OLYMPICS: Online live quadruple-screen streams!

I'm becoming a quick fan of NBC's online Olympics video. Like a kid set loose in a candy store, you get to taste whatever you want.

Live equestrian dressage? There it is, streaming full-motion in a window half the size of my laptop screen Saturday night. (And no blabby announcers! Just the competition itself! Woo-hoo!)

On-demand highlights of the previous evening's opening ceremonies? Click the As Seen on TV monitor among the icons on the left side of the streaming-video window; then pick your part, choosing from little picture windows lined up translucent over the ongoing dressage video. The parade of athletes/nations? Anytime you wanna see it. Cauldron lighting? Cool. Or maybe Li Ning's awesome dangling/sideways "walk" across the stadium-top scroll toward that big lighting moment? OK, that first.

NBC's streaming application (Microsoft Silverlight, a free download for Windows or Intel-powered Macs; just click NBC's online video link to be guided through installation) lets you switch videos on the fly, with an icon menu that offers choices of live streaming, as-broadcast coverage of past events, highlights of specific sports, and clips ranked most-watched by other users.

Click the left side's top icon for Live Video Control Room, where you can watch one live event widescreen in a main window, with three other live events 1-2-3 on smaller screens down the right side. Four at once! Saturday night, I had water polo on my main screen, with smaller screens of fencing, weightlifting and tennis. (NBCOlympics.com promises to offer as many as 20 simultaneous live streams.) Or watch one live, three on-demand from taped coverage (choose from dozens). Switch at will. Pretty great!

While you're watching a live event in the big video window, you can choose to include picture-in-picture of other clips. Keep watching dressage or water polo, with an optional text commentary window, while the opening ceremonies repeat in the tiny PIP space. See something in PIP that begs a closer look? Click the "swap" button to switch 'em out.

Just don't try clicking out of those GE pre-roll ads (not so long, less than 30 seconds). Isn't it strange how the menu icons/buttons seem to be disabled while commercials run?

And don't think you'll watch events at work Monday afternoon, lining up four screens of live coverage on your desk computer. Remember, Beijing is 12 hours ahead of New York time (ET). While you're at work in America, they're asleep in China.

For once -- at least with NBC's live online coverage -- night-shift workers get the best deal.

Check listings for both TV coverage and NBCOlympics.com's online streams here.