"Squashed" DTV picture on analog CRT TV

[Chip Chester]

Your converter box may have some display options in the menu.
Look for "zoom", which pushes in on a widescreen image, excluding the left and right sides... a center cut of the widescreen image. So, no distorted image, and it's full screen. Most network programming is still optimized for center-cut, so you won't miss much. Worth a look, or even worth looking for a different converter that does support it.

HD signals contain data that describes the aspect ratio of the signal, which can switch displays to letterbox, pillarbox, whatever. Some converters may have options that can be triggered by this flag, too.

Chip