if it is in the audio section, other than the amp for the speakers, then even the line out will be garbled. more likely someone busted the speakers or they dry rotted.

I don't have any direct experience with speaker bars, but I can try to answer your questions anyway. Firstly, can you use a speaker bar but use your rear speakers? I think the answer is yes, but it depends on the speaker bar you choose. If the bar has a separate set of binding posts for each channel, then I guess you could do it, and part of the speaker bar would never get used. I looked at a few bars after reading your post and a few of them used optical audio connectors instead - something like that you wouldn't be able to separate the channels out. So make sure you know what the inputs on the back look like. Also, I found one or two units that only have the front and center channels on them (no rears). Something like this might be ideal for you since you don't have to worry about paying for extra speakers in the bar that you are not using. You could still send your rears back if you want, get a full speaker bar. I don't see how they could sound as good as a nice set of independent speakers, but most folks are not picky enough to care. Also - if you want any kind of punch in your bass, you'll still want a separate subwoofer, even with the speaker bar. Again, you might not be picky enough to care.

Beagles - I think we had that before as well. TV was smaller though so it fit the length perfectly. I think our TV is also a 70" - the true measurements are 37 1/2" x 65 13/16". Yours looks nicer than I think ours would (being unevenly matched in width) because you have the cabinet to define the boundaries, plus the shadows help. I will have to look around for side speakers like RoseAbbey has - if they match the height, I could definitely accept that. Homepro, thanks for the link. Those would be OK, again, ideally if it's the right length.

You could certainly do blue and red or blue and yellow in the family room. But blue, yellow and red starts to look like a crayon box and I don't think you're going for that look. I'd do red accents (red, blue, grey and black). We have that color scheme in our house since my husband and I don't like yellow, and red and blue are about the only colors my husband likes. YMMV. Either color will work but not both. Unless you want a multicolored kinda space and I get the feeling that you do not.