What an awesome project, Nick. I am very envious of your opportunity to build (4.0?) from the ground up.
The movie storage is a tough nut. Having just spent some time with Ray and hearing him wax rhapsodic about his 9 terrabytes of storage, I again wonder about the relevance of physical media. But - if you have a big movie collection and enjoy the ritual of browsing and selecting disks - good for you. Storage of physical media does "cost" both in terms of the shelves you'll have to buy as well as the cubic feet of your home that you have to devote on an ongoing basis. On a "new, ultimate home theater build", I'm not sure I could justify a bunch of space, but my viewing habits are undoubtedly different from yours. Plus, I've never really liked the aesthetic of DVD spines.
Yeah, I'm not "helping", I know.
a receiver, blu-ray player, hd-dvd player, and satellite receiver
That's NOT a lot of equipment. You barely need a "rack". That being said, you might want a PC in there or some amps or something, someday. I really like the idea of putting the equipment in the wall in the upper right corner of your diagram (the right-rear of the room). Build a little closet type of enclosure that is open (or glass-door) to the theater room, but with heavily damped access to the back of the "rack" from the family room. Personally, I'd sacrifice a little soundproofing to ensure ongoing access to the back of the equipment closet. You could also put network stuff and oddball tech storage in there.
Put an IR repeater at the front of the room or something so you're not clicking over your shoulder.
Fun! Take some pictures and post some wiring diagrams and stuff.
