With an analog signal the archaic TV can tune to channels 2-13 and maybe some UHF. Or that's how I'd think it would work. As far as I know, which may not be too far, all US TV cable and broadcast have been digital for 4-5 years by FCC rulings. this was to permit OTA HDTV possible.
I'll try to provide some assistance here. But to be honest, I've got zero firsthand experience with your particular ATI 750 USB tuner card (is it a Theater 750 USB like this one?). However I do have firsthand experience with the ATI 650 PCIe tuner card (installed internally).
I used that ATI tuner card back in Windows XP (with Catalyst Media Center as the TV/DVR app), and then also when I went to Win7 (initially with BeyondTV as the TV/DVR app, and eventually with Windows Media Center as the TV/DVR app),
Now my setup did not use my TWC cable coax as the source into the TV tuner card. I have a pretty good roof antenna, which I used to feed the 650 PCIe card OTA/ATSC (which uses 8VSB modulation as the digital tuner technique). Note that OTA/ATSC digital TV (which is the way all US over-the-air TV now works... there is no longer analog NTSC over-the-air, everything is now digital 8VSB) is how the TV tuner card is designed to work when you feed it a roof antenna input signal.
However the driver support for the 650 PCIe card (and also for your 750 Pro USB card, if that's what it is) can also support "clear QAM" input, which is the digital modulation method used by US cable systems delivering content over coax. Again, this is digital and not analog, and without a STB/DVR requires a TV tuner (or TV tuner card and drivers) that supports QAM in order to tune to these digitally-provided channels.
"Clear QAM" basically means that those channels are sent over the cable network "unscrambled" so you can receive them without a cable receiver. However the tuner (in a TV, or drivers in a TV tuner card in your PC) must support the 64QAM or 256QAM modulation method.
Now normally, a cable subscriber such as yourself would have a "cable box" (or STB, or DVR, or cablecard in a TV/TIVO) to support receipt of "scrambled/protected" channels as well as the unscrambled/unprotected "clear QAM" channels... all of which are provided in a digital form on the coax coming into your house. Without a settop box or equivalent from your cable company, you will only be able to make use of unprotected unscrambled channels... such as the local networks (which could be received over-the-air for free by a roof antenna if you had one)... if the tuner in your equipment is capable of accepting QAM.
Now, most cable companies recognize that some of their customers will not have newer digitally-capable TV's (which have a built-in QAM tuner, so that you can just connect the coax directly to the TV to receive the unscrambled channels delivered in QAM). So they may provide a "digital-to-analog" converter for free (which was offered several years back at no or little charge, when the US was undergoing its analog-to-digital transition), to allow subscribers to continue to use their old analog-only TV's and not require a new digital STB/DVR.
Although I don't have an old analog TV any longer to confirm, I don't believe TWC/LA (where I live) now delivers anything but all-digital channels on their coax, which means I could NOT use an old analog-only TV with an old analog NTSC tuner (capable of tuning analog channels over-the-air from a roof antenna) any longer if I connected the TWC/LA coax directly to that TV.
But from what you describe, that you can connect your cable company coax to your old analog-only TV and you can actually get channels, that tells me that your cable system is still providing at least SOME channels over the coax in a form usable by your TV. Can you tell me what channel numbers on the TV actually work? what is the brand/model of the TV? Do you have two coax connectors on the back... one for VHF/UHF roof antenna and a second for "cable"? If you have two separate coax connectors that suggests the "cable" connector goes to a QAM tuner in the TV, which certainly has been around for a long time so it's not impossible.
I suppose it's possible that your cable company is still providing analog NTSC channels on your coax (unlike my TWC/LA which is ALL-DIGITAL on the coax, requiring QAM tuners).
Ok. According to the specs on your 750 USB card (if I'm looking at the right one), it should support BOTH (1) digital OTA/ATSC via 8VSB from a roof antenna, (2) digital unprotected cable channels via QAM from coax, and (3) analog NTSC channels (presumably from a roof antenna, but I suppose it could also work if your cable system still delivered some low channels in NTSC form for old TV's). There's an F-type coax connector.
Before going on, can you provide more detail.
Where do you live, and what is your cable provider?
What is your TV? Does it have one or two coax connectors on the back? Is there a "slide switch" for "UHF/VHF" vs. "CABLE"?
What channel numbers can you tune to with your TV when the cable coax is connected to it?
My new HDTV Westinghouse can see both ATSC HDTV channels and NTSC channels.
I have watched channel 51 which is NTSC and has snow just like old TV do with a weak signal.
AFAIK, low power local broadcasters can still use NTSC.
No, the usb 750 will not tune in analog signal. By the way the Hauppage 1191 will. I have 65 analog channels coming i n from time Warner directly through no box. 750 will not detect. I ordered a Sabrent Analog tuner which picked up all channels imediately. I display them on an older VGA monitor as it has this as an output also. Works great, has many functions. But, to display everything for over the air Broadcasts, Digital or Analog, the Hauppage 1191 is the ticket. I tried various software, the Media Center was the best as you can resize TV anywhere on your computer.
Says it all, I guess ...I have a misunderstanding of the tuner and the channels being tuned.
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