It depends on your geographic area.

IMO it depends on how you live. We hate T.V in our living room so have always had a media room insted of a family room off the kitchen . Almost all the families we know have rooms for the T.V and games for the kids When i do design for renovating I almost always put the T.V in the family room and the fireplace in the LR to avoid the T.V placement with the fireplace but if there is the space IMO a media room with surround sound good sounf insulation and low natural light and great seating is awesome and I believe sells well for almost everyone that has a family

a 'media room' with a DOOR THAT CLOSES is a wonderful thing, if the alternative is a family room with a too large tv and sub woofer and surround speakers. if you are only casual tv watchers and wont be adding other equipment, and you are good with everyone in the house being prisoner to the game/movie whatever on the family room tv, thats good too.

i think that if you fit it out flexibly the next owner would enjoy it as a yoga studio, craft room, office, whatever.

There are still plenty of businesses out there dedicated to installing home theaters/media rooms and if you have the space and the interest in the home theater experience, you should! Nothing beats being able to re-create a night at the movies in your own home without the sticky floors and people using their cellphones all around you!

The trend here in new homes is "flex spaces" rather than specific dedicated media rooms. Most families gather in or near kitchen and with open floor plans with kitchen and family rooms, they want to watch TV in this space. So, media rooms have become a bit passé. I think this is a national trend as I see it in "trade" publications and the builders I work with have all (in the 4-6500 sq. ft. size home) have migrated to "flex spaces". But, if this is your forever home, and you want a media centered space, then design it into your plans. I would also design some windows that can be draped with black out drapery or window treatments and some "built-in" closets that can act as "storage for components" so the space could be used as a bedroom. Need to check out codes in your area for "legal bedroom" but generally need egress window and closet.

Do you mean a home theatre?

We design and install home theaters, so I'll say up front that I'm going to be biased.

That said, if you're building the house for you, build a media room or home theater if you enjoy watching shows and movies on something more than a flat panel TV.

If you're building the house to sell, check with a local Realtor and see what they say.

It is a common MYTH that a closet is required in some areas. The truth is that Realtors have taken it upon themselves to make this a requirement to list a room as a bedroom in some Multiple Listing Services (advertising). There is NO legal basis for this. It is merely a bunch of bickering realtors trying to ensure that their listings look more attractive than the listings of others.

Closets have NEVER been a code requirement in ANY model code books in the U.S. The IRC is now used almost everywhere in the U.S. regardless of whether the state has given it an officially different name. The only deviations in the codes are generally limited to climate based conditions. (Closets are not a climate consideration)

Per IRC; A sleeping room, aka bedroom, requires the following: A source of natural light (8% of the floor area)(or artificial light) a minimum of which 50% shall be openable (or mechanical ventilation), a minimum horizontal dimension of 7 ft, a minimum ceiling height of 7'-6", code complying means of emergency egress, a source of permanent heat, and a smoke alarm.

HUD, FHA, and VA do not require closets.

"FHA does not require bedrooms, bedroom closets, or closet doors. The appraiser must consider and appropriately address the potential existence of functional obsolescence."

A room with a closet is counted (generally mandatory) as a bedroom for sanitation purposes when sizing septic tanks and drain fields, but you can also include other rooms in that calculation if you choose to use them as bedrooms. Not having a closet does not exclude it from being a bedroom.

Code reviews in the building department often requires a room with a closet to also have all requirements of a bedroom (egress window, smoke detector,etc), but NOT the other way around. A room with all the requirements listed above without a closet is still legally acceptable as a bedroom. THIS is the confusing part that gets muddied even further by Realtors.

A room with a closet needs to be code compliant for a bedroom, and septic in many jurisdictions, but a bedroom does not have to have a closet. THEY ARE NOT MUTUALLY INCLUSIVE OR BI-DIRECTIONAL RULES. Just because one is true, doesn't make the opposite true.