my own "tivo"

Right now i have a hitachi high def TV in the basement, unfortunatly i haven't been able to provide the tv with and high def. so i'm thinking about buying a tiny shuttle size barebone computer and specialize it into a pvr. I'm not sure what the requirements would be for the project. I'm already covered on hard drives but as far as giving the tv the picture from the computer and giving the surround sound system the sound, i don't know what i should get. luckily the tv does have a DVI input in the back. Thanks in advanced.

The hardest problem will be getting an HD tuner card for the PC.
I've tried a couple and they do not produce quality signals.

You'll want a high quality sound card for the PC and feed those signals to a decent audio system. Get very good quality speakers. Don't use the stuff made for PCs as it has highly inferior sound reproduction.

You'll also need internet access for obtaining programming schedules from a site such as Titan TV.

i've already got some quality speakers for the sound system, i haven't checked yet but i'm sure the audigy x-fi has an optical output, right now on my current computer, i have an ATI HDTV Wonder, and it's not too bad, although i haven't tried it on my TV. Another concern i have is that i've tried to hook my PC to my tv using the DVI cable and it was blurry as hell, not sure if i was just at the wrong resolution or what. But as far as the components inside, i have a spare 2400+ lying around that i could probably use, and 512 rame should be sufficient correct?

The manual for your HDTV should indicate the proper video input properties.

I ready somewhere that you said the FusionHDTV 5 GOLD PLUS was the best HDTV card on the market ua549. Is that still true? Also for a motherboard for this project, the AOpen, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813137067 , motherboard seems to be the best fit. But will the video card on that mobo/andor the processor be powerful enough to handle the job, or should i find a different HDTV card that has a decoder built into it, if i'm getting that right.

Yes, I said that. I purchased one, but IMO the image quality just isn't as good as it should be even though it is better than the competition. I can tell the difference between using the HDTV tuner built into my 55" set using OTA HD signals and signals sent from the PC to the HDTV.