Consider another shot fired in the HD VOD wars, now Comcast is claiming "most same day VOD & DVD releases" for the month of November. Angels & Demons, Bruno, The Ugly Truth and others are among those hitting the VOD slate the same day they hit shelves, while movies like the Transformers and Ice Age sequels make their delayed appearance this month as well. Still, while providers slap box over ad campaigns, until the menus get simpler to navigate and prices come down to Redbox-competitive levels, who has more VOD and when just isn't that big of a deal to us.

Following the 5,000 person beta already ongoing, Comcast is apparently ready to deliver the On Demand Online experience to all of its customers by the end of the year, with a few rather significant caveats. At launch one the much hyped placeshifting element of the service will not be live, for the time being you'll need internet and TV service, and it will only work at home. Still, if queuing up last night's ep of Mad Men on your laptop is all you're looking for there should be a decent library of content to choose from with 24 cable networks signed on, and a $0 additional cost for the service. Our excitement level depends mostly on how quickly HD streaming and on the go access becomes a part of the package.

Hard to say what this means for the "ISP as distribution partner to ad-supported video service" strategy ZillionTV said it would pioneer when originally announced this spring, but today's press release indicates a significant shift in direction. If you've already forgotten about the FCC-inspected ZBar and ZRemote, this is the company planning to offer video on demand over the internet from its library of film and TV partners Hulu-style, but direct to your television. Now the company will consider selling hardware straight to subscribers of ISPs not down with the plan, aside from sliding directly into televisions and various connected hardware as Netflix, VUDU, Amazon and others already have. At the same time, the planned Q4 nationwide launch has morphed into a vague "second half of 2010" promise, from here we'd guess getting ISPs to sell hardware that competes with their own pay-TV services isn't as easy as ZillionTV anticipated.

Sounds like Google has found the best way to monetize YouTube yet, and it puts itself in a pretty competitive spot versus the likes of Netflix, Amazon VOD, and Apple's iTunes movie store. According to Wall Street Journal, the company's currently in talks with Lions Gate, Sony, and Warner Bros. studios over putting their content on YouTube for a rental fee, likely $3.99 -- the same price as Apple's SD movie rentals. Even more interesting is talk of getting some titles online day and date with the DVD releases. Some options could still be free with advertising, but as for paid content, Google's enticing studios over to their way of thinking with a proposed minimum fee of "just under $3 per title viewed." A three-month beta testing is apparently scheduled to begin soon among 10,000 Google employees, and after that? Well, here's hoping the G-Man manages to sign on some more studios and offer us the films in streaming HD.

Now that we're living in a post Project Infinity and 1080p VOD world, there may be a bit more to consider when choosing a provider than simply linear channel lineup. Fiber, satellite and cable companies are all fighting to be called the king of video on-demand, but which one actually is? We'll let our friend Michael ask the question:

"I have been hearing about all these different kinds of Video On Demand services from Cable, sat, and telco companies. I was wondering if you guys could do a rundown of the descriptions of the different VOD services and their pros and cons. "

So, when was the last time you perused the VOD catalog of your pay-TV provider, and was it worth the effort? We're sure at least some have already gone all online only for their video libraries, while some may stick to discs, DVR and standard channel browsing. Over here we're checking every ten minutes for that episode of The Closer we forgot to DVR this week, but until it shows up let us know how your VOD experience has worked out.

We're honestly surprised it took this long, but Comcast has gleefully announced it is the first to offer the "full" HBO On Demand lineup in high definition. True Blood, Entourage, The Wire* plus the network's movie selection are all available now, so the only questions left are when is this coming to your local provider, or why are you still reading this instead of watching Snoop and Chris? Don't end up in a vacant.

Update: Except, of course, as sideshowRaheem points out in the coments, The Wire wasn't filmed in high definition, so you'll probably be watching something else.

Turns out that even after multiple posts and a podcast, we had even more to say about Comcast's On Demand Online announcements, this time captured on video as a couple of our editors joined our friend Randall Bennett on his show TechVi. In case you missed it, this has been a busy week for the yet-to-launch streaming platform, and we chimed in with a bit of our feelings on what this means for cable, streaming video and where it could go in the future. We're glad you take time out to follow us on twitter (@EngadgetHD, @bjdraw, @stevekim & @Rjcc just in case you didn't know) and hopefully participate in the live podcast sessions on UStream each week, so if you've got eight minutes to spare, check out the video streaming from the TechVi site or embedded after the break.

Just as we heard back in February, Time Warner and Comcast have joined hands in order to regain control on some of the content that is slipping right out from under 'em. In the olden days, the only portal for catching content was the 'tube; today, a vast array of television shows are available gratis on the web, and that's downright frightening for pay-TV operators. Today, both firms are detailing TV Everywhere in the most general way possible, only telling us that paying Comcast subscribers will soon have access to "premium long-form content" via a web portal. TNT and TBS are the only networks specifically named thus far, but considering that both of those already offer their best programming online to everyone, we're not terribly impressed.

The agreement also includes a trial with around 5,000 Comcast users, which will be used to heavily test a newfangled authentication technology that will be necessary to allow paying Comcast users to access the material from any internet-connected PC. NewTeeVee has also assembled a clean, easy-to-digest FAQ that explains what exactly all this is. To be frank, it seems like a solution in search of a problem from the consumer viewpoint. After all, with portals like Hulu and individual network websites already providing in-demand content online, why is there even a need for some "special portal" for Comcast users? We've heard that paying subs will have access to even more material, possibly movies or other premium shows. But we won't front: we certainly don't want TV Everywhere to convert some of the content that's already free into pay-only content in order to accomplish the aforesaid "even more" goal. At any rate, the public at large probably won't hear more about this until the trial sessions end at an undisclosed time, but you can bet we'll be keeping a cautious eye on any developments.

Read - TV Everywhere press release
Read - NewTeeVee FAQ

C'mon now, you knew as well as we did that AT&T couldn't just...stop after rolling out Total Home DVR to its entire U-verse service area, today it's announced a few new tweaks that it plans to roll out over the next few weeks and months. Look forward to the ability to schedule and manage recordings from any U-verse receiver, not just the DVR itself, a newly enhanced remote scheduling website and an On Demand top picks app to find movies viewers might like based on their past recommendations. If that's not enough, Starz is free for July, plus a speed bump to 12 Mbps for Internet Max subs and a slightly streamlined program guide that should make the Enter button a bit more useful while browsing or watching TV. Check out the PR for the full details as most of these will be rolling out in different markets over the next few weeks, or check out the video embedded after the break.

IFC in Theaters has been offering day-and-date premieres of independent theatrical flicks through video on-demand for a couple of years, but now comes word that this month it will begin offering them in high definition on Cablevision and Comcast. Starting June 17, $7.99 (a buck premium over SD) will be the price for avoiding a trip to the local art house theater, which sounds more than worth it if you don't have one nearby, or just really want to avoid (other) hipsters.

After making sure there was a domain name locked down for Epix, the new premium movie network formed by Studio 3 Networks (Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM) it was all about taking advantage of an early peek at the 720p Flash powered site to see what a new generation of home movie distribution has to offer. The tech end (opening up to invited users this week for beta testing) is powered by Akamai's variable bitrate streaming streaming technology, delivering up to 3mbps HD video with stereo audio all the way down (6 different levels) to 500kbps encodes. Where it surpasses current online offerings from the competition is the ability, thanks to the aforementioned studio backers, to provide many of the recent movies you want to see. Our impressions of the service and a few more pictures of the interface are after the break.

Looks like the studios are finally beginning to loosen their digital distribution grip, now that Warner Bros. and Lionsgate are allowing Comcast to offer extended two day viewing windows this month, with Disney and Summit productions following next month. That coincides with a slew od day and date with the DVD HD VOD postings including He's Just Not That Into You, Gran Torino, Friday the 13th and more. Check the PR for the full list, any ideas how long it is before we see 48 hour replay windows on other cable providers and movie delivery services?

With Akihabara, mobile TV that works and games like this, does Japan really need another nicety to remind us of how awesome it is? Starting this week, Yahoo Japan has started to deliver free video services to loads of Sharp AQUOS HDTVs. The so-called Douga Channel currently offers some 3,000 videos gratis, and absolutely no member registration is required to tap in. At least initially, the service will target Sharp's AQUOS DS6 family of products, which are equipped with a revised Sharp GUI and an 'Ex System' for handling the video processing. Better still, the material coming through can be viewed in SD or HD, which has to make local cable companies cringe. At any rate, the company is still trying to hammer out a business model before delving into pay-TV, and it's hoping to service at least one million TV sets in the not-too-distant future. So... any news for North America?

In the race to bring home 3D Shaw Cable has taken an early lead, although we're not sure everyone would agree it's worth it. Together with Corus Entertainment, it's loading up the VOD library full of films, sports, concert events and other content all in anaglyph (red/blue) 3D and distributing glasses free of charge to all of its subscribers. No word on how much ordering up the content will cost or when it will be available, but the biggest factor in our disappointment is that while it will work on any television, the quality simply doesn't compare to proper stereoscopic 3D. Still, Canadians haven't been able to call "First" many times, we guess we'll let them have this one. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via Digital Home Canada]

Right on the heels of BBC launching iPlayer HD, now UK residents can watch the same content directly on their HDMI-connected telly on Virgin Media's V+ service. Check one off the list, now we're just waiting for iPlayer HD on Macs, PS3 and what else?