Why is there a black rectangle in the middle of my TV screen?

Answer by  technogeek (6640)

There is a setting on most televisions having to do with closed captioning and if you go through the menu and turn off the captioning, it will go away.

Answer by  Liz59 (10966)

This may happen over time. This is usually a screen defect that is a responsibility for the manufacturer to repair. Call customer service and report the problem and ask for a replacement.

Answer by  samimi (32)

This is sometimes caused by damaged pixels in your screen. If you look closely at a TV, you'll see tiny rectangles. They can become damaged and no longer able to show picture, so they show black. Take the TV to a repair shop to see it they can be fixed.

Answer by  archangelsgirl (93)

Unfortunately, your TV is now so "old" that your digital HD cable or satellite company can no longer "talk" to it. This means that you have to go out and get a new TV, or else watch something besides cable or satellite. Your TV is no longer compatible with your service provider.

Answer by  Mslater (197)

All you need to do to fix this problem is turn off the closed captions. The closed cations are what is causing the black rectangle. You should be able to turn off the closed captions by accessing your menu through either the TV or the remote. There should be an option for closed captions.

Answer by  LCA1553 (176)

It could very well be that your Closed Captioning option has been turned on. To turn it off, choose the Menu button on your remote or on the TV itself and scroll through until you find the Captions option. Choose to turn the captions off. That should fix your screen.

Answer by  johnb (21)

The most likely reason is that you have closed captioning turned on and the station is not broadcasting any closed caption text.

Answer by  Binome (1975)

It's probably misconfigured closed caption settings. Cycle through the closed caption settings, it should go away once the correct closed captioning setting is selected. Otherwise, just turn it off.

Answer by  mrsmyers (474)

Most likely you either left the picture on picture on and you need to change the settings or something is wrong with your cable connection.

Answer by  LeheckaG (1826)

A "black rectangle" in the middle of your TV screen, sounds like you have "Closed caption" text decoding turned ON your television, recorder, or cable/digital-converter/satellite-decoder box, but not set to the appropriate mode/parameters. Starting with your-television, go into its owner's-manual, or set-up-menu and scroll-through the sub-menus looking for "Closed-Caption" options. If not on your television, try your-recorder or converter/decoder-box.

Answer by  rube26105 (379)

You dont have the settngs right on it, you need to go to your control panel and try and see if you can figure it out,call the company.

Answer by  turker297 (87)

You may have closed captioning turned on. Most closed captioning appears at the bottom of the screen, but one scheme (sometimes called TEXT) projects a black rectangle on the screen and then text on top of it, if the program supports it. If this is the case, you should be able to turn this off in your TV's settings.