Bitrate Gripe

[sparksj]

Before I post my question, let me just say that I really love my new Blu Ray player (PS3). I even posted this thread a while back:
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=43061

But I do have one gquestion. As former HD DVD fan I kept hearing about how BR had a max video bitrate of 40 Mbps compared to HD DVD's 28 Mbps. This was given as a major reason why BR PQ looked better.

Well, now that I have my PS3, I have watched several movies with the bitrate meter on just to see what the bitrate was. So far I have watched the following movies:
Blade Runner
POTC Dead Man's Chest
T2
Casino Royal
I am Legend
Dan in Real Life

In all cases the bitrate hovered around 19-22 Mbps for 98% of the movie with the highest peak I saw of only 27 Mbps which occured just for a second.

From the looks of it, HD DVD could have handled the same bitrates.

Do I have something set up incorrectly, or have I just not seen the higher bitrate movies yet?

Again, I'm completely happy with the PQ of BR. It's just that bitrate was the number one reason I kept hearing as proof that BR PQ was better. So far I haven't seen any bitrates that HD DVD couldn't also have achieved. Of course, my HD DVD player didn't have a meter, so it's possible that it averaged 10-15 Mbps.

On the other hand, I do realize the fact that it means that BR can eventually hit 40 Mbps, So it doesn't have the limitation that HD DVD had. But if none of them have yet, then one can't use that as a reason that BR was better than HD DVD until the movies actually achieved that max rate. That being said, there are many other reasons that Blu Ray is better than HD DVD. My point in this thread is that Bitrate shouldn't have been one of them.

Am I just being too picky???