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Keep in mind most of the OTA digital channels have been up and running for several years. The change to take place in February of next year is the termination of analog broadcast transmitters. But there will be set-top-boxes available that will allow the digital channels to be displayed on your analog receiver/monitor (60i).
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The Wx plus channel is an SD channel encoded into the same bit stream as the main channel. There can be no difference between signal strength. I would guess something in the monitor. I am assuming you are displaying an SD signal on a 16:9 screen. The side bars in that instance are controlled by your tv.