I have my TV above the fireplace, and make no apologies for it. If it's what you want, do it. Common advice though is that the TV shouldn't be operated if the temperature in its spot is 95 degrees or higher-- it's a rather random number, and so far as I've seen, no TV manufacturers have published guidelines in this regard. If you put the set on a table in front of a window, it could easily exceed that temp. Just wanted you to consider temperature if you plan to use both the TV and FP at the same time. As to the wires: if you have a mantle of some kind, it could be modified to hide them. If you don't, you could create one for just this purpose. You could probably also add a wood molding floor to ceiling on each side to marry the granite brick to the surrounding [I'm assuming painted] walls, hide the 'up' wires in it, then you'd only have to worry about getting the wire from the side to the set-- mantle again? Or perhaps if your granite has very wide grout lines, the wires could go between the bricks... Otherwise, given your block walls etc., taking the wiring out doors and in again behind the new TV location might be your best bet. A final option [and the most expensive one] would be to get a stone mason in to look at the problem. It may be possible to remove some of the stone, cut a groove into the block behind it, add the wiring [or better, conduit to hide the wires, and allow them to be changed out later] and re-attach the stone. Don't expect the Sears installer to be much help with any of these issues. They don't have to live with the outcome, so they don't put much effort into sorting out the aesthetics.

I needed to mount a TV above the fireplace because it was really the only place in the room it could be viewed by everyone and not in the way. The mantel of our fireplace is rather high (almost 6 feet) which would put the center of the TV well above a comfortable viewing angle. I spent months searching for a TV mount that could lower the TV to a decent height. I quickly discovered that anything motorized would cost several times what I paid for the TV. Beyond that, there were 2 options: Omnimount or Down and Out by Dynamic Mounting (http://www.dynamicmounting.com/index.php). The Omnimount is cheaper ($200-$300 vs. $400-$500) but an inferior product for my purposes. The Down and Out mount is much thinner (protrudes ~4 inches from the wall) and can lower the TV much farther (~30 inches!). I should also say that I have engineering degrees and tend to do all my own work. I thought about making my own mount but was a bit surprised at both the cost and level of difficulty. The Down and Out was fairly simple to mount on the wall and works VERY well.

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.

"That should cut it nearly flush with the other brick." And make it stick out like a sore thumb. Score slightly if you must then snap it off. If you get a bad break,you can try and clean it up or get a plugging chisel and drilling hammer (small sledge) and take out the whole stone. you might get lucky and find out the stones are only a few inches into the wall and easy to remove. You can ten use the piece to fill the hole. This post was edited by brickeyee on Thu, Mar 21, 13 at 14:45