How pratical is this? I went on a local tour of big fancy homes and saw this setup. I've always heard people talk about this.

I sat on the couch and viewed Nemo for a bit. The screen looked great of course. I think the angle might take a bit to get used to. They had it installed with a bracket that allowed the screen to be tilted down a few degrees for better viewing.

I'm building a home so I have time to get power and cable run above the fireplace. Well, time being a few days.

Thanks for your thoughts !

I think the angle is extreme, and this is favored by interior designers who don't take that into account. Or expect it to be used as a very expensive picture frame.

That's just my 2c.

If the mantle isn't too high -- it's a great idea. The biggest benefit is that you get to use all the other walls in the room for seating. You also get to face a warm fire while watching movies. Have you bought your fireplace yet? I just installed a ventless fireplace, it kicks out a lot of heat -- actually heats the basement. I didn't install a tv above it, but I have my audio equipment on shelves above it.

tech-

i think the looks of it would be fine.

my concern would be if the heat or fumes rising from the fireplace would harm the plasma tv and screen. from what i have read, the screens on the plasmas are very finicky, so you might want to go to a forum that specializes in plasmas and see what they have to say. i would just hate for you to spend $2000-$5000 bucks on a nice plasma screen, and have it destroyed after one cold winter.

i know i have some discoloration of the bricks directly above the opening of my fireplace(which i only fired up 2 times this winter). now, i believe that is caused by the fumes, but i dont know for sure.. if i had a tv there, the discoloration would be all over it too.. just food for thought.

bigjohn

bigjohn raises a very good point: you don't want to damage your panel with smoke/soot/heat/fumes/etc. However, many people do setup there panels this way. I'd recommend you read up on some of the info on http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/index.php (look for the Plasma forum). Do a search on fireplace and you'll get lot's of excellent analysis on this very topic.

good point Bigjohn when considering a wood burning fireplace. I would probably stick to a gas fireplace for this type of installation. I live in Utah, so I went for one that generates a lot of heat to warm a basement -- a ventless. There is absolutely no issue with putting a plasma above this type. At least I hope not - since I have my audio stuff up there

Bilbo's Plasma Screen:

I'm melting! I'm melting!
What a world! What a world!

Thanks for the info guys. I checked over at AVSForums.com, alot of people mount there plasmas above their fireplace. I also checked with a local dealer who has setup 50 or so, right above fireplaces. He said he hasn't had any problems or had to replace any of them. He mostly sells Sony.

I'm thinking of putting a 42" above the fireplace for the living room and building a HT in the basement. I think this may work out better then trying to squeeze all that stereo stuff in my living room. I had made a post trying to do to much in my oddly shaped living room.

BigJohn - The discoloration on your bricks indicates that you are getting a small amount of down drafting. This is normally caused by negative pressure in the house. Next time, try cracking a window - this should equalize the pressure between inside & out.

Bilbo - Do you have a fan on that unit? On gas units, if the fan is off, the heat rolls straight up the front and warms anything directly above it. We constantly get customers calling in a panic because the "wall" above their fireplace is so hot they can't touch it. (As long as the unit was installed to code, this heat doesn't even approach the flash point of wood, drywall, etc.)

If the fan is running, the heat is forced out into the room, and the wall above stays quite cool.

It does have a fan. I can't believe how much improved gas fireplaces are. It heats the entire room in a short period of time. Plus, it gives me one more remote control to confuse my wife! I will keep the board apprised of the melting of my equipment: the Yamaha 1400 and the denon 2200. The cable box, well -- who cares! If you see a "really hot" Yamaha 1400 on Ebay, you'll know the source.

Here's the potential melt-down. Will keep you posted as plastic and metal starts heating up!
Bilbo's meltdown