[Zeroes000]

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:

[tjay260476]

For something less GPU intensive, could this easily be accomplished by some png with a colour scheme, and a transparent bit for the 4:3 video to reside in.

Mame has been doing this for years, and the Pi can do this with bezels too, so I'm guessing that a PNG would be a better way to go?

Is this something that can be done within VideoPlayer, along with its settings too?

This could work for RetroPlayer too!

Also lends the possibility for skinners, and others to show off their borders.....

[Zeroes000]

For something less GPU intensive, could this easily be accomplished by some png with a colour scheme, and a transparent bit for the 4:3 video to reside in.

Mame has been doing this for years, and the Pi can do this with bezels too, so I'm guessing that a PNG would be a better way to go?

Is this something that can be done within VideoPlayer, along with its settings too?

This could work for RetroPlayer too!

Also lends the possibility for skinners, and others to show off their borders.....

I would definitely still prefer to see a dynamic border option, as opposed to just static images. Especially if you still use a plasma or upgrade to an OLED, the static imagery would cause burn-in. Aside from the aesthetics, I would like the feature so you can watch 4:3 content on those types of TVs without having wildly different wear levels across the screen caused by pillarboxing. It might not mitigate the issue completely, but I would be surprised if it didn't help.