I made a HTPC (Home Theater PC) two years ago and it was the best thing I could've done from a Home Entertainment standpoint. I'll give a rundown of what I have and what it's used for, but it'll change a little for you.
My case is an
Antec Overture II, and fits very well with my silver TV. I have a DVD-Rom with the faceplate painted silver as well. I have two hard drives, an 40 GB for OS and programs with a 160 GB for media. The motherboard is an ASUS with a 2.4 GHz P4, although you don't need anything that powerful. My video card is an
ATI AIW 9600 Pro. It has a built-in TV and FM tuner with dual head out and support for HD. The soundcard is a
Chaintech 7.1 that I use for optical out to my stereo system.
The ATI card came with a wireless RF remote that controls not only the ATI software, but other programs as well with the addition of plugins. It also came with Guide+ software that give you the equivalent of free TiVo service for life
The reason I got a 2.4 GHz CPU was so I could use it for gaming as well as a media center. I have USB adapters that let me use XBox controllers with the computer as well as several regular USB gamepads.
The only problem that I can see will be the integration of Direct TV with the computer. I haven't looked in over 3 years but my understanding is there aren't many tuners which can handle a sat. feed, if they still exist at all. The only ones I saw were made for Direct-to-Air broadcasts, like you would pick up on those large dishes some people still have. Everything would still work with a regular tuner except the ability to schedule recording of shows when you're not there.
I'll try to post some pictures and flesh out the hardware when I get home, but I have to get back to work for now
