Comcast's video on demand, on steroids

CEO Brian Roberts shows off Fancast, a beta service to be rolled out later this year

Pretty soon, Comcast subscribers will have access to video nirvana or video on-demand, on steroids. That's according to Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast, who showed off Fancast, the cable companies on-demand video service that's in beta at the moment but will be formally released by the end of this year.

The online service will be "much better than the TV experience because we’re not bound by storage in your box," said Roberts, who was being interviewed by John Battelle, founder of Federated Media, at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco late Tuesday afternoon. "Here’s every episode of Entourage ever," Roberts explained as he walked through the beta version of the Fancast site.

It's like "video nirvana," said Roberts."Or video on steroids."

What Fancast means to Comcast subscribers is that on-demand fans won't be limited to the movies and shows available on their Comcast box.It also means cable shows, like HBO's Entourage, will be available online.

Additionally, if you have a DVR, you will be able to connect it to your computer and run Fancast shows on the television rather than your computer.

And, Fancast plans to be more personalized. So, if you have sons (like me), and tend to watch Transformers, The Hulk and Iron Man, you'll most likely see recommendations for those type of movies, rather than, say chick flicks.

The video (clearly taken by me with my handy cam) is a preview of Fancast that Roberts gave on stage.