@Yoda
Yeah, the wall thing can be a pain, but honestly, a good mount and a stud finder, you'd only make MAYBE 4 holes in the wall, more if you're talking a swivel mount. A little plaster and some touch up paint and it's like the holes were never there. Plus, you can buy some wire molding, hide all your cableage, and have the sexiest looking tv in your group of buds. If you really wanna be a badass, check out the new sonos speaker bar, unless you want real surround sound in which case you should get a good home entertainment system and a sonos hookup, or even better a sonos speaker system. If I sound like a sonos rep, I work for a dealer, so I technically am :). The stuff is great though, but the amps are a bit shitty, so avoid them.
@grim
Professionally, I've been an a/v installer for about 5 years alongside my father. Not so professionally, we've been setting up home sound systems for years, probably 15 or so. He's an audio engineer for 30+ years, and has worked concerts, stages, all sorts of venues as a sound guy. He's sort of "legally crippled" though, so now I do the work, he's just a consultant and advisor. I've got a pretty decent understanding of analog and digital signals, carpentry , networking to a degree, and he's got a grasp of sound that you'd get from years of musical background, as well as a background in carpentry and electrical work, video, and telecommunication (though his IT knowledge is lacking, he is an old man after all). We do pretty well, and one thing I picked up from him is don't be a dick about what you know. Share the knowledge. If anyone's ever curious about how to approach home audio and video like that, feel free to shoot me a pm, I'll try to help best I can.
