On Demand is a glimpse of TV's future; System lets viewers watch certain shows whenever they want

Time Warner Cable's new video-on-demand system has been online for a few months now, and it is definitely a work in progress. But it works. The system, called On Demand, was installed this summer in the Kansas City area. If you have a Time Warner digital box, On Demand is ready to use. I've found it terrific for watching movies or HBO programs. Its other offerings are less impressive, and compared with using a DVD player the On Demand system seems clunky and slow-witted. Yet it does offer consumers an actual working model of the video store of the future, where titles are immediately available, there's no driving and, best of all, no late fees. Video-on-demand is the latest version of a concept that has been around since the introduction of the home VCR. The concept is sometimes called "time-shifting." In recent years tapeless video recorders from TiVo and ReplayTV have made it more user-friendly. As a TV critic, I find my TiVo indispensable. But these recorders have been slow to catch on; fewer than 2 percent of homes have one. By contrast, nearly half of Time Warner customers locally have a digital box. On Demand is much like the familiar pay-per-view ordering system known as In Demand, but with greater immediacy. There are no scheduled airtimes for On Demand programs; you simply order from a menu and begin watching right away. Using the buttons on your remote control, you can pause, rewind or fast-forward the movie, so it's like a DVD - sort of. This is beyond mere time-shifting. After a while, it dawns on you how ridiculous it is being tethered to a TV schedule. Sure, you could've tuned in at 8 p.m. Sunday Dec. 8 to watch the season finale of "The Sopranos." With On Demand, though, you could be watching it right now, or later tonight, or next week. And you wouldn't have to remember to set the TiVo. Before we get to HBO and raise the thorny issue of price, however, let's turn to Channel 130 and scan through the 10 channels of free On Demand service, including Food Network, CNN and music videos. Each On Demand channel displays an on-screen menu that looks and acts just like the on-screen program guide. Scroll to whatever you want to see and press the arrowhead-shaped "play" button on your remote. (This is where many newbies have trouble: Make sure the VCR/VOD switch on your remote is set to VOD, for video-on-demand.) If you need to stop the program, you can press either "pause" or "stop." Either way, pressing "play" resumes where you left off - even if you change channels or choose another On Demand program. That's the cool part. Otherwise, On Demand can't hold a candle to DVDs. There's only one speed for fast forward, pausing is hardly instantaneous, and forget about instant replay. Each time you press a button, you're sending a command to a video server a few miles from your house. Think of a satellite "bounce" and you have the idea. Sometimes, it's worse. Occasionally a program would simply fail to load. After staring at spinning arrows for a couple of minutes I'd give up. I also had problems with some HBO shows breaking up. The Time Warner rep wondered if repair people had been out to my house to check my line. (They had.) The free programs felt like discards - a handful of "Biographys" (from Jesus Christ to Teri Garr) and a few dusty Cartoon Network shows. The CNN menu included a "Crossfire" from this summer, an Ari Fleischer press conference of uncertain origin and Larry King interviewing zoo guy Jack Hanna. (A Time Warner rep said 25 percent of the free programs are changed each week.) I did learn how to clean up my cluttered closets and cook European pasta from the DIY and Food offerings. That sort of recipe-card instant access might actually be a better way to go for some cable channels that currently rely on scheduling. By contrast, every hot new pay-per-view movie was there for the watching on Channel 101. At $3.95 for eight hours of unlimited use, On Demand is a no-brainer over the old In Demand pay-per-view. (Apparently you agree: More Kansas City customers now order movies through On Demand than In Demand.) There should be little doubt that On Demand is the future of pay television. But how much to charge customers is still an open question. Time Warner is asking $6.95 on top of what you already pay for HBO to get HBO On Demand. The rep pointed out that this surcharge will cover all of a customer's premium channels. In other words, if you subscribe to HBO and Showtime, you still pay only $6.95 for both services' On Demand channels. OK, but Charter cable in St. Louis is charging only $3.99 a month for HBO On Demand. And in other cities, Comcast is experimenting with free On Demand for all its premium channels. (Comcast has not yet announced when On Demand will be coming to its Kansas City customers.) Seven bucks a month is too much to pay for "Sopranos" reruns. Let me offer some free marketing advice to HBO and its sister company Time Warner Cable: Give your On Demand customers new episodes of "The Sopranos" before you air them on HBO - maybe 48 hours in advance - and you've got yourself a deal. @ART CAPTION:With Time Warner Cable's new On Demand system, viewers can watch the season finale of "The Sopranos" any time they want. @ART:Photo (color) @ART CREDIT:HBO