Room size for Home Theater?

I have a friend who did a 7.1 H/T set-up in a 12' x 9' room. You have to go out of the room to change your mind on which DVD to watch!

This room is not that small - you will just be limited to 3-4 seats. I would recommend a front projection system since this will give you the best theater experience and it will allow you to maximize the distance from your seats to the screen. If you put the screen on the short wall, at a 12-13 feet seating distance you can use an 6-6.5 foot wide 16:9 screen fairly comfortably (seating distance is approx 2x the screen width). Most front projectors have throw distances that will accomodate this. The Sony VPLHS20, which I have, set at a throw distance of 12 feet, to allow for projector and cable depth, will accomodate this range easily. Projector Central has calculators for several projectors that allow you to determine if a projector you like will work at a particular distance.

As others have recommended, monitors and a sub will work the best in a room this size. It may end up being fairly live sounding so some absorptive panels on the side walls at the first reflection points will probably be beneficial. With a 6 foot wide screen, and seating at 12 feet away from the screen, I would set the front speakers about 8 feet apart (on centers) and 2 feet away from the front wall. This will allow for good imaging and won't block any of the screen for viewers off axis.

Your primary room modes are at 40 and 47Hz. By crossing over the sub at 80Hz you can deal with any room boom by reducing the sub level and by experimenting with sub placement. I doubt you'll need bass traps.

Thanks for the responses....helpful stuff.

The room will have just a love seat for me and my wife, so seating isnt a problem.

Thanks again!!