Thank you SO MUCH! My husband and I came home, turned on the tv to watch some news, and there was this big black box we could not get rid of. I decided to go where I always go when I have a question (ask.com) and I found your messages. Thank you, thank you, thank you-I was about to beat on the remote!

Try going to the close-caption settings on the menu and change it from 'TEXT' none. The big black box is an area for showing text captions - which it never does.