Four eyes needed: one for each HDTV program

I'm SO glad I've been wearing glasses for the past 25 years. All of those "four-eyes" jokes are about to become worth it. Chi Mei Optoelectronics finally delivered their prototype "quad-HDTV" display at a Yokohama exhibit. The 56-inch LCD set can handle a resolution of 3840 x 2160, or four-times the pixels of a 1920 x 1080 set.

CMO figures that some TV-addicts will want to watch four unique programs at the same time in high-definition. That might be better than a single program at the super-high resolution: a full-scale picture in "2160i" for lack of a better term requires a transmission rate of 1.4 GB per second. Current MPEG-2 compression for high-def "only" requires 19.2 MB per second.

CMO is a little optimistic on a price and release for the set, claiming a cost of around $10,000 and production by third quarter of next year. I'd be shocked if we see either of those come true, but if CMO proves me wrong, I'd be happy to write a review for the set; heck, I'll write four reviews!