HDR has an interesting relationship with bitrate. Technically, HDR uses 10-bit color instead of 8-bit, which can add up to 20% to the bitrate of a movie. Sounds like it would be a lot more data to stream, right? However, compression changes the game here again. Since HDR movies can display more nuanced colors, the footage can be compressed further while still leaving in the same amount of detail. In some cases, the bitrate increase can be as low as zero.

More importantly, you’ll still be able to see more colors than you normally would. As far back as the first DVDs, most videos you’ve seen have been capable of displaying around 16.7 million colors. HDR is capable of displaying over a billion. Even if streaming video compresses some of that detail, you will notice when your eyes are seeing shades of colors you’ve never seen from your TV before.

So, yes, watching something on Netflix won’t be quite as high quality as watching it on a Blu-ray. At the same time, if its an HDR movie or show, it will look a heck of a lot better than regular HD, and parts of it still might be crisp enough that you won’t notice the difference.