Not that much time has passed since we all moved from SD television sets to HDTVs, but, although Full HD seems to be the cream of the crop right now, things are not going to remain unchanged if manufacturers will have it their way, Sharp just demoing a 64-inch LCD prototype display that featured an impressive 4096 x 2160 resolution.

Showcased during the CEATEC trade show that takes place right now in Japan, this prototype is capable of displaying images at 4K resolution, a feat that only a few professional-grade projectors master right now together with a very select group of digital camcorders built by the likes of Red Digital Cinema Camera Company or Dalsa.

To get a sens of how impressive this feat is, you could think of it as four Full HD displays stacked together, since Sharp's panel pushes an approximately equal number of pixels, this being the highest resolution reached by an LCD display, beating the previous record holder built by Chi Mei Optoelectronics that featured a 3840x2160 resolution panel.

When asked about its reasons in developing such a high resolution LCD display, Sharp said this is needed in order to keep up with changes in the motion picture industry.

Although I don't really know what to make of this statement, since this is still pretty much an emerging standard in the digital film world, Sharp's feat is indeed impressive, although I certainly hope panel manufacturers will give us some more time to enjoy our recently purchased HDTV's before pushing a new standard upon us and making them obsolete. (via slashgear)