Is there anyone who has spent some time viewing a Plasma Screen mounted over a standard height fireplace ? I am guessing a fireplace that is about 5 ft high so Plasma would be higher than that.

The seating or slouching locations would be about 15 ft back from fireplace.

I realize from reading other posts that this is above the optimum viewing angle. But there are a lot of people who are mounting them above fireplaces these days.

The better half is thinking about doing this. I just think I am going to feel uncomfortable looking up that high.

I would really like to hear back from people who have done this and what do they think.

-Don B

Don,

You can mount the plasma over a fireplace and still have a decent view if you will install the plasma, or have it installed professionally, with a tilt-down bracket. Most of these type of brackets will allow a 10 to 15 degree tilt at the top of the unit so as to relieve most neck strain. This will never be the optimal setup but you could probably live with it. You can also get the better half to sit and look at a painting or piece of cardboard placed where the plasma will go, for a few hours and see if your neck starts to hurt or if you can find a comfortable position to sit.

Just my $.02

av,

Thanks. I have a wide screen 17 inch Dell TV/Monitor that I think will fit on top of the fireplace mantel. It of course will be smaller than a Plasma but at least I won't have to stare at a still painting for two hours to check neck strain.

I also am clueless how wires could be routed. The fire place is on the first floor so I can't run wire between studs and up above because I would have no place on the 2nd floor to access the wires for pulling.

I could drop down from the plasma to the crawl space but how do I wrap around the fireplace ? I obviously can't drop straight down from the Plasma.

It is a wood burning fire place and the flue and mortar/brick section is finshed off with dry wall. I don't think there is a lot of free space behind the dry wall and I think it is against fire code to run wires inside that area anyway.

I figure that a false wall could be built out over the fireplace to place the Plasma over so wires could be hidden inside the false wall but I still need to get wires to left or right of fire place in order to hook up power an video connections. AND I am clueless how you can drill holes at right angles thru studs that are hidden behind drywalll without first removing it all.

I asked Circuit City last year about install over the fire place and learned that even the AC line is a problem as it is against code to run the Plasma power cord thru the wall and out to a receptacle. Instead you have to run approved house wiring to the Plasma along with a receptacle to plug the Plasma in to.

All I can say is that TV ads sure make it look simple when the place a Plasma over a fire place.

-Don B

Don,

I would recommend that you hire a custom install company to do this install. If it were a simple 'hang and bang' type install, I might attempt to walk you through it. Since you are dealing with a 'true' fireplace, real brick and mortar job, you would save money in the long run hiring someone. The electrical outlet required to power the plasma will need to be installed by a certified electrician, make sure he installs a 'clock plug' as the outlet type. Hanging a plasma is made to look easy on tv so you will buy one. Real life is rarely like the tv, as many of my customers have found out in the past. Dont feel bad, this is a common situation and any good local installer should be able to handle the install for you. That is what we do.

To be honest, your sheetrock will probably have to be cut in a few small places. Our company doesnt cut 'rock' unless we just cant do it any other way. When we do this we repair, sand and re-paint all areas that we cut, by way of a staff member or a professional sheetrocker if the customer requests. This would be something to look at in a custom installer, their ability to handle ALL aspects of an install for you. Most companies that have done this for a while will have aligned themselves with other trades and be able to offer you the simplicity of writing just one or two checks.

Good luck.

go for a Panamax MAX in wall

I just installed a Mitsubishi PD-5030 over my fireplace with very satifactory results. FWIW, I used Artison speakers which mount on the sides of the plasma and simulate a center speaker. The sound is excellent and the esthetics are the best you can achieve (IMHO). The surface of the TV is about 9' from the viewers eyes. The bottom of the screen itself is 57" above the floor. The screen is 25" high making the center of the screen 69 1/2" above the floor.

Positioning the center of the screen above your eyes has some real benefits: It eliminates any possibility of reflection (except maybe ceiling light). And it encourages a relaxed (reclined) viewing position. My wife and I love it.

This installation is is a vactation house. I much prefer it to a conventional media room setup in our main home.

I have installed some plasmas over gas firplaces with good success and no issues re: heat, etc thanks to added fans and ventilation schemes. I would be a bit leary of hanging a plasma in front of a real wood burning fireplace although I'm sure it has been done. I just worry about too much heat from a raging fire damaging the screen. With a gas fireplace you can be sure of a consistent factor of heat and allow for that factor

Also, what if someone forgets to open the damper, lots of smoke and sometimes flames lapping up over the hearth. Only takes once to destroy a nice plasma. You would have to be extremely careful when operating the fireplace.

I recommend the mantle be rather deep front to back to direct the rising heat outward.

I am not quite sure what damage smoke would do to the glass front of a Plasma. Would it etch it ? Isn't the glass front a proctective barrier covering the Plasma cells ?

If the Plasma was on and it sucked in smoke it may cause some internal damage as it pulls the smoke across the internal circuitry.

I did do a heat check as per some info I had on a Plasma over the fireplace with a thermometer. It never got hot on the wall where I would place the Plasma even with a raging fire.

But getting the fireplace to run on wood/gas would not be a bad idea so that when you have the plasma on you use gas only.

What is a 'clock plug' ?


Bruce was yours a new or existing installation in your vacation house?
-Don B

This comment doesn't make sense to me. I can understand with an LCD why tilting the display would help, since LCD's have a fairly limited vertical viewing angle. (They have to, that's how the crystals block light.) But the plasma does not have this problem.

This can't relieve neck strain, as no matter how much you angle the TV from the wall, you'll still be looking up at the same angle, as the location of the bottom edge of the TV hasn't moved! (Maybe the top of the TV will have moved in the vertical plane by an inch, but not enough to help this situation.)

I've actually tried this setup, and have found it to be a real pain in the neck! (Pun fully intended.) We didn't have any recliners, and would invariably find, that after about an hour of TV viewing that we had a good case of "stiff neck".

How bad is your viewing angle? An easy way to measure is a protractor and a laser pointer with the dot on the center of where the screen will be. This will tell you how far back you're going to need to recline to achieve a good ergonomic viewing angle.

If you don't own the plasma yet, a front projection unit with a drop down motorized screen woulld work well. The screen can be made to drop down to the correct viewing height, it will need to be mounted to the ceiling, or in the ceiling, far enough forward that it misses the mantle. The Stewart Screens website has some good info on these.

The issue with the front projector will be ambient light. During daylight hours you'll need to limit light into the room with blinds or shades. (It doesn't need to be dark, but definetly shouldn't be bright.)

Let us know what you end up doing, and how it works out.

Good Luck!

Don,

Mine was a new installation over a newly installed gas insert fireplace--moderate well dissapated heat and no smoke. I also had a large cool void inside the wall between the firebrick and the wallboard. So I built a removable inset bookcase next to the fireplace and above the electronics cabinet to access the wiring. It is really slick--except....

No matter how much you plan something always bites your butt. In my case, you cannot see the front of the cabinet and the TV at the same time. (They face 90 degrees apart.) And I stupidly installed an Integra receiver because I wanted a single component cable between the receiver and the TV. (The Denon model that does this was not available when I needed it.) After many hours of effort I have not been able to find a discrete sequence to use the integra specific surround modes. (They use a circular selection process--forward and back--always starting from the last mode selected. This, of course, is a remote programmers nightmare. I'm still thinking about this but I am not optimistic. I should have installed Yamaha and run the extra cable.

Bruce

Please read this article about Plasmas over a fireplace on:
www.plasmatvbuyingguide.com

J. Bond

Great site !