We are also building a new home and plan to have the tv over our gas fireplace mantel. Our builder ran the tubing from above the fireplace to the basement and then from the basement up to the study, which is where the components will be kept. I believe we were only charged $50, so yes, $300 sounds excessive. This Tuesday we have Best Buys Geek Squad coming over to look at our setup and recommend a tv size for our space. We plan to have them do the install. One thing that we were told at BB was to have the outlets (power and tube) located toward the top of where the tv will be installed. Of course, ours are located right in the middle of where the bracket would be installed. We'll see how that is dealt with.

I put the TV on a separate wall than the wall which will eventually have a wood burning stove. (The mantle and backdrop is already in place. Right now I am dealing with homeowners insurance that doesn't want me to have one.) I don't watch much TV at all, and I really dislike - for me - having an ugly black box being the center of living room attention. When I have guests over, we're here to talk. I can think of exceedingly few occasions I'd be watching the idiot box with guests. Probably if they were here several days, we'd rent a movie or two via Amazon Prime. (Moot point right now, COVID and all.... but hopefully that won't last...) And with a wood burning stove, the exhaust pipe will go up and bisect the view of any TV over the mantle. I sat down on the couch to figure out the best viewing height - which is well below what the mantle might ever be, at least on this couch. It would be fine if I could lean back and rest my head, to have something over mantle height - assuming I'd go with a regular fireplace. But at six feet tall - there just isn't a couch or sofa like that. Plus as others have said, what about decorations? I enjoy decorating my mantle for various holidays! After all, that's really what mantles are for, right? The thing is off to the side, and it does not get glare there, either.

OP here: It worked good! The Sanus VisionMount VM400 full motion wall mount for $40 off Craigslist works EX-CELL-EN-TE!! Feels as solid as a rock! Oh, it also has the option of pivoting/folding up towards the left or towards the right, which in our case, where our stud was not centered on the wall, was the perfect offset to make the tv pretty nicely centered (the actual mount on the tv is around 3" offset). Like the 20" extention capability & 180 degree swivel feature too. Also, the Sanus website has an installation video which was more helpful than the written directions. So yeah, it worked out well, thank goodness! Thanks to all who responded!

We, too, have a big stone fireplace that is a focal point. There are windows on both sides, so no place for a tv there, either. We opted for a built-in cabinet on the right-hand wall. It is recessed, and I have shutters that close over it (although I haven't installed them yet--it's on my "to do" list). The other side of that wall is the master bedroom. So having a recessed cabinet in the living room allowed me to have a similar recessed cabinet in the master bedroom. Although we were originally going to use it as a tv area on the bedroom side, I opted to make it built-in bookshelves. A benefit to having the recessed area in the living room is having a shelf that I can display something above the tv--breakable things that I don't really want the kitties messing with. We have lighting (on it's own switch) up there, to show off whatever I'm displaying. Below the tv is another shelf where the other electronics are. There is another set of shutters to cover up all that crap...I mean, all that very important electronic equipment. And their cords, since the plug in is located in the recessed area. The fireplace is on the North wall. TV in the East wall. We have a couch on the South side, centered and facing the fireplace. A loveseat and recliner on the West wall, facing the tv. The recliner is kind-of diagonal. We have an open floorplan, and the kitchen is on the Southwest side. From there, I can watch the fireplace AND the tv, which is kind of nice. I don't have it yet, but there will be a large coffee table in front of the couch.