Need help with Theater 550 Pro

[sluggo]

The problem: no reception.

I've installed a T550 in my computer and I'm using the PowerCinema 4 that came with it. I downloaded and installed the new drivers from ATI (6.14.10.115). The tuner is identified and the device manager (XP Pro) believes the card is configured properly. I used the setup wizard and selected USA and CATV and PowerCinema tells me the T550 is my tuner. But when I do a channel scan no channels are found. There is a lot of flickering as it searches and the pitch of the static changes, but that's all - no picture and no sound.

The source is my house CATV which is split to my cable modem. The cable modem works and if I connect a TV connected to the cable feeding the T550 will also work.

The T550 is the PCI version. Here is the computer:
MSI P965 Neo
NVIDIA 7600GT PCI-express
Intel 2.4 Conroe
2 x 1 gb DDR2
2 x 500 gb SATA-II
450 W
XP Pro SP2 + all updates
All drivers current - this is a new build

I'm thinking my card is a dud, but I'm open to all suggestions. Any help will be much appreciated!

[sluggo]

I'm thinking that maybe I'm the dud.

I bought two of these cards, one for my mom, one for me. My previous post details what happened with my moms installation. I just installed mine and I'm getting the same response. No TV.

I must be missing something here... install card, connect cable, install software, watch TV. Is there something else I have to do? I can't believe I got two bad cards.

My mom had a KWorld card and it worked fine for almost a year. It stopped working so we bought these MSI Theater 550 Pro's. With the KWorld, I just plugged it in, installed the cd, scanned for channels, and we were watching TV.

What am I doing wrong? We are in two different states with two different providers. TV's connected to the same cables work fine.

Do I still need [my provider's] cable box? Does it do some decoding necessary for these cards to work? I want to get rid of the ancient cable box [my provider] charges me for monthly rent.

Any help? Please?

-Slug

PS - If the answer is RTFM, please tell me where to find TFM.