Alan, i would guess the dog is drinking up some spilled beer..
Dave, i vote you just take out the fireplace.
i feel for you, the people who though it would be a great idea to put the plasma above the fireplace were not into HT stuff at all. you said the bottom of the TV is 7" from the mantel, how far is the bottom of the screen from the mantel? it looks like there is 1-3" of bevel around the bottom of the plasma, so that would give you almost 10", you didn't say how deep the mantel is. the VP-150 is only 7.5" high but is also 7.5" deep.
i would try to push the polks out a little bit farther from the tv, i think you will get better imaging that way.
I believe Alan has said before that the M80's only need to be an inch or 2 from the wall for effective porting.
