We love Netflix streaming. It’s great for parents with kids of any age. It meets our goal of a disc-less watching experience, it plays on pretty much every consumer electronics device under the sun nowadays, and the catalog offers everything we could ask for at our immediate beck and call.
Well, recently we discovered yet another reason to love the service. In some cases, it’s actually better than the real thing.
Let us explain. Take for example, the title Annie: Special Anniversary Edition. The DVD release in 2007 was universally flogged for taking an original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and cropping it to fit in a full frame, 4:3 presentation. We guess Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which released the DVD, didn’t have much faith in the escalating high definition television sales of their parent company, right? Now imagine the horror experienced by every dad educating their children on the virtue of widescreen presentation, and all of a sudden – gasp - appears something right out of the 1990s! Call the Smithsonian!
Three years later, there still isn’t a widescreen release (in print, anyway) of this seminal broadway-to-hollywood conversion. Thank goodness for Netflix, and their agreement with Starz.
Today, the title is available on the streaming service, and although it doesn’t have the DTS 5.1 audio track from the DVD, nor does it have the special features – and we expect you agree with us that no parent has the time and no child has the patience to watch special features – it does take advantage of that widescreen format television you spent all that time convincing your wife that you absolutely needed to buy it. Kinda like blue balls for the married man.
We took a couple of screenshots from the same scene as a comparison. Here’s the scene from the DVD release:
Now examine the same scene from the Netflix streaming version:
See the extra picture available in the streaming version? Especially on the right-hand side, the entire stairwell railing is in frame. The extra picture available enhances the viewing experience, especially during those elaborate song-and-dance numbers that make this film.
Now, there is a catch. The original theatrical aspect ratio, as mentioned above, was 2.35:1, and this streaming version courtesy of Starz is clearly enhanced for today’s 1.85:1 widescreen HDTVs. So yes, there still is some picture that’s missing. The only way you can catch the movie as it was originally intended is either find a theater screening an actual film print, or buy it from Amazon’s VOD service, which seems to be a direct transfer from the original 2000 DVD release. However, although we love Amazon VOD there isn’t the same support from playback devices as with Netflix, so there may be some difficulty getting to watch it on anything other than your PC. The Roku HD Player does have Amazon VOD support, and even if you already have one for your Netflix streaming access you’re still stuck paying Amazon $9.99 for the privilege to watch the film properly – and that’s on top of the monthly cost you already pay for Netflix, mind you. Hey, we might be aspect-ratio snobs but we’re still parents – we sometimes have to make these tough decisions.
We’ve seen other instances of this across Netflix’s streaming service, so be on the lookout for where streaming your favorite film trumps the physical disc. It’s just another added benefit to an already stellar service which appeals to kids and parents alike.
We were starting to get worried for a second; it wasn’t going to be this quiet today, was it? Yeah, we know Avatar came out on DVD and Blu-ray today. But it was only in 2D, and that gave you and even more compelling reason to pick up 
, officially announced today after weeks of speculation and flat-out, cat-out-of-the-bag spoilers. The first design was great in concept but not too easy on the eyes. Kudos to Amazon to making its second-generation something that would make even Apple jealous. Here are the highlights:
Beam me up, Grandma!
Looking to gain back possession of your MP3 player from your toddler, but can’t find a kid-durable replacement? Look no further than the Tree Camera, which looks like a wooden toy camera but doubles as a digital music player.
Remember how your parents always said, “Just wait, your kids will be exactly like you. Then you’ll see!” Well, a company called Little Island can give you just that, for the low, low cost of $2,000! And it’s a robot mini-you as well!