Black box in bottom of picture

Here's the symptom: A mysterious black box covers some or most of the picture on your TV, but not all the time. It may not show up on all channels, or sometimes it disappears only to come back later.

No, it's not the picture tube, it's your closed-captioning. Somehow your TV has been set to "text mode", and the screen is being cleared for text that isn't there. On channels or shows where captions aren't being broadcast, there's no box. But the box returns when captioning is being sent.

Many TV set remote controls have a single button to set closed-caption modes, so it's easy to set a TV to "text" without knowing it. (Especially when you have kids who love to press buttons!) Then when the box pops up, it's a mystery.

Simply press the captioning button on the remote, or use the set's menu, to cycle through the settings until you turn captions off. No more box!