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10. When the picture does not fill your screen

With the digital TV age comes more viewing options. Some TVs are still the older, 4x3, squarish shape, and some newer TVs have wider 16x9 screens; while some TV programs are made to the fit the squarish shape, and some TV programs are made to fit the wider screens.

As long as we have TVs and TV programs with different shapes, there will be some cases where a particular program you are watching does not entirely fill your screen.

Fortunately, the remote control for many converter boxes includes a button (sometime labeled crop or zoom) that you can use with high defintition programs to best match the picture to your TV screen. Check your television manual or experiment with your remote and see if you like the picture when you make the changes.

Just know that this is going to happen for quite awhile during the transition as stations and networks upgrade their equipment. If you are considering a new television set, your best bet is a widescreen set, as this will eventually become the standard.

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