52" Over Fireplace Setup

My living room is soon to get an upgrade. My 32" JVC SD TV will hopefully be replaced by a new 52" LCD. I have been lurking and researching for about a month now, and I'm getting close, but I'm posting my results and asking any further imput.

Issue 1, the TV. Samsung LNT5271F, Sharp LC-52D82U (or 62U) are my front-runners. I don't like the Sony bezzle design at all, so XBR's are out, and I'm sticking to LCD so Plasmas are out. Probably going to order online to see if I can skirt the sales tax and get the cheaper rate.

Issue 2, cabling. I'm mounting on the fireplace, which means cabling's gonna be tricky. I'd rather not have 12 cables running from the TV to my stuff, Any tricks out there to keep it clean with just one or two cables?

Issue 3, Heat. Gas Fireplace with a line of venting holes in the brick about 4 feet off the ground. If I mount above the venting holes, and the tilt mount gives a bit of space between the brick and TV, am I pretty safe here? No cables melting, no TV burning, etc.

Issue 4, I'm a n00b. What am I forgetting to consider? I have an amp to feed my speakers and does video source changing for my current SD TV, not sure if it has HDMI outputs, but it does have fiber channel imputs for audio. I'll probably need an updated Comcast box for better HD feeds, and a new HD Tivo is on the wishlist. (Comcast is starting to have TiVo set top boxes combined and that would kick arse!). I have someone who can confidently drill into brick to help mount the thing, and I'm not worrying about Blu-Ray or HD-DVD until I get a new game system.

Thoughts please?

Thanks guys, have you guys gotten close to specific choices? I'd love to hear some of the results of your research as well. The TV is driving me absolutely nuts because I keep going around and around on different TV's. My budget is somewhere around $3000 for the TV ($500ish for the additional parts needed for the setup). So the Samsung is pushing that envelope, the Sharp LC-52D92U is a bit high, but the 82U seems REALLY similar but there's a lot fewer reviews out there on it.

Even Plasma keeps tempting me over with lower prices and improved visual quality. How much is burn-in an issue really? I watch football, hockey, play games with my Wii and PS2 and Xbox360, and my room is not light controlled at all. This seems like Plasma is not the best choice for this environment, yes?

Cabling concerns have reduced now that I've actually priced out cables. HDMI cables for $10? Wow is that different. I can get a 12' cable from Amazon for $28 and that's not going with the lowest price. So I'm much less concerned about this as long as the fireplace doesn't melt the cables. I might just light the fireplace and let it go for a few hours one evening and feel the brick and get an idea of the actual heat up there, but I don't think it's that bad.

At this point I'm just watching prices on the 52" models to see if anyone takes a dip as the holidays get closer. Anyone know if there's anything new expected between now and December? New products, new deals, anything that might effect pricing? This holiday season is expected to be slow, so most are expecting B&M stores to ramp up incentives to stick with them, but no one is close to the online prices.

Well I lit the fire last night for a couple hours to test the heat output, and it certainly does radiate a significant amount of heat up along the wall. Luckily the gas fireplace doesn't put out a lot of soot at all, so I should be safe in that respect. It's pretty much that if we want to use the fireplace at all (and we do) we're going to need a shield to help redirect the heat away from the screen. I don't think it'll be too big a deal, so I'm a lot less worried about that.

There's another thread talking about the different Sharp model lines and I'm having a really tough time figuring out what's the best choice. Either the 52D82U model or the cheaper 52D64U. The 82U has the 120Hz, but the 64U has a better video processor to properly deinterlace and handle 3:2 pulldown.

Well after way too much reading and pondering I've got my top 4 choices.

Samsung LNT-5265F - Motion processing could be a problem but great screen
Sharp Aquos LC-52D64U - Cheapest and 4ms response
Sony Bravia KDL-52W3000 - Sony makes a killer machine
Sharp Aquos LC-52D82U - If only the 84 were out... worth the wait?

None of them are perfect... I go back and forth on the top 2 and the Sony I'm just unsure about. Argh!

>> You're overanalyzing, dude

This I know. But I'm not yet allowed to buy, and once you start analyzing, it's like a sickness, I just can't stop!

Texstrobe, I really want to stick with 1080p, if not for today's content then for the content 5 years from now. Sharps 92U line is too expensive as is the XBR4 (and I don't like the bezel design). Ideally I might wait for the 84U release from Sharp, but I don't know when that is and I'd rather not be the first adopter of the new product. Really it's a fight between the 64U and 82U right now. Just got to go in and see it.

It is done. The TV is now on it's way and I'm excited. Sharp Aquos LC-52D64U is my final choice at this point. Next will be the game to make everything fit on my fireplace and take a thousand pictures of the process to share with everyone.

It is here, it is hung, and oh boy is it beautiful!

Best place to start I believe is from the beginning. I ordered my TV off Amazon for the great price. I placed the order on 11/5 and the TV shipped the next day through AIT Worldwide, who called me to verify the delivery address and my preferred phone number. They called again on 11/9 to arrange a delivery time for 11/13 between noon and 3pm. I happily took the day off from work and cleaned the house obsessively waiting for the delivery.
The delivery truck finally showed up at 3:55pm and I was just happy he finally made it. It was just one guy in a rented delivery truck so I went out to assist him bringing the giant box in. I could have waited for him to do it and probably should for liability reasons, but I didn't want to see him struggle with my new investment.
We set down the box and he wanted me to sign for delivery right away, but I asked if I could open the box and verify it was in good condition. He was kind enough to help lift it out of the box and I verified the TV had no obvious problems. Didn't get to hook it up and turn it on, but I signed anyway and he left. He was a nice enough guy, but I was hoping for two guys and some assistance getting it onto the stand and making sure it would turn on. Oh well.
So I parked it on the stand by myself and hooked it up to the TVBlink.com DVD I'd prepared. Testing with factory settings, I saw only the faintest of possible bands, just one large horizontal one that is extremely faint. The weight of the world completely lifted at that point.
My friend came over right away to help me mount it over the fireplace. I'd picked up a Universal Mount from Premier Mounts http://www.premiermounts.com/product.asp?PartID=1270
We sunk 8 bolts into the brick and the mount was rock solid. It's actually a bit too solid and is difficult to move out, but I'm very confident in it's hold on the TV.
I've now watched TiVo HD content, SD content, and DVD content from my PS2. I don't have an HD-DVD or BD player so can't test that yet, but it's fantastic. Everything I could have asked for and more. I'm so glad I went for the 52" (wife is disputing that a bit).
We're still waiting for a new mantel shelf, and a new AV cabinet and a bookshelf addition, so it's not finished yet. The wires are just hung wherever for now. I'll post a complete picture once the rest of it comes in.

So here are the pics.