My parents use a TV antenna and just got one of those new boxes...?

Question

When they watch The View on ABC, a black rectangle appears and blocks about half the screen. What's up with that??

Answer 1

I'm not sure what you mean by a black rectangle, but try the zoom or aspect button on the remote control to zoom the image to full screen. HD stations broadcast a rectangular 16:9 aspect ratio image, whereas the old TVs are 4:3 aspect, almost square. The zoom lets you choose how to best fit the image. Some modes may cause distortion though, like by making people look either fat or skinny.

Answer 2

It is probably stuck in closed caption text mode.

Check this on both the converter's  and TV's remotes:

Find the "CC" or "closed caption" button on the remote. Press it several times until it clears all the caption/text screens.

If this isn't the problem, add the model of your converter to your questions