2006 – 2008retired
HD DVD
“No region codes, no hard feelings — it just lost the war and went home early.”
“Three guns, one gorgeous glow, and 280 million living rooms better for it.”
Trinitron was Sony's brand name for its line of aperture-grille CRT televisions and computer monitors, among the first new television systems to hit the market since the 1950s. The first color Trinitron arrived in October 1968, and its name — from trinity and electron tube — nodded to the way it combined the three separate electron guns of other CRTs. People clearly loved it: 100 million units had been sold by 1994,
When the basic patent expired in 1996, cheaper competitors piled in, and Sony pivoted to flat-screen FD Trinitron tubes before the industry shifted to LCD panels. Japanese production ended in 2004, US and Canadian sales in 2006, and the last tubes shipped from Singapore until production finally ended in March 2008. All told, 280 million Trinitrons were built — a quiet, dignified retirement after four decades of light
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“No region codes, no hard feelings — it just lost the war and went home early.”
“It told the time by FM radio, and somehow that was beautiful.”
“It flipped open, thumbed its last message, and the cloud quietly took everything with it.”