then during a commercial I swiitched inputs for a minute. after I switched back and the show started the pic now has black bars on all 4 sides of the pic. what happened?

I'm assuming you switched back to the correct input. The problem sounds like the station's fault; it happens sometime when somebody forgets to flip the HD switch when the commercials are over.

yep, I had the correct input. this was my 1st ever hd program in my house and I thought that something happened to my STB/tv.

It happens a lot. It's usually just some engineer asleep at the switch, but just to make sure I'd check some of the other channels to make sure the HD comes in fine there.

yep the ole "HD switch" The station I work for has one, and it doesnt get flipped at times. I always have to write myself a note to flip it back after a local commercial. Sometimes ABC forgets to flip the switch for it and then there's nothing we can do. Most new master control boards have it built in to do it automatically instead of flipping a switch.