TV over the Fireplace?

I watch a couple of home improvement / house flip/ house buying shows and I'm constantly amazed at "interior designers" putting a flat screen TV above a fireplace. Aesthetically, I don't think it looks great and if a TV is supposed to be at eye level... well, that's about 4 or 5 feet too high. A friend of mine did this and the short time I was visiting and watching TV, I couldn't stand it. Watching it felt very uncomfortable.

I understand creating a single focal point of a room, or even the potential "space savings", but it's not for me.

This weekend we went through a few open houses, helping a friend who is in the market, and saw this a few times.

Just wondering how the forum feels about this.

 

Hate it.

 

I had a plasma tv mounted above my fireplace in my prior house...…….never again.

 

Okay if you’re far enough away

 

We bought a newly built house over the summer. The wiring for the tv was already installed over the fireplace. Not my first choice, but no where else for it to go in the open floorplan. We ended up buying a new OLED tv to compensate for off-angle viewing. It took a little while to get used to it the height, but I don’t really notice now.

 

No, no, no.

 

I despise it but I've installed multiple ones over fireplaces, including the house that I just finished for my brother. Fortunately in their case it's a very low fireplace mantle, so you're not killing yourself looking up.

Besides the reasons that everybody has already mentioned, it's a giant pain for the installer. The space above the fireplace is generally wallboard on fairly thin wooden strips, mounted to the cinder blocks that make up the chimney. Often the wood is mounted horizontally, which means you have to do cut a lot of wallboard to fish power and signal lines to the television.

And of course, if it's a functional fireplace it's going to generate heat and smoke, two things that are absolutely terrible for a television set.

It is, without a doubt, the worst place to put a television set. And every moronic designer wants to put it up there.

The television set in my apartment is installed so the center of it is right at my eye level while seated on the couch. People are surprised because they gotten so used to the dumb position, until they sit down and watch it and their neck doesn't hurt.

 

my experience is that it's mostly wives that want this and husband's give in to their eternal regret

 

The heat from the fireplace can’t be good for it, and where/how do you run a power and HDMI cables?

No center channel speaker obviously

 

Heat from the fireplace is a lot less painful than heat from the wife.

 

Not only is it above my fireplace but I was the one who pushed for it.

This thread is actually quite entertaining, so far.

 

You have to cut holes and patch. No two ways around it.

I put speakers in the wall on either side of my brother's TV and center speaker over it so I could get the television as close to the mantle as possible. It's not ideal but the brain pulls the sonic image down.

 

Apparently you're a giraffe.

 

Exposed brick fireplaces here, so luckily I have a good excuse to not do this.

 

It only makes sense if you can levitate and hover at the same height as the TV screen:

 

The worst possible place for a TV set, IMHO.

 

Why would you expose a big $$ TV to the heat and smoke/fumes rising from a fireplace? Terrible idea, imo.

A TV should be at eye level for the viewer. Unless you plan on standing, placing a TV over a fireplace is not a good idea.

 

I'm totally against it. Worst place for a TV IMO. I can't believe how many new build homes put the fireplace exactly where the the TV should logically go. It's like the stupid designers really think people are going sit in their chairs and stare at the fire.

 

I've had it over the fireplace since buying it 10-12 years ago. Always seemed right. Still does.

TV was, and will never be, that important that if I don't have a set perfectly positioned I'm going to lose sleep over it. Whatever works, works.

 

And this is from someone who gets paid to look at a TV screen every single day.

 

Late October of last year, I moved into a townhouse built in 1997. There are 7 others just like it, under the guise of an "apartment complex."
Strange to me, there's a large opening in the wall above the fireplace.
Very high, very deep.
Having no intention of breaking my neck, my son, and I decided that would be where the Harmon Kardon receiver, and the Oppo, and the Comcast router would go, along with a few Blu ray box sets.
When I've been able to see inside the other 7 units, I'm amused to see plants, paintings, but no TVs being put in the ugly hole, which I'm guessing was it's intention back in '97 ?

 

If people are going to insist, Monoprice has pull-down mounts, so you can have it up in stupid place when off, or background video, but pull it down for serious watching.



Monoprice Above Fireplace Pull-Down Full-Motion Articulating TV Wall Mount Bracket - For TVs 32in to 50in, Max Weight 60lbs, VESA Patterns Up to 400x400, Rotating , Height Adjustable - Monoprice.com

 

That’s why I never wanted a woman in the house.