A system and method for automatically zooming "in" and "out" a video content stream to adjust for Ratio Mismatches is disclosed. The present invention is particularly applicable to 4:3 video content delivered in a 16:9 video content stream. The present invention scans for the presence of Pillar Bars. When Pillar Bars are detected by the present invention, after waiting a pre-determined period to confirm the presence and size of the Pillar Bars, the present invention initiates a slow stretching the video content stream to eliminate the Pillar Bars. When the video content stream changes back to without Pillar Bars, the present invention initiates a slow zooming out to a full pixel representation of the video content stream.