Zoom letterboxed DVDs without any extra software

Dec 06, '04 09:14:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

I actually discovered this a month ago and forgot to forward it... maybe because it's so cool. If you have a widescreen LCD monitor, you're probably sick of playing back letterboxed movies DVDs that don't use all of your beautiful screen space -- black bars on the sides and on top and bottom -- and the DVD Player can't zoom the video to help you. Well, here's the trick: it's time to get in touch with your inner visual impairment.

  1. Go to System Prefs and choose "Universal Access."
  2. Click "Turn On Zoom." (Note the hotkeys for zooming in and out and toggling the zoom feature.)
  3. Now click "Zoom Options..."
  4. Set your minimum and maximum zoom. With this 1680x1050 screen I put the max at about 2 2/3 and the min at a little past 1. More on that in a moment.
  5. As for the other checkboxes, I find the preview rectangle annoying, but you might like it while you figure out the right max/min zoom. "Smooth images" looks very pretty, I leave that checked.
  6. "When zoomed in, the screen image moves:" [x] "Only when the pointer reaches an edge" -- otherwise bumping the mouse will move the movie off the screen while you're watching.
  7. Click "Done."
  8. Start playing the movie, full screen.
  9. Here's how I like to zoom it: first, choose "Video" -> "Normal Size" from the menu bar (or press Command-2), so that DVD Player is displaying the image accurately (no magnification). Now turn on zoom with the hotkey -- probably Command-Option-8.
  10. Use Command-Option-Equals (=) and Command-Option-Minus (-) to magnify the movie frame to fill the screen, moving your mouse to the edges of the screen to center the image. Like I said, you'll probably have to mess around with the zoom maximum and minimum a little to get a good fit.
  11. Once the whole image is centered and filling your pretty wide screen, sit back and enjoy the movie. Remember to move the remote control and info windows into the middle of the screen or you won't be able to see or use them without pushing the movie over the edge!
This trick works very well on this iMac G5 in low power mode -- probably it will work for people with less than 1GHz CPU speed.

[robg adds: An older hint talks (with much less detail) about using this same trick to show your movie on two monitors at once...]

Comments (15)


Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20041204014644616