Where the TV should actually go — height, distance, and one thing to skip
The mount height everyone gets wrong, the viewing distance nobody measures, and why the "big-TV-over-fireplace" thing is a trap.
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TV placement is the room decision that quietly shapes every evening for the next decade. Get the height wrong and you'll crane your neck through every movie. Get the distance wrong and either the image is too small or the show becomes wallpaper. Both are fixable — the numbers are known.
Height: the center of the screen goes at eye level when you're seated
For a typical adult sitting on a sofa (~18 inches to the seat, ~24 inches to eye level from the seat), the center of the TV screen should be about 42 inches from the floor. That's lower than most people mount TVs — the impulse is to mount them high because they look bigger up there. Then you spend two hours a night with your chin lifted.
The distance rule: screen diagonal × 1.5 to 2.5
A 55-inch TV wants a couch 82–137 inches (7–11 feet) away. A 65-inch TV wants 8–13 feet. Closer than that and you see pixels; farther and you're squinting at subtitles. If your couch has to be 6 feet from the wall, a 65-inch TV is overkill — a 55 fits your room better and costs less.
The fireplace trap
Mounting a TV over the fireplace puts the screen 60–72 inches off the floor. That's above eye level for everyone in the room. Every design magazine loves this look; every physical therapist loves it too, because of the neck pain it produces. Skip it. Put art over the fireplace, TV at seated eye level on the wall to the side.
The soundbar rule
TV speakers point down and behind the TV; you hear them last. A cheap soundbar directly under the TV changes every scene you watch — dialogue becomes intelligible again, movie explosions land. It's the $150 upgrade with the largest audible payoff in the room.
If your couch is fixed and your TV can move, mount for the couch. If the TV is fixed and the room isn't set up yet, put the couch at 1.5–2.5× the diagonal and never sit anywhere else.