High Definition TVs, Surge Protectors Explained

By Joel Craig, NEWS 9 Contributor

OKLAHOMA CITY -- You may be watching the news at night with black bars on the sides of your TV, but do you know why they are there?

I frequently get questions about similar topics. I thought I'd talk about two of them. Let's start with why if you're watching me on a newer TV there are black bars on each side of the picture? Today's digital HD TVs typically have wide screens known as a 16:9 format ratio. Before high definition digital television TV used a 4:3 format ratio. Stations in the Oklahoma City metro broadcast in digital, as required by law, but most still use the standard definition 4:3 ratio for local broadcasts, such as the news. Hence the black bars. Most wide screen TVs have an option to go full screen even if the broadcast is in standard definition. Just go into the TV's menu function to select the option, but note when choosing this the picture will be a bit distorted. Basically I'll look about 30 pounds heavier.

I'm also asked why I don't call surge protectors those power strips that help protect your electronics, lightning protectors. The simply answer is they aren't lightning protectors. If lightning strikes your home no little plug-in box is going to stop tens of thousands of volts that have traveled down miles through the sky. What a surge protector will do is hold back short term spikes in the electric current going to your electronic device, say from your air conditioning or refrigerator turning on and off or even a jolt on the electric line. How much it can hold is determined by the protector's rating, a number call "joules," the bigger the number the better.