I watch video via VLC 2.0.4 on my second monitor which is a 1280x1024 (5:4) resolution (ratio). Below is a screenshot of how a 16:9 widescreen show looks. Knowing that programmes will not usually frame their shots such that anything important strays into the extreme left/right of the screen (because of legacy 4:3 TVs), I'm happy to crop off the 16:9 sides.
So what I'd like to setup in my VLC, is that if there are black bars above/below, then it zooms in (centrally) until the vertical height reaches the point where there are no longer black bars, discarding stuff from the left/right edges as it's doing it. I'm sure I had my VLC setup like that a couple of years ago, but can't figure out how to do it now.