i would wait as paying for HD is pointless atm as not much is shown in true HD yet plus then thomson box they give isnt very good either.

theres a new pace HD sky+ box in progress at the moment i saw it the other day being tested at work my mate said it's very good and much better then the thomson one which is out now when it was in the same stage of testing.

as for the other question you cant just plug in a sky+ or hd and expect to get the relevent functionality you must ring sky up and they will send a signal down giving you the function to you sky card!

Cheers,

Hardeep.