[TTitus]

My wife and I are building a home and we want to get the absolute best we can for our living room. We have already had speaker wires run to the four corners of the room in the ceiling. We have run RG6 cable from where the speakers come out to where we want to put a plasma TV (above the fireplace). While we have the infrustructure there, we really have no idea what are the best products to buy. We are looking to buy the best we can get at a "reasonable" price. I say reasonable knowing that plasma TV's aren't cheap. We want something 42 inches or larger with good clarity. We also want the best receiver and speakers we should buy. With all this in mind, we have no clue about this stuff or how to tell what's we are buying. Does anyone here have suggestions?


Thanks a million.


Tobin

 

[simonsez]

I guess my first suggestion would be to budget a lot of time for reading in the Plasma Display area: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forum...=30&forumid=40


I am not too familiar with the requirements for plasma displays, but I can almost guarantee you that putting a $3-5000 television above the fireplace is not a good idea. I would start by reading the FAQ. I ended up going with a RPTV, and will be getting a projector this fall so again I don't know all the information about plasmas - but the information is here. The second piece of advice...that I cannot stress enough.... DO NOT make a hasty decision. Even if you run across a "great deal" a bad purchase is far more expensive than paying a little more for somthing that will meet most if not all of your needs. BTW, welcome to the community.

 

[bpape]

If you really want to do a good job overall, PLEASE seriously rethink putting the speakers in the corners. This is possibly the WORST place for them and the place that will emphasize any modal room issues you have.

 

[TTitus]

Actually, 4 corners is more of a generic term.


I made a sound profile at Bose.com that I ran by a Bose representative. He slightly modified speaker placement to the following:
My Room


This is where my speakers are now. I am not set on buying Bose yet. But I used their planning service to help me place my speakers.


I"ve talked to a few people as well that don't feel placing the plasma over a fireplace is a bad idea. Can you give reasons why this is a bad idea? I need to know soon. My home builder will not wait for me to sort these details out to move speaker placement and reinforce the wall in the right spot again.


I've already had the wall reinforced and highly insulated where we were planning on placing the plasma.


If you've got some reasons for not putting it there, I'd definitely like to hear them.

 

[patrickwebb]

Do you have a picture of your fireplace layout? Is it a wood burning fireplace or a enclosed gas burner. I would think the problem would be with a wood burning firplace that would allow some smoke and soot over time...

 

[simonsez]

It may be fine, but the soot issue is a real one - and heat is as well. I have ventless gas logs and have warped/melted more than one candle on the mantle which is at least 2' above the brass hood/guard of the fireplace. I have a raised hearth...yours may be floor level - either way I would imagine it would be a literal pain in the neck to watch TV and movies that way.

 

[TTitus]

Our fireplace is a gas - enclosed fireplace. We hadn't considered anything with suit problems, but we honestly don't anticipate running our fireplace very often. It's more for looks than anything else. However, this is a very valid point I hadn't considered.


Our fireplace sits low to the ground -- not raised hearth. We choose this style of fireplace in consideration of the plasma -- we didn't want viewing height to be uncomfortable. We were going to get a tiltable wall mount as well, if we can find a good recommendation for one.


Any more suggestions or warnings everyone?

 

[TTitus]

I wanted to add another bit of informaiton today. I went to Tweeter to ask about what I needed to run plasma from where I was. Yes, I know I should have asked this sooner -- here or at Tweeter. They informed me that I needed at least four, but as many as six RG6 cables and a Cat5 cable running to the plasma location to do an HD plasma with a remote control . I immediately rushed to lowes and bought a box of cable and arrived at my location to find that my dry wall was being put up as I spoke. It's too late to do it the easy way. However, due to the location of my power and cable sources outside, and where I'm putting my plasma, it would be very easy to run this cable outside in some conduit. Does this sound like a bad idea to anyone? Tweeter is coming out monday to give me a few suggestions and a quote on what it would take to implement there plan. I by no means plan on buying my equipment from them, but I might pay off their installer guy to do the work on the side for me. In this whole process of buying a home, it's amazing how easy it's been so far to pay the sub-contractors to do a lot extra. I've already had them do an entire extra room in hardwood instead of carpet for $150 I happened to have in my pocket when I noticed the guy installing my stuff. Anyway, that's off topic. The point is, I need a backup plan now that my dry wall has gone up and I'm open to any suggestions you guys might have.


Thanks again.

 

[TTitus]

Well thanks. I just went back to my room link I posted here to ask for help. Instead of help, I noticed that someone decided to take it upon themselves to modify the room I took all my time on to fit their own needs. Thanks to whomever it was. I guess life is all about learning lessons.