to clean up the cable clutter without alot of expense you may want to try 1 or 2 gang recessed cable plate- some instructions here:

http://www.mosscovers.com/AV_Connect.html

-J

http://www.wiremold.com/diy/pr.....center.asp

i don’t work for them, but i have used wiremold products from the local hardware store to cover, and run wires in a couple parts of my home. Seems like the much simpler soloution. You can paint these guys too, after you’ve got it all up, and then it just disapears into the wall.

Why spend money on a large TV and be dissatisfied with the picture because you’re watching it from the wrong distance or wrong angle?

I challange any of you with fireplaces to put a digital thermometer on top of your mantle and then put one on the top of the vents on a 50″ or larger TV. My bet is that you will get simiar temperature readings. Also, you must not understand a fireplace works. The heat does not radiate right up the wall otherwise the drywall would likely ingnite long before your plamsa stopped working as surface temps would be outragous.

Finally, while a typical fireplace does not allow for mounting a TV at optimal heights, the tilting mounts available today will mitigate much of the issues with the viewing angle of the TV. The visual look ultimately a matter of opinion.

Most people want their TVs at eye level when sitting on a couch. The weird thing is that even if you mount it on a bare wall (no fireplace) at this level, it looks strangely low in the context of the rest of the room. There’s usually a ton of space above it.

I ended up going with setting it on a sofa-table (the kind that usually goes behind a couch.) It’s a little high, but not bad and I already had the table sitting around anyway.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ch.....8418448850

And now I have the SuperWhy theme song stuck in my head again.

We are in the process of finishing our basement, and will be adding extra framing for a future wall mount tv, along with power and cable outlets. We will have the tv over a fireplace, but we are going with an electric fireplace, not gas.

For those wondering about options where you don’t rip out the wall to install wiring, here’s what we did. We have windows on either side of the fireplace, so there’s only a couple inches between the fireplace front and the window frame – not enough space to open up the wall and install wiring. We just tied the cables together to keep them neat and ran them around the edge of the fireplace tiles. Then I put up a garland around the outside of the fireplace as a seasonal decoration that has the advantage of hiding all the wires. It’s not as clean and elegant as in-wall wiring, but I think it looks nice, and it was cheap and easy.

For all the game consoles, receiver, etc, we have a wood cabinet (open shelves in the center section and glass doors on the side sections) under the window to the side of the fireplace. As long as we put away all the controllers etc and close the doors, it looks fine, though there is the usual mass of wires hidden in the back.

Additionally, you may be able to run the wires through your crawl space or behind baseboards/molding once the wires reach the top or bottoms of your walls.

I didn’t make this recommendation in the above article because then I would have been giving advice that was against fire codes.