For those of you who were hoping that Netflix might begin streaming its roughly one in five streamable titles in full 1080p high-def this year, sorry, but no.  It’ll be 720p for the rest of the year at least, so if you’re streaming to a 720p television anyway, cheer up!  You won’t be missing much for a good long while to come.

There’s some debate going as to why the backpedaling took place, but I, like others out there, think it has to do with BANDWIDTH.  The ISPs just aren’t putting out the fat pipes that people would need for 1080p, and frankly, they’re not doing a real bang-up job getting out the stuff you need for 720p either.  Essentially, you need a five meg connection to do streaming in 720p, and you need a TEN meg connection for streaming in 1080p.  Price isn’t so much an issue as sheer availability–ask anybody who lives outside a major city what their internet options are and they’ll give you a dirty look as they describe the depradations of WildBlue or HughesNet.

So until the net gets up to snuff, look for 1080p streaming to be a pipe dream at best.