Chicago Area Comcast HD Confusion

[deipert]

I live in the suburbs north of Chicago. I called Comcast to see what it would take to get HD. I have three STB Comcast boxes and 2 tuners connected directly on the cable. Two Comcast boxes and a tuner are on SAGETV. I understand that I will need to replace the STB boxes to get HD for the channels that I can not get directly off the cable. They said I must get the boxes so when I asked what to do with the tuners without the boxes then they said that it would be OK.

I understand that replacing my 3 STBs will cost an additonal $22 a month. I do not know if I can really get HD directly off the cable or if I have to live with SD. What happens when Comcast changes my service? Do I get QAM for a limited set of channels where I do not need the STBs if I choose not to have them all over the house?

What I want is to use the replacement Comcast boxes for HD and get HD on the cable without the boxes for the limited channels I get now. I need to consider controlling the replacement STBs. My guess is that they are using the Motorola DCT6200 of which I understand I can use the USBUirt. Comcast could not tell me so I may go down to my local office and ask. I just want to know so I can use the SageTV USBuirt controls.

I temporarily tried an outdoor antenna and was astounded to find that I could easily pick up 42 channels on my ATSC tuner. This actually works better than the Comcast SD service I have. Have to wonder how much I want to pay to get HGTV, CNN, CLTV, LIFE. ESPN, TBS and couple of other cable only channels.