I have the remote and I can't figure it out.

I could have sworn I saw someone do it with a PS3 before but could never find the button on the remote.

I think you have to do it in movie by hitting the triangle button and selecting one of the options that come up.

why would someone want to zoom in BTW?

Get rid of those black bars! I have a widescreen TV, why should I have those black bars?!?

I do also - I guess certain movies do have the blk. bars.

Gizmo and True...

Any movie with an aspect ratio above 1.85:1 will display black bars on a 16:9 display. The 16:9 ratio was adopted as a compromised standard because the majority of films out there are at the 1.85 or 1.78 ratio. The wider the picture like Cinemascope films (2.35), the more your display will show black bars.

Non anamorphic DVDs is the only thing that comes to mind.

I so know that, hence the smile at the end

There are a lot of J6P that will wonder why there widescreen TV still has black bars...

My names Charlie.... Not Joe

Just as Gizmo stated above.

I dig - sorry guys, just having a LONG day!

Don't most 16:9 displays have a zoom meant for non-16:9 letterbox material?

All 3 of the 16:9 displays I own have this. I would think that would be better than zooming from the player.

On the PS3 browser you can zoom - I think it's done by pushing down L3 or R3. I've never tried that on a movie to see if it works. Our TV has a zoom mode available so I don't need the PS3 to zoom if I'm playing a non-anamorphic DVD, of which I only have a couple.

Some TVs don't have a zoom mode available for 1080i/p or 720p signals. We have a Sharp that's a few years old that doesn't allow you to zoom HD signals and a Sony that does. We used to have a Panny plasma that also didn't have a zoom mode available with HD signals.

I never quite figured out how to zoom with my ps3 remote either. On the topic of the black bars, I was so used to them I actually missed them when i got my Widescreen tv lol. Now it's just the opposite. I love having 1:85 fully projected. 2:35 still kills it but it's better than SD!

Well my desire to zoom really doesn't have to do with the way I watch a movie. Let's say I was watching the wizard of oz on blu (when that happens) and I wanted to zoom into the infamous man hanging himself/bird in the background. It's more so to do with thoroughly examining things in the background than anything.

Or to pause and zoom in on a brief flash of female nudity. If you won't say it, I will.

Haha, well as of now I've really no films that would be of interest to me in that sense. I'm not one to get excited about a nipple in the distance.

there's nudity in 'The Wizard of Oz' ... that's new news to me

It's pretty blatant. That cowardly nudist lion ruined the movie for me!!!

I have a 4:3 TV still and have purchased Blu-ray releases of Casablanca and The Third Man. They're 4:3 inside of 16:9, so they appear windowboxed on my TV. A zoom would be nice until I can afford an HDTV.


"Any movie with an aspect ratio above 1.85:1 will display black bars on a 16:9 display."

As will any movie in academy ratio, except the bars end up on the sides instead of top and bottom.

In the PS3 menus do you have your tv type set to 4:3?

I have noticed that on my PS3 if I am watching a DVD or Blu-ray I cannot zoom on the
PS3 only my tv. If I am watching .avi files on my PS3 I can zoom the picture.

My Samsung LN46A750 does an awesome job zooming those few dvds that are letterboxed or non-anamorphic widescreen. I have to use it often when I watch Kenny vs Spenny Season 2, Ultraviolet (uk miniseries not the movie), The Newsroom Season 2 & 3, Trailer Park Boys Season 7. Seems like most of the shows I buy from canada aren't anamorphic now that I think about it.

I never tried zooming in. I might have to give this a try on my stupid non-anamorphic DVD's.

No offense, but for what you spent on Casablanca and The Third Man, that would have been about $70 that could have gone towards an HDTV.