An apparatus comprising a de-interlacer circuit, a rate converter circuit and a zoom circuit. The de-interlacer circuit may be configured to generate a first progressive signal having a first rate in response to an interlaced signal. The rate converter circuit may be configured to generate a second progressive signal having a second rate in response to the first progressive signal. The zoom circuit may be configured to generate an output video signal in response to the second progressive signal. The output video signal may represent a portion of the second progressive signal having a frame size equal to a frame size of the interlaced signal.