We've had our tv over the fp for over 2 years. Both work perfectly. Do a search on this topic for more information than you've ever wanted. Oh, and we have a phillips brand way-to-big flat screen (plasma? who knows.)

Jo

I think it's fine, but be careful: some fireplace walls are very high and watching television can be uncomfortable. This is the case at my cousin's house. I thought my neck would break watching TV at her house. :)

We have a TV in our sunroom that is installed on the wall above our heater. I just told my husband the other day, that I hated watching TV out there because I get a crook in my neck.

It's just an awkward position to hold your head for a period of time. I'd ask around to some people who have them and see what they say before I did it.

I totally agree about the stiff neck....and a friend of mine says they always have to watch their TV over the fireplace while sitting in recliners. If you haven't done it yet, you might go somewhere that has and see if you can stand looking in this position.

Don't do it! It is uncomfortable and I think it looks strange. Big tv's are best nearer the ground. Think about the early big tv cabinets that sat on the floor (50's & 60's). They were very comfortable to watch and great for people with kids or who like to sit on the floor.

If at all possible, don't put your TV over your fireplace. It's a bad angle for viewing and I agree, it looks strange. In any room with a fireplace, the fireplace will be the focal point. Put a TV over the fireplace, and you have two focal points -- it never looks good.

You will find people who think otherwise, LOL...

We mounted out 42" over the fireplace. We'd bought a wall mount but once we got it in place, we realized it would be bit too high. We put it on the mantle instead. The room is big enough where we can sit pretty far back (like at the movies) and our couch sits high.
It may distract from a focal point, but it's a family room. I'm sure the dog bed and kid's toys don't help the design sensibility either, LOL!

Never been a problem for us. We live in a subdivision where almost every home was built with a TV niche above the fireplace. No one around here complains.

There is a lot of old information out there regarding heat and the tvs. The newer tvs are better than the first ones out. There is a simple test you can do to see if you will have any problems. Test the heat where the tv will be while burning a really hot fire. I have a new energy efficient woodburning fireplace with a blower. That door will burn you- it burns with doors closed. The air that comes out is really warm. I have a 8" mantle with tv hanging a few inches above the mantle. It is recessed a few inches back. There is literally no heat beyond the mantle. The wall the tv is mounted on is not hot either, from the chimney pipe behind it. The pipe is only warm within 1" of it.

As for viewing. You do need good distance to view a tv over the mantle. I also think you need the right sofa. Our family room is where we watch tv and play games. We like to kick back, curl up and enjoy. Because the sofa is so comfy we found that with our projection tv our necks were actually curling downwards to see the tv. Now that the tv is higher, as we are scrunched down on the sofa, our necks are at a much better angle. DH tends to fall asleep watching tv without a neck pillow. We always had neck aches after watching a movie. We no longer have that problem. Initially I thought it was ackward watching the news while drinking coffee in the morning. But it is such a short amount of time, I do not even notice it anymore. Now my sis has a really stiff, formal sofa in family room and she likes to set up super straight with feet on ground while watching tv and so this would not be a good idea for her.

As for the big black monster in the family room. My room is a long room with kitchen on one end and family room on other. I have black counter and appliances. The fireplace across the room is black iron. We agreed on a 42" with a 50" as a possiblity. Not one person has commented on the black monster. It actually balances the appliance color in nearby kitchen. There are ways to camoflage the tv with panels that slide across, etc. We were going to do that but this is a tv room, the panels would always be open. Plus with the surround sound system the room has turned into an total family room.

One person mentioned one time about the fire distracting you while watching tv, never has bothered us at all.

A great way to see how your black monster will look is to take a piece of black paper and put it where your monster would be. Sit back and watch. Live with it for a while. It really made it easier for me.

My issues would be the visability of it and the placement of wires. How are you going to connect the cable, vcr, dvd, cable box etc etc? We have about ten things connected to our big tv.

Ideal height of the TV screen is such that your eyes are level with the middle of the screen (while you are seated).

Most TVs hung above fireplaces end up being too high. This makes for uncomfortable viewing. so you can choose between discomfort and aesthetics.

Our tv screen (movies only) is a 37" LCD and sits in a built-in cabinet that also houses the gas fireplace. So far we've had no heat issues and the angle of viewing is extremely comfortable. We watch this screen from two loveseats (or chairs and a half) at right angles to each other with a huge ottoman in the L made by the chairs. These put our eyes about 9 feet away from the screen.

Most new homes do offer a cable hookup above the family room or den fireplce, so lots of people must be doing this.

Oh let me share....lol :)

I love sharing something when it can benefit someone.

We were lucky to be able to do our tv install as we tore out the old fireplace to put in a new one. Not everyone has this ability so one needs to get creative.

We installed an HDMI cable to the tv. It is the only wire that goes to the tv. This then plugs into the receiver that all the other junk plugs into. So if you have your cabinet of junk in the room with the tv you only have to hide one wire.

To hide the one cable you can do several things. Baseboards and crownmolding hide wires nicely. You would have to install a plate behind the tv which has a connector on it. The hdmi cable would go from tv to the connector on the plate. Then another cable would go behind that, up inside the wall, along the ceiling hidden by crown molding, then down the wall to another plate that sits in front of your media cabinet. The cable would run from the lower wall plate to the receiver inside.

If you do not have crown molding but do have baseboards you can do the same process but you will have to be a little more creative. I actually ran my wire from the crown molding down to the floor by cutting a tiny hole in the drywall in the corner of the room. I crammed the wire in the crack and filled it with caulk. I had to do this because the wall had a window on it and the framing did not allow me to bring the wire down through the wall frame.

HDMI wire can be really expensive. But there are websites that sell at tremendous savings. We got a $50 pc of cable for $6. With all the savings we took this install to another level. We ran the cable around the baseboards and into the adjoing room where we have an office. The media cabinet is in there. We used one of those radio remotes (infared or whatever you call it, it was less than $100) and now have no media in our family room. With simple programing we now hit one button to watch tv, listen to the radio or watch a movie on dvd player. The one button tells each necessary device to turn on depending on what we are doing. No need to turn on the tv, the dvd player, etc. Just click dvd on the remote and it is ready to go. Many folks put the system in a nearby closet also.

This install would have cost us a lot of money if we hired out, but doing it ourselves with a little bit of research on what can be done and where to buy the stuff reasonably is what made this possible. You do not need to hire a pro every time.

Another good thing to remember is that the viewing distance for tvs is really important. Too high and too close will make you miserable. Really sit in your room with the black paper on the wall before you do this.

We love ours....I just posted a pic of it in the thread above about cream furniture with white trim...I think every situation is different...but it works great for us. The only time I was worried about the heat is when the power went out so the fan on our gas fireplace wasn't working....but otherwise it's never been a problem...the height is great too! Good luck with your decision too...you are getting lots of advice/feedback!

We have our great room TV over the FP. The room is large and the sofa is far enough away that viewing is not a problem. The TV is hidden behind sliding doors when not in use. People are surprised when I show them the TV. Our was new construction, so it was easy to do. We did build in a niche above the FP so the TV front would be flush with the wall. There is a large niche (was a closet actually) to the right of the FP that we put shelves in to house the equipment. We also have an infrared remote control that does it all with the door shut.

Not that I'm judgmental, but hanging a TV, plasma, LCD, DLP or otherwise is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of and those who do are the most aesthetically-challenged people in the universe. The only thing tackier than a gas fireplace is a flat screen TV over a gas fireplace--I would imagine people who would do such a thing wouldn't have a problem with plastic flowers, pink flamingos in their front lawn, laminated "hardwood" floors and all the other tacky features found in modern-day new construction. Have fun at the chiropractor, Folks!