Viewsonic HD TV

[fla hobo]

Our Viewsonic HD TV gets big black boxes on the screen. It also gets some colored ones, even some with some letters & numbers on it. The other part of the screen comes in good. Sometimes they are only there for a little time others for 30 seconds or more.

Anyone with ideas on this?

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

I know VERY little about this, as we just got our first HD telie, and shhh, don't tell, we are currently running it on a tabletop rabbit ears antenna.

Al explained to me, that the HD is more sensative, and you have to be more "ON" with your antenna placement.

That said we are picking up stations from 3 major markets, and there is at least one all the time weather station. For someone with no cable, no dish, etc. this makes ole Carol grin with glee!

But, I think the answer to your situation is minute adjustment of the antenna??

Now, the techies can all come on and tell us the real reason!

[H. John Kohl]

My belief is you are seeing an incomplete image probably from a weak signal. IF the signal strength is weak and not all of the digital bits made it into the Television to form that picture they have to be filled with something. A similar event is if you use a cell phone on the fringes of the tower; you will hear burps in the audio this is the picture's equal to that. Another or better example is if you have a slow computer connection and are watching streaming video. When the picture pause to let the buffer fill it is the same effect. Except HDTV is not as forgiving and more real time.
Digital is more sensitive than analog. Think of the digital picture as a 2000 piece puzzle and all the pieces need to be delivered at the same time (well figuratively). If some don't make it (run out of power) or are blocked by some other noise then you have holes. The boxes are those holes.
With analog TV's you just get the fuzzy screen or lots of SNOW. Sorry southern folks I had to say that word.
Cheers,

The solution is a better antenna, taller antenna, or tune to a stronger signal.
I hope this helps.
cheers,

[Karl]

I agree with what John said. If the signal is weak for whatever reason, the result will be those "boxes". This will happen regardless of the brand of digital TV you have. There is already an antenna booster in the Montana, so it is doubtful that additional amplification will help. Slight rotation of the antenna may help if there is sufficient signal strength available, but otherwise without moving closer to the signal source, it is unlikely that you will be able to correct the problem without a "higher gain" antenna or a taller antenna or moving that huge motorhome that is blocking the signal. (Just kidding about the motorhome).

[deerrahn]

Check your settings. Expecially the SAP button. I don't know which one it is on your set, but if you happen to have it set for the SAP information to be on the screen it will cause a large black box on the screen and block out most of the picture. Anyway-check your settings on your hand control. I think this will fix the problem.

[simonsrf]

This may be too obvious, but make sure all of the plugs are firmly seated.

[Karl]

The last suggestion is also a good one. Check the SAP and also the settings for closed captioning since one of the CC options also gives a big black box.

[fla hobo]

We can not find any SAP button on our comtrol. We did change the CC from T2 to off. That may help the smaller boxes with letters & numbers in them. Thanks for the input.