ah, bummer.
The standalone might be good, since it has a basic tuner built in, I believe. The only "bad" thing is that you can't take advantage of HD w/ your plasma.
If you have OTA in your area (I know, big "if"), you could do what I did for my parents to get HD. On ebay, I bought some Voom receivers for $50/piece. I set them up for OTA and now my parents have HD.
If you're willing to go whole hog, you could get the HD DirecTivo but then you need a dish package. But that is a big charge up front...
