Last night's DTV call-in brought us some interesting questions and feedback from over 300 callers.  Most of the questions centered around reception trouble and getting coupons; but a surprising number of folks called to ask,

"Why is there a black box on my screen sometimes, and how do I get rid of it?"

This is a feature called Teletext (I use the word "feature" loosely) -- the idea is to use the TV to display text information, though I am not aware of any programming that actually takes advantage of it.  Teletext is a cousin to closed captioning, but instead of inserting small blocks of dialog over the screen like captioning, Teletext inserts a large block over your picture:

Since this feature is hardly ever programmed with actual text, chances are that you will only see a blank box with no text inside.

"So how do I get rid of the box?"

The Teletext box can be created either in your TV or in the converter box; since this seems to be a newly surfacing problem, chances are that the converter is the culprit... especially since the button that makes this happen is right next to the channel change buttons on many remote controls.  Every converter is different, but the three most common models are the Magnavox (sold by WalMart), the Digital Stream (sold by Radio Shack), and an LG with either the Zenith brand (sold by Circuit City and Radio Shack) or the Insignia brand (sold by Best Buy).

Magnavox's converter doesn't have the Teletext feature, so this shouldn't be an issue.  That's good, because changing the Magnavox caption settings is a tedious and confusing process of navigating through menus.

Digital Stream makes it easy:  the "CC" button (it stands for "Closed Caption") is just below the channel-down button.

Keep pressing the "CC" button until the note at the bottom of the screen says "CC OFF".

Zenith / Insignia boxes have a similar caption control button to the Digital Stream, but it is labeled "CCD" ("Closed Caption Display").

Again, keep pressing "CCD" until you see "OFF" at the bottom of the screen.

"Why did this start, and why does the box appear at random?"

Chances are, someone accidentally hit the "CC" or "CCD" button when trying to change the channel.  As you can see from the photos, the buttons are right next to each other, so it's quite easy to do.  Not all programming enables the Teletext box... so if your set has the feature enabled, the box will come and go according to the program or commercial that happens to be playing at the time.  Nailing down an intermittent problem can be maddening... there's nothing harder than fixing something while it's working.

"I turned captioning off in the converter, but I still see the box."

Well, then, it must be coming from the TV itself.  There are too many different sets out there, but look on your TV's remote for a button that controls captioning.  If you don't see an obvious button, chances are that you will need to drill through menus to find the caption settings.  You should find it, eventually...

-- Jeff