Evening

What are the do's and don'ts is it ok to put aTv above a fire place I see many pics of Tv's above fire places while searching for a new house.

any help is appreciated cheers.

I agree with these
http://lifehacker.com/5993910/why-mo...er-a-good-idea
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/w...cast/gcycumszd

It's generally a bad idea. Leaving aside any heat problems for the TV it will almost certainly be placed too high for comfortable viewing.

Whoops Dunno how the Met Office got there

Ergonomically not a good place......................It's also a bit Chav like IMO.

Show homes and pretty advertising pictures don't need to worry about things like reliability or even things working properly. It just needs to look pretty regardless of how practical it's laid out.

LCD don't have particularly good viewing angles, so not a good idea to have it that high up, the picture could look a little washed out, that's not accounting for the crick in your neck or heat issues.

I personally wouldn't put it any higher than bottom of the screen at eye level when sat.

Decent quality ones do - the main concern about wall mounting (and I've done hundreds) is not to fit it too high.

If it's a cheap crappy set then viewing angle could be a concern, but decent sets are usually perfectly fine.

Has little to do with whether the set is 'decent' or not -- TN panels are used by the big-name manufacturers as well, and they all suffer from poor viewing angles. IPS screens are better, but these come with their own problems.

In order to truly get around the viewing angle issues with LCD TVs you have to spend a *lot* of money -- just about every run-of-the-mill consumer LCD TV has the same problems with viewing angle, and the problem is worse on the vertical aspect than the horizontal.

Sony sets have excellent viewing angles (and have for MANY years), certainly far in excess of any reasonable angle you might want to view from - no idea what type they might be, and no reason to care

.. or simply use a mount that tilts the tv down.
And use seats that recline so you can rest your head while looking up at the appropriate angle. Assuming that you still want to stick your tv above the fireplace...

Thanks for your help guys, the house we are buying has a tv above the fireplace so I just thought we could do the same they have their tv tilted down on an angle which I guess helps with the viewing angle.

cheers

It will help with the viewing angle but won't help with the neck ache.

LOL

It depends on how high it is, how large the room (so how far you sit away), and your particular viewing position.

There seems a GREAT deal of snobbery on these forums about mounting TV's above fireplaces

Yes there are some occasions where above a fireplace may be okay. For example in a bedroom a high position is ideal because you are lying on your back and higher up is better.

However in most cases in most living rooms above a fireplace or anywhere high on a wall is not a good idea. Nothing to do with snobbery just comfort.

Try reading the many previous threads , more about snobbery than 'comfort' - particularly as in many cases above the fireplace is perfectly comfortable.

Yes I can believe that, I've read plenty saying large screens ar "chavvy".

My mum put the 42" Panasonic Plasma that I gave her on the wall above the fireplace & I think it looks absolutely appalling yet she loves it. She even had to put a small blind up in the window (directly opposite the TV) to prevent the glare being too bad. The middle of the screen is about 5.5ft of the ground and they sit no more than 8ft away from it. I can't watch it for more than a few minutes without neck-ache.
We've installed TV's where customers have asked us to put them in the past, only to have a re-call a week or two later to put it where we suggested in the first place!

If in the OPs case there is wiring & bracketing available above the fireplace, why not give it a go, nothing to lose!

I wouldn't call it snobbery, more a compromise, because they probably haven't got the option of a free wall/prime position for viewing, they don't want to knock the fireplace out or they're not allowed.

Seen a few over the fireplace and they are too high, they are not supposed to viewed as if they are paintings. If I had put my 50" above our fireplace in our old house the top of the screen would have only been 8" from the ceiling - it would have looked ridiculous, that's why I ripped it out.

ELH to bottom of the screen or there abouts looks fine IMO, but at the end of the day its a personal choice.

See post #5 in this thread!

time to dust this off......
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=996760

Simple.
1 - Do not put a large screen (or any size tv) over a fireplace = it's for chavs and for gods sake it's an expensive tv why on earth put it above a fireplace.
2 - Don't put any tv over a fireplace.

Oh yeh
3 - get plenty of Ibuprofen gel and heat pads for the neck ache.

Nobody said large screens are "chavvy" however having a 50" plasma fastened over the fireplace then sitting watching it with your curtains wide open saying to the world look at me is.

I think you covered point 2 in point 1.