Time to party down, Bell TV customers. Your television provider just announced that it will add HBO Canada in SD and HD to its lineup on October 30th. Also of note, the channel will be offered on secondary SD and HD slots which will deliver the same programming with a two-hour time difference (okay?). HBO Canada will be included with all Bell TV subscriptions to The Movie Network or Movie Central at no extra cost, and hey -- just in time for Halloween, too!

We already knew that Home Box Office was champing at the bit to rid itself of anything less than pure, unadulterated (okay, maybe just a little bit) HD, and now the outfit is announcing that its Cinemax channel will be going 100% high-def on September 1st. Granted, we're talking about the main channel only here, but this fall / winter is shaping up to be a good one for Cinemax HD. Subscribers will see the pay-TV premieres of The Bourne Ultimatum, Rendition, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and The Darjeeling Limited, and in the near future, viewers will see I Am Legend, Juno, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem and In The Valley of Elah. Of note, the release states that "true HD (1080i)" won't begin until September 6th -- odd, but we suppose a few extra days won't kill us. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

For years, we've wondered why Inside the NFL, with its sweet NFL Films footage and in depth coverage of one of the best sports to watch in high definition, was stuck in SD; but the show's move to Showtime has remedied that. TV Week reveals the upcoming season will be produced for your HDTV, the only proper format considering we get the games live in HD and daily highlights on ESPN-HD, why should a weekly magazine show be any different? If you miss an episode Wednesday night at 9 p.m. (starting September 10), expect plenty of opportunities to see it again with about 10 replays per week, hosted by Cris Collinsworth, Phil Simms and James Brown plus a series of guest hosts. Thanks Showtime, for letting HBO know how things should be done -- seriously, Bill Maher going HD first should have been a crime.

We already heard HBO's CEO Bill Nelson proclaim that all 26 of its channels would soon be airing in HD, but today we've received confirmation that those parked in Latin America will also be enjoying the spoils. Motorola has announced that it will be adding multiple MPEG-4 AVC encoding channels at the HBO Latin America Group digital transmission facility in Florida, which will enable "rapid deployment of HBO's new HD services." According to HBO's Pierre Jaspar, it has seen "marked acceleration in demand" for HD programming in the Latin America region, and while we're not given specific dates, carriers, etc., it seems safe to assume more of the aforementioned region will soon be seeing HBO in high-def.

Everyone's got their own most-anticipated DVD that has yet to make the jump to HD, if Band of Brothers is yours, the wait just got a little shorter. According to The Man Room, the latest issue of Home Media Magazine loosed from an HBO VP the detail that Band of Brothers, #6 top selling DVD of all time, will make an appearance on Blu-ray before the end of the year. While waiting for the boys of Easy Company, we'll just play Call of Duty a few more (thousand) times.

Get set, HBO fans, as the content (some of it, at least) you know and love is now available on the world's most overly populated video sharing site. Shortly after announcing HBO on Broadband, the network is branching out even further by inking a deal with YouTube to provide "select promotional content on HBO's new branded YouTube channel." Starting today, videos from Flight of the Conchords, The Wire, Def Comedy Jam, Real Time with Bill Maher, Real Sports, Extras, Stand Up Comedy, Habla y Habla and Entourage will be available for viewing, while full-length clips from In Treatment will also be offered up. Now, if only YouTube would get with the program and go high-def, we'd really be satisfied.

For HBO subscribers, HBO on Broadband sounds like a pretty sweet deal on paper. Unfortunately, the service is currently restricted to Time Warner cable and broadband subscribers in Wisconsin, but that hasn't stopped a video from surfacing showing off the service's capabilities. A clip over at Multichannel News shows it being demonstrated on an LCD TV, and while there's nothing really out of the ordinary -- it's an online viewing portal for peeping HBO programming, pretty simple -- it's still something to keep you satisfied 'til it rolls into your town. Speaking of which, we've found that discs are already arriving at homes of certain Wisconsin residents, and although a pair of Macs are used to advertise the service on the packet, there's a complete lack of OS X support on the discs themselves. Reportedly, the service worked "just fine" in Parallels, but this doesn't seem to be good news for those working sans any flavor of Windows. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks, Ken C.]

Being an HBO subscriber is about to get a lot more appealing, as the Time Warner-owned pay channel giant is set to roll out a new service that allows subscribers to both download select content as well as view live feeds, all on their PCs. "HBO on Broadband," as the feature is called, will give HBO on Demand customers on Time Warner's Roadrunner network access to both the live east coast feed as well as numerous TV episodes and Hollywood films, although downloads expire after 12 weeks or less, and you can't natively transfer any of this video swag to a portable device. Mac support is also conspicuously absent here, but seeing how the offer is confined to Time Warner cable and broadband subscribers only in Wisconsin for now, anyway, it's quite possible that an OS X client (and 64-bit Windows one) will become available as more regions get switched on. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks, Judith]

Granted, the 2008 premier of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO wasn't one of his best performances, but it certainly looked better than shows prior. For those who didn't tune in, you'll likely be interested in knowing that it aired in 1080i for the first time. Now, if only we could get those writers back, everything would be lovely, eh?

Merely days after hearing New Line affirm that it would indeed be following Warner Bros. to the Blu side, we're now seeing confirmation that HBO (owned by Time Warner, which also owns Engadget's parent companies) will be making the same leap. According to reports, HBO Video president Henry McGee has stated that HBO will too be "following the same policy as Warner Home Video" -- though we can't really imagine anyone being shocked about the decision. The blows just keep on comin', eh?

[Thanks, Utah]

While everyone's eyes have been (understandably) fixated on Warner's sudden -- but not completely unexpected -- leap to the Blu-ray wagon, we've been wondering what would happen to New Line (owned by Time Warner, which also owns Engadget's parent companies). As you know, the aforementioned studio is currently format neutral, simultaneously releasing such titles as Pan's Labyrinth on both HD DVD and Blu-ray, but new reports are suggesting that tables could be turning. According to a writeup over at Variety, it outright proclaims that "Warner sister company New Line confirmed it will shift allegiance to Blu-ray only as well." However, a conference call with Warner Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara -- sat in on by High-Def Digest -- reportedly had the fearless leader stating that "[New Line and HBO would] make whatever decision they're going to make," and he concluded by noting that while those decisions should be handed down "very quickly," they "are not covered by the initial announcement." Quite honestly, we wouldn't be shocked in the slightest to see New Line declare its unending love for Blu and turn a cold shoulder to HD DVD, but it seems it hasn't got up the courage to actually do so quite yet.

[Thanks, Ben]
Read - New Line going Blu-ray exclusive
Read - New Line, HBO not covered in Warner announcement

HBO HD is one of the oldest HD channels; it goes back further than most HD viewers -- including even some of us. But despite getting into the game early, just like CBS they seem to be dragging their feet now. Sure they're going HD with 26 of their channels in the next year or so, but much of their original programming is still in SD. It's mostly comedies that don't get the HD treatment, but also great shows like Inside the NFL. We're sure they have plenty of excuses, but we're not hearing 'em. It doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon either; Multichannel news is reporting that Real Time with Bill Maher just got renewed and a few HBO comedies like Curb Your Enthusiasm are right around the corner, but there isn't a single mention of HD. So come on HBO, it's past time for 24x7 HD, and while you're at it, stop cropping those movies.

In a world where almost all HD channels are distributed with MPEG-2, HBO has just announced that all 26 of their new HD channels will be MPEG-4. The stream will be 8 Mbps, and HBO has mandated that the provider not reduce the bit-rate. What they didn't say is, what the minimum will be for all those MPEG-2 networks that will no doubt transcode the signal rather than upgrade their entire network (including all the STBs). This is an obvious advantage to satellite providers who are already planning on deploying their new HD channels with MPEG-4; and for HBO who won't have to spend as much cash on bandwidth to distribute their feeds.

Currently only two of HBO's channels are available in HD: HBO and Cinemax (they count both East and West as one). But today HBO's CEO Bill Nelson announced that HBO will upgrade all 26 of their channels to HD. They would also like to upgrade their video-on-demand service, but cite "copy-protection concerns relating to older HDTV sets." We're guessing he's referring to concerns about using "selectable output control," which could cause component outputs to be downconverted. The next obvious question is, who's going to carry all these new HD channels? And once again DirecTV is the only provider who has already announced carriage, but unfortunately they will only carry 10 of them. The new channels will start to roll out later this year, and all 26 are due by the end of Q2 2008.

Full list after the break.

What we're watching: Even without Entourage we'll be watching
HBO to see the season premiere of John from Cincinnati.

Edit: Oh, yeah, and some show called The Sopranos is having its season finale, not that you may have heard of it or anything.

Our traditional high-def listings continue below.