Well since I am still in the construction stage of the fireplace, I can put my mantle high or low. My builder feels I should have a stone FP to the ceiling - while I think that a nice dramatic look, I still think putting the TV up there will be an eyesore. BUT If I just put stone around the lower part - then the mantle - maybe do a recess for the TV - then I could put something over the tv when I'm not using it or don'twant vistors to only notice my TV. Maybe even a miror or tall iron decorative piece. I dont' know... But, I too want to be able to see the TV from my kitchen. I will have built-in next to the fireplace, so my cable box, video stuff can all be tucked inside there. I just had the surround sound speakers put in and they will be putting a sound strip right on the FP - so I guess I almost have to keep it on the FP.. I'd be interested in some photo's too. Lucikly, my wall is long - 24 feet - so I have room to work around the FP if I decide to do that. But, IMHO if you put the tv in built-ins that can be distracting from the FP too... Decisions, decisions. How can I find a photo of beekeepers kitchen?

Ah, come on now, you don't like the sports-bar look?! You simply need to select a location for the equipment, whether viewable or hidden, that has AC power and where you can fish the A/V cables through the wall back up to the television. You then install an IR repeater, or also sometimes called an extender, which consists of an IR receiver, small interface box, power supply, and IR emitters. The IR receiver is typically placed discretely near, or just behind, the television and the emitters are placed in front of the equipment. The interface box/power supply are also connected at the equipment end. The wiring for the IR receiver is fished along the same path as the A/V cables. Now when watching television, and you inherently point the remote at the television to change channels, the IR signal is transmitted over the wiring, through the interface box, and to the emitters, and you have full control of your cable box, DVD player, etc. Neat, clean, and sweet!

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.

It's easy to approximately figure out how much space you will be left with, but 1st you need to know the height of the fireplace heart which can be from 0-12" depends how high you want it to be... what size fireplace are you getting, the height of it... and you have to account for code-compliant clearance above + the combustibles you plan to have, i.e trim, wood surround, shelf or mantel, etc Known all the factors you will know the remaining wall height you left with and you can plan what size of TV you can put up there. Good luck