diff --git a/DOCS/interface-changes.rst b/DOCS/interface-changes.rst
index 532cc05bff..f884296707 100644
--- a/DOCS/interface-changes.rst
+++ b/DOCS/interface-changes.rst
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ Interface changes
     - add "cache-speed" property
     - rename --input-unix-socket to --input-ipc-server, and make it work on
       Windows too
+    - change the exact behavior of the "video-zoom" property
  --- mpv 0.16.0 ---
     - change --audio-channels default to stereo (use --audio-channels=auto to
       get the old default)
diff --git a/DOCS/man/options.rst b/DOCS/man/options.rst
index a885648b95..7921ba6b0d 100644
--- a/DOCS/man/options.rst
+++ b/DOCS/man/options.rst
@@ -732,12 +732,10 @@ Video
     appear in files, but can't be handled properly by mpv.
 
 ``--video-zoom=<value>``
-    Adjust the video display scale factor by the given value. The unit is in
-    fractions of the (scaled) window video size.
-
-    For example, given a 1280x720 video shown in a 1280x720 window,
-    ``--video-zoom=-0.1`` would make the video by 128 pixels smaller in
-    X direction, and 72 pixels in Y direction.
+    Adjust the video display scale factor by the given value. The parameter is
+    given log 2. For example, ``--video-zoom=0`` is unscaled,
+    ``--video-zoom=1`` is twice the size, ``--video-zoom=-2`` is one fourth of
+    the size, and so on.
 
     This option is disabled if the ``--no-keepaspect`` option is used.
 
diff --git a/video/out/aspect.c b/video/out/aspect.c
index 2d25bbdfd5..f3ba21c02e 100644
--- a/video/out/aspect.c
+++ b/video/out/aspect.c
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 
 /* Stuff for correct aspect scaling. */
 #include "aspect.h"
+#include "math.h"
 #include "vo.h"
 #include "common/msg.h"
 #include "options/options.h"
@@ -84,7 +85,7 @@ static void src_dst_split_scaling(int src_size, int dst_size,
         zoom = 0.0;
     }
 
-    scaled_src_size += zoom * scaled_src_size;
+    scaled_src_size *= powf(2, zoom);
     align = (align + 1) / 2;
 
     *src_start = 0;