and I lost out on that big reading chair in the corner. Oh well.

Here is a picture of how I did mine. Fireplace is up high enough so heats ya rite where ya need it most Back and shoulder blades. I can't figure out how to post pictures here so just click on the URL (The Gallery section of this web-site)
http://photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2009/03/family_room_march_21_2009.html

Here is a link that might be useful: Fireplace & TV location

We ran tv hookups for both above the fireplace and on the adjacent wall in FR because we were'nt sure about this issue either. It seems like a lot of people are doing this around us, but we didn't like the height and wanted another option. I guess we did it this way in case we ever sell. We'll try to find a cool mirror, clock or artwork to hide the cable/power box on the stone fireplace.

our likely location - the little white boxes 1/2 way up the wall

I have one over a fireplace, and I love it. the rest of that wall is windows, so it was the only spot.

My fireplace is gas, and there are clear guidlines about the clearence from combustibles and the like.

There are heat concerns. It's commonly stated that you can't have the TV on when the temp there is 95 degrees. Easy for me to monitor, I just keep the fireplace remote there, sometimes programed to turn off the fire when the area hits that. If the fireplace is woodburning, controling the heat could be a problem and you might simply have to turn the tv off sometimes.

I suspect that the 95 is a purely random number, though. Lots of homes get that hot, and we haven't heard many reports in the media about flat screens failing from it.

To me, watching the fire or watching the tv are different activities that I rarely want to do at the same time. I love having the fire on for conversation, reading, playing a game, and those are times I'd rather have the TV off anyway. We do burn the fire to take the chill off the room on movie nights, but at a pretty low level.

As to veiwing angle: it's about 5 ft above the floor, and the seating is about 12 feet back. It seems a little odd if you are used to a conventional set just inches off the floor, but you quickly adapt. It isn't at all uncomfortable for me or any of my family [so far as anyone has ever mentioned], and the kids and dogs don't block the screen everytime they walk by.

Overall, I think its a good solution for many rooms. Just be sure to plan for power and signal up there: you don't want a lot of visible wires.

I think you'll be unhappy with having the TV over the fireplace. Our friends did that, and it's uncomfortable watching TV. When the kids were playing games (Rock Band, etc.), MY neck hurt just watching them crane their little necks :(

We mounted our TV to the wall. We had the AV guy do it when he was putting in our speakers, and the bottom of the TV (52") is set at about 40" It's the perfect height for watching on the couch (sitting or lying down) and watching from the kitchen that faces the family room.

it's my plan to put the tv over the fireplace also. There are these nounting things that you can put on the wall and then you can tilt the tv, I think. At least, that's what I'm envisioning as I haven't researched this yet.

Here is a link that might be useful: tv tilting wall mount

Personally, as one who is doing it (as I stated above), I wouldn't if I had another choice. If you have a wall, I would mount mine there instead. If not, go for it. Just do your research and put it as low as you can! I will also tilt mine down...

DH did a lot of research when we added the new family room. We ended up nixing the FP because much of the research he did showed that it would be too high and he ran into the same heat concerns mentioned above. We have two other FP's in the house, so we didn't miss this one. But the architect was really puzzled as to why we wouldn't keep it in the plans.

Ours will also be over the fireplace, on a long tabletop above the FP that's at about 38" from the ground. The FP is a Heat'n'Glo Slimline 550. Haven't tried a TV there yet though. We also figure there are arms that can be mounted to the wall that will help position the TV comfortably.

The bigger problem is that we put the TV area in the family room at all. A "family room" is where kids spread their toys out and play and make a ton of noise, but a "TV area" is a quieter place where grownups set their wine on a big coffee table and kick back without having to dig Legos out of the couch. These two uses are not compatible! Maybe if the space was huge, but ours isn't. Don't know what we were thinking.

hubby brought pics in to TV place- that sets up media rooms- the guys gut said- over the fireplace is fine (FYI ours is gas)-- but we have to get him measurments...

Here is an examples of a neighbor that has the TV over the fireplace. This is the same exact room we will have but our windows next to the fireplace will be differen-- my first post shows our windows-- there will be one window next to each side of the fireplace. We would probably get a 50 inch LCD? thoughts based on these pics??

{{!gwi}}

Here is a pic of the other wall that we could put the TV .. this wall has no windows-- the opposite side has FULL windows (so we might catch some glare mid day as the sun is in the back of the house at that point)
{{!gwi}}

Mairin- I LOVE your house- from what i see-- any other house pics- BEAUTIFUL!!