Ipad Video Noob question

[talkinghead80]

Is there a way that you can manually zoom the video in the ipad? I watch alot of films in letterbox, but when you click the zoom, it cuts out like a third to half of the negative. Is there a way to zoom or an app that enables a manual zoom like in itunes?

Im sure this is a really dumb question for the more tech savvy, but I need to learn - so why not ask?

 

[TheyCallMeSaint]

If you mean a "Pinch to Zoom" type feature, there is unfortunately no way to do that with the native videos app. No matter how you do it anyway, there will always be something cut off unless you change proportions.

 

[talkinghead80]

Ok, I suppose I can reencode some DVDs in something like handbrake and export to itunes, but Im wondering how one alters the video so that it will zoom from the original frame, but not completely flush to the top and bottom of the ipad screen.

I know it depends on the original aspect ratio, but Im not sure how you tweak it so that the zoom in the native player wont go totally flush. Example would be Return of the Jedi. Letterbox doesnt take advantage of the full screen on ipad, but zoming in cuts of about a third of the frame. Dark Knight's digital itunes copy is a great example of what I'd like to do. It plays letterbox and the zoom goes in just enough to make the frame a little larger, but not cutting off so much, leaving some black bars on top and bottom.

 

[Sedulous]

Why would you want to crop 1/3 of the frame?

 

[talkinghead80]

To take more advantage of the size of this screen, allowing for small loss on each side of the frame. This might be an issue of anamorphic, whatever its called, in which case ive got a lot of reading to do