If all seats face the front, that's good. Theater seating is nice, but if you like couches better, so be it.
agree
However, I don't agree with people who call their living rooms with an LCD over the fireplace a home theater. If it's a living room, then it's a living room, not a home theater
agree, if it does not have the look and feal of a theatre then it is not an HT
Certainly it can be used for those other purposes. A spare bedroom is actually not a bad way to use the space.
they were just some examples to explain why I like the term design over dedicated.
As for the bedroom (obviously a spare) I had a friend that had a large room in the basement (can't remember exactly but something like 12x30 give or take a few feet in each direction) of the new house they bought. He was going to divide it and make a small guest bedroom and play room. Eventually I helped them change their mind, they could not be happier. What they did is end up with a room that is a bit narrower closer to the screen and about two/three feet before the first row. On the left side (looking at the screen) there is a Murphy bed that can be pulled down. On the right side the bottom cupboards are for toys, then above there is some drawers and an armoir for the guests clothes and some place for their disks. There is a lot of room between the first row and the screen/proscenium that can be used
