Flaw found in D-to-A TV converters: shrinkage

Associated Press,

Did my TV screen just shrink?

That's the question a lot of people will be asking after installing one of the converter boxes that will keep older TV sets tuned into over-the-air broadcasts after Feb. 17, when most stations will switch to digital transmission from analog.

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The National Association of Broadcasters estimates that 70 million sets nationwide are in danger of losing their picture.

tested two boxes — the Digital Stream DTX9900 and Insignia NS-DXA1. Each costs $59.99, which can be partly defrayed by a $40 coupon available from the government at www.dtv2009.gov.

They come with a peculiar problem: Unless users manually change settings from show to show, the picture from many stations either won't fill the screen, or it will be so big that parts the picture are cut off by the edges of the screen.

Both boxes, with some programs, produced "windowboxing" or "the postage-stamp effect." This occurs because the digital broadcasts of network stations are in most cases formatted for widescreen HDTVs. The image will be "letterboxed" with black bars above and below.

The solution is to press the "Zoom" button on the remote that comes with the converter box. But that will have to be done for every show.

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