[quote name='Corvin']I'm watching Heroes right now. It's not even as good as broadcast HD, which in turn isn't as sharp as BD. Netflix is merely passable for HD. As mentioned it's not even in Dolby Digital. Put it this way, even though I could use the hard drive space, I won't be deleting my season pass on my Tivo to watch it on Netflix.
I guess I should state I have 10.0 down and full bars when loading up a show/movie.[/QUOTE]
I don't think they are sending Heroes in HD, otherwise the HD symbol would show up like the other HD movies.
The HD movies on Netflix uses Microsoft's advanced VC-1 codec at a bitrate of 2.6 to 3.8 Mbps at 720p. (This is rather impressive, seeing how DVD's hover around 3.6 Mbps in old Mpeg2). It's actually a newer version than the one that Universal, Warner Brothers, and other studios use for Blu-Ray's.
As a comparison, the HD movies you get off Live are around 4-8 Mbps. They do look quite a bit better (Most people couldn't tell a difference with a Blu-ray).
For the tech heads here is a rather
technical explanation of how Netflix and Microsoft are doing it.
Also in
this article:
Neflix says themselves that these encodes “won’t challenge well-executed Blu-ray encodes”.
That is not to say that they are settling - Netflix is aiming for better as Broadband rates improve.
Benwagoner says in the first article, essentially, that they expect to give Blu-ray a run for their money in a couple years when broadband speeds pick up. Once you can sustain a 10-12 Mbps stream, most people can't tell a difference with a 40 Mbps stream. Of course, I don't think that is taking into consideration audio, which can add a lot more.