2019-01-03, 18:36
I've seen news stations do something like this for 4:3 content. The idea is that the video is stretched to 16:9, blurred, and then the actual 4:3 video is displayed centered and overlaid on the blurred video. This leads to what some people may consider a more aesthetically pleasing result than stretching 4:3 content or playing with black pillarboxes. It may also help reduce burn-in for users with plasma or OLED displays. Here is an example of what I'm talking about:
