Hats off to Netflix. Without really being prompted, they've released their HD encoding/streaming specifications for the world to see. The company revealed that they originally considered a WMV3 (Windows Media Player 9) codec running at 4000kbps and 5500kbps, but opted instead for a similar Microsoft codec, the VC1AP running between 2600kbps and 3800kbps—which should provide a better experience for those of us with lower bandwidths.

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For the guy who wants a Vudu system but demands a rack-mountable setup, the Vudu XL2 is here to foot the bill in Armani boots. It's essentially a Vudu XL in a premium aluminium package, storing a terabyte of content while squeezing within one rack unit of space. The catch is that it's priced at $US1300 and still runs $US40 extra for an IR remote attachment. But hey, it costs to be Mr. I Have a Custom Home Theatre Installer. Read on for the full details.

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In a bid to set themselves apart from their increasingly inevitable competition, Vudu made a bold claim: , with 1100 HD movies, including about 150 in the fantastic HDX codec, they've got the largest HD movie library in the world, physical formats included. This sounds suspect until you consider that Netflix, Xbox Marketplace and Apple TV all offer under a thousand HD films, and that Blu-ray.com, which lists all available titles, only contains ~1030 discs, including some television shows.

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VUDU has over 120 new HD flicks available for rent this week, but the big news is that half of those films are in their new HDX format—downloadable HD that looks a lot better than the current downloadable, highly compressed "HD" we're accustomed to. Read on for the full new HD and HDX lists.

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Vudu's new HDX 1080p movies—promised to be "Blu-ray quality"—go live today. David Pogue has the first look, and while HDX movies are not literally Blu-ray quality (which would be an impossible with our crappy broadband), they are indeed "insanely sharp" and compared to other movie downloads, it's like "seeing a movie on VHS videotape and DVD side by side."

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Digital downloaders, we haven't forgotten about you while running This Week in Blu-ray. And to those in the audience with VUDU, a respectable 52 rentable HD movies have been added to the service in just the past two weeks. Read on for the full list.

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Yesterday Apple introduced HD TV downloads to the iTunes store, meaning you can watch Peter be super emo on Heroes at a crispy 720p resolution. That's a higher resolution than DVD, and technically, yup, that's HD. There's a catch though. Like every other video download service touting HD videos, it's all actually lower quality than DVD.

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Apparently some Vudu beta testers are being asked to check out new HD downloads that are supposed to match Blu-ray quality. These new HDX flicks are so data heavy, you've gotta wait two to three hours just for the flick to start. This actually jibes with what we heard a few months ago--that Vudu was looking at offering two tiers of HD movies, though there's no guarantee that this is anything more than market research. That's a long time to wait for a quality (and likely, price) bump that your average Joe probably wouldn't be able to tell distinguish from their standard HD stuff. [Engadget]

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Earlier today, we published the article Comcast's Video Download Store Is Wholly Unremarkable about Comcast's expansion of Fancast, a place to download movies a la Amazon Unbox. Then a reliable tipster filled us in on where Fancast is going—specifically, in the mobile market. And we have to say, it's caught our attention.

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PlayOn, a program that allows Vudu, ESPN, YouTube and CBS streaming from a Windows PC to a PS3, Xbox 360 or HP MediaSmart TV, has just been released as a free beta to the public (well, the first 60 days are free, after that it'll cost US$30). And to make things even better, the software should expand to support Netflix streaming and the Nintendo Wii within the year. Finally, that whole console becoming as complicated as a PC trend is paying off. [PlayOn via PS3Fanboy]

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