Shaw Cable customers using the company’s digital service can now use the Internet to order movies they can fast-forward, rewind or pause at any time during a 24-hour period, the communications giant announced Thursday.

As well as its new Shaw on Demand system, Shaw also announced a new decoder will enable its Lower Mainland customers to make proper use of their high-definition (HDTV) sets for the first time.

The On Demand system, which Shaw began testing in Calgary last September, was expected to be up and running by Thursday night, allowing people who subscribe to both Shaw’s digital cable and high-speed Internet service to purchase a movie like Goldmember, the latest Austin Powers flick, and have access to it digitally for 24 hours.

In that time, they are able to watch as often as they want just as they would a DVD or a videotape.

“Once you have the digital set-top (box) and Shaw high-speed Internet access, you have everything you need for Shaw On Demand. You’re in business,” said Michael D’Avella, senior vice-president of Shaw Communications.

Of Shaw’s 630,000 Lower Mainland customers, D’Avella estimates 25 per cent have digital cable service.

Customers order a film through the Shaw on Demand Web site and receive almost instantaneous access.

“It’s a great combination of technologies and we think that customers that have both will see a tremendous value added,” D’Avella said.

The biggest difference between the new Shaw on Demand system and the long-standing pay-per-view system is the greater access to a wider range of programming and the ability to use it more flexibly.

D’Avella said there are about 250 movies available on demand right now, but the library will grow and will also include TV programs.

“We will build up this library over a period of time and you’re going to have access to every movie and every television program that was ever created.” he said. “It’s total choice.”

Boxing, concerts and professional wrestling — the big-event fare that originally stoked the pay-per-view fires — will also be available.

Shaw is still working on pricing all aspects of the service — TV programs do not yet have a set price — but the average movie will cost $3.99.

“It will be typical pay-per-view pricing,” D’Avella said.

The second part of Shaw’s Thursday rollout of new services is more pricey and, for now, mostly the domain of videophiles.

TV manufacturers have been making television sets that are capable of showing HDTV and electronics stores have been selling them, but people in this part of the world, at least, have not been able to watch HDTV programs.

HDTV offers a crisper picture by using more lines of resolution. It requires the programs — primarily U.S. sporting events at this point — to be shot on special cameras.

Shaw is now offering a new box, the DCT 5100 HD, that decodes HDTV broadcasts for people with televisions with HDTV capabilities.

HDTV is still in its nascent stages, however. Right now, Lower Mainland subscribers would have access to only three U.S. channels in HDTV.

D’Avella pledges that will change.

“There will be other services available. Some of our movies are in HDTV,” he said.

Viewers looking for Canadian content in HDTV will be hard-pressed to find it, but D’Avella said that will gradually change.

“I think they realize that this is the next wave of television and viewers will gravitate towards that,” D’Avella said.

The cost is quite prohibitive, too.

“It is a high-end product, and it is really designed for high-end users,” D’Avella said.

Shaw is selling the new boxes for $700 and the least expensive TV with HDTV capabilities being sold at Future Shop in Vancouver is a 30-inch model for $1,800.

WHAT YOU NEED

Shaw customers with both a digital cable box (either DCT 2000 or DCT 5100 HD) and Shaw’s high-speed Internet access can get Shaw on Demand 24 hours a day. The cost of a package that includes both is $73.95 a month. New customers must purchase the unit for about $200.

HOW YOU DO IT

Customers log on to shawondemand.ca and look for the movie or program they want to see. They can search by a performer’s name or browse a Top 10 list. About 250 titles are currently available.

WHAT YOU GET

For $3.99, customers get digital access to a movie for 24 hours. You can watch it as often as you like and use all normal VCR functions such as pause, fast-forward and rewind.

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