Quote Originally Posted by Sir Terrence the Terrible
The HD "quality" you are getting is called 720p encoding. That is what they use for their HD encodings. This is not 1080i/p. Netflix uses VC-1 for their encodings, and the variable bitrates average between 2600kbps and 3400kbps which is good enough for 720p, but not nearly good enough for 1080i/p.

http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/enco...streaming.html

Notice these words:

We encode most content at 500, 1000, 1600, and 2200kbps VBR, but some titles whose source quality merits it have also been encoded at 3400kbps. The highest bitrate encodes are fit into 720x480 non-square pixels (the usual 1.2 PAR for widescreen content, 0.9 PAR for 4:3),

and these:

Today we have rights to deliver about 400 streams in HD (720p).

So you see, you are not getting 1080i/p on your Sharp BR player, you are getting HD "lite" which is the best they can do with the current bandwidth offered on the internet.

Notice these words as well:

Today, we cannot use WMDRM to deliver AC3 or DD+ audio, which means that only stereo (delivered via WMA) is available.

The update for the PS3 downloaded included the WMDRM audio container which can support multichannel audio on the PS3. No other player has this update, which is why only the PS3 can do 5.1.

As I have always said, the devil is in the detail.
Your information is two years out of date. I'm currently listening to Netflix on demand in HD, and in DD, something your old information says is impossible.