Originally Posted by KevTN

Hello everyone. Newbie here. I have been researching things for a while but am a bit confused about somethings too.

I am getting ready to redo my den; taking down a wall to put up some builtin bookshelves on either side of my fireplace. Then I am going to hang a flat screen over the Fireplace. I am thinking they are going to have to 'tear' down the sheet rock for the shelves and while they do that I am going to use the oppurtunity run my wires.

My questions are:
1) I am wanting to run the fewest wires to the tv I can. I understand that you can run all of the components to a reciever ie, Digital cable, blu ray, speakers, and xbox and then one HDMI out. Yes No? (I am looking at a 3 HDMI in, and 1 HDMI out)

Yes you can do all this via one HDMI out of the receiver to the TV. Check out monoprice.com for your HDMI cables. Denon, Yamaha, Pioneer Elite all make receivers capable of doing what you need. Personally I'm a Denon/NAD fan. I love my Denon 3808ci (3 HDMI in, 1 out). What make of Xbox do you have? If you don't have a newer model you'll have to run component into the receiver and it will up-convert the signal to 1080p out to the TV.

2) My fireplace is gas. So I am thinking that I can run the wire(s) up the side of the fireplace (hidden by the bookshelf) then go horizonal to the spot I need to pull the wire out above the fire place. Good idea or not?

Ok I'm personally not a big fan of hanging TVs above fireplaces, but I'll ask anyway. How high? How far will you be sitting away from the TV? What type of viewing angles will you have? Meaning the people to the left and right of the TV will lose picture quality the greater the viewing angle. Personally I would rather have my TV right in front of me, not looking up at it, keep this in mind. If you can get the seating far enough back this might be a non issue; seating distance and how high the TV will be are very important.

3) This goes to the size of the screen. Ego say go as big as possible, but I would think that if I go too big it could 'overload' the visual and those who are subject to motion sickness would not enjoy their viewing pleasure. Is there some rule of thumb for this?

Also depends on the size of your room, viewing distance, height of the TV above the fireplace. Also how much do you want to spend, a 60" plasma or LCD will cost you a lot of money (only two choices if you're hanging your TV on a wall). I wouldn't worry about overloading visuals, you'd need a screen the size of a movie theatre to do that.

4)Anything else I might need to know/think about?

Yep, what speakers will you be using? Will you be running a 5.1 or a 7.1 system? Or just using the speakers on your TV - a big mistake if you ask me. How much are you looking to spend?

Thanks, I'm looking forward to any and all answers and gaining valuble information here.

Have a good night,
Kevin

Originally Posted by KevTN

Thanks Mike,

I have the xbox 360 (first generation with a HD).

I am going to do all my measuring tomorrow and I'll post the distances then. I am looking at going with either a 42 or 46/47 LCD. We are wanting to go over the fireplace basically to open up the den a bit more. I can understand what you're saying about looking up and I really have been paying attention to the area we're going to hang it and it actaully seems like a natural angle.

I am 100% sure of my budget alot depends on the shelfs. But I am going to get a TV, blu ray, and surround sound prob. a 5.1.

Thanks for the info...I'll post the dimentions tomorrow...