First Venture into HDTV

[jphhughes]

I got a 50 inch Panasonic Plasma TV for Christmas. So now I want to upgrade my SageTV box with ATSC/QAM tuners. After reading various posts on the forum it look like the current popular choices are the HDHomeRun and the OnAir GT mobile. I have the following questions and would appreciate any answers or advise from current users of these devices.

1. On the basis of what I have read it seem that you simply need to connect the Cable directly to either device and scan for unencrypted channels (no STB needed). Is this correct?
2. My current needs call for only one HD capture device and one SD capture device. However seeing that the cost of the HDHomeRun is almost the same as the OnAir GT, can I just connect one of the HDHomeRun tuners and not use the second until needed some time in the future.
3. Does anyone know what HD channels are unencrypted on the Cablevision Oakland digital lineup or how to find out? The current batch of HD channels is in the 700 range and includes all of the network channels (CBS, NBC ABC etc) however I am using Cablevision’s Scientific Atlantic 4200HD STB to currently view these.

Regards,