Obituary For the Sony Trinitron 297
An anonymous reader sends us to Gizmodo where, to honor the passing from production of the Sony Trinitron, they've done a timeline on the development of television. "After 280 millions tubes sold, Trinitron will be officially dead this month. Few Sony inventions have had the same gravitational pull as their Trinitron display technology... Trinitron became synonym of the best quality TV sets and computer monitors in the planet... Sony became the king of TV, with more than 100 million sets sold by 1994, to later fall under the weight of plasma and LCD technologies."
Obituary for the 2 horizontal lines (Score:2, Interesting)
My first First Post?
Re:Memories (Score:4, Interesting)
I want tougher LCD's (Score:5, Interesting)
My Sony Trinitron TV is still going strong (Score:3, Interesting)
Since I can't really tell the difference by watching high definition video on HD TVs and normal DVDs on my set, I don't think I'll be upgrading anytime soon.
Re:Memories (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Obituary for the 2 horizontal lines (Score:5, Interesting)
I've also got a Diamondtron-based monitor (a supposedly licensed version by Mitsubishi, although I was always under the impression that they made it after Sony's patent ran out). The faint lines (two in this case) aren't distracting in themselves under normal use. However, they *are* a minor nuisance when you're using Photoshop and you have to check to see if it's a genuine scratch on the image or just one of the bars.
I'm not sure what you mean by "they got more obvious with time", though. In what sense?
Tipping my hat and a moment of silence. (Score:5, Interesting)
About 9 months ago, I finally caved in, I fought tooth and nail to the bitter end, from forum to forum across the web, valiantly defending the honour of CRT vs LCD in the great debate, I held on long, much longer than most of the die hard CRT junkies, there's few of us left.
I am a man who had slowly given up PC gaming I finally bit the dust, accepted a good price for the sale of my old 22" trinitron (philips 202P40) and accepted the new Dell 2407 WFP HC model into my life also at a great price, it was a combination I couldn't refuse.
Sure I loved the desk space saved, I loved the crisp text in the native resolution, hell even in games I didn't mind non native resolution honestly, once you're playing, it doesn't matter.
Also the monitor was appealing to look at, it came with USB, CF, SD and other such ports, it was sexier, it was lighter etc etc!
Still.. to this day as a die hard CRT fanboy, I can not use that Dell 24" LCD in dark (DARK!) games, like Doom, like Oblivion, the black levels, despite what the 'forum people' tell me! are STILL not good enough.
I seriously do not exaggerate for a second, when I say widescreen Oblivion, the sides of the monitor - with it's huge width, tight viewing angle and so on, combined in to the 'perfect storm' of shimmery, nasty black levels, which made the walls in the caves of Oblivion quite honestly impossible to look at.
I felt as if 'sleep' as in my eye - I was constantly rubbing it to get the shimmery light sappy stuff from my eyes out.
Obviously though... it wasn't really in my eyes to begin with.
I love my LCD for so many reasons but for so many others, I still hate it.
Co-incidentally the night of this news article, it's in a box behind me now, being re-sold to someone else.
Sure I'm typing this on a 19" LCD but I don't intend to play games on it, I'll wait for something with REAL black levels, with REAL viewing angels, something actually, genuinely superior to the CRT I so foolishly sold for my the LCD.
(100hz at 1600x1200 no less!, it was a good CRT!)
Yes CRT has it's flaws, yes it's heavy, no it's not ultra crisp but that almost gives it a 'free AA' feel to be honest
Sure they are rare now but if one feature hasn't been surpassed it's by far the black levels, by a long, long way!
When you can plonk me down, in front of a widescreen LCD and I can say the picture surpasses my old CRT - then I'll be a happy man.
So long trinitrons, alas - we knew thee well.
Re:Obituary for the 2 horizontal lines (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, it's *relatively* heavy and moderately bulky, but that's not the same problem with 14" portables as it is with those horrendous large-screen CRTs. I'd pay to have my TV repaired over one of those cheap LCD portables any day. There's something I just hate about the look of them, particularly the matt-finish ones.
Yeah, I know it cuts down on reflections, but it just looks horrible for TV, and I don't like the colour on cheap LCD TVs. Maybe the way CRTs work sits better with (and covers up the flaws better than) cheap LCDs when used with existing standard-def TV signals- that could be because until recently most displays were CRTs, and the system was designed with that in mind.
Whatever.... that Sony's a damn good TV, even when (*especially* when) used with my digibox's RGB SCART signal.
Re:Memories (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Tipping my hat and a moment of silence. (Score:3, Interesting)
Really makes me sad to think that I'll never see another Trinitron... the picture quality was simply outstanding.
But when it comes to text (so basically any office work, e-Mail or just surfing the net), LCDs kick ass - FAR less eyestrain.
Re:Tipping my hat and a moment of silence. (Score:3, Interesting)
When you can plonk me down, in front of a widescreen LCD and I can say the picture surpasses my old CRT - then I'll be a happy man.
Serendipity (Score:0, Interesting)
The picture quality is awesome and I get around the two lines problem by taking my glasses off and sitting further back from the monitor. Plus I forgot about the "doinkzzz" noise you get when you fire a CRT up.
Re:Tipping my hat and a moment of silence. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm wondering whether it's even possible to get better results. I don't know enough about the technology to offer a comment, but I've yet to see a LCD that, despite all it's super keen advantages over CRTs, didn't have something that "wasn't quite right" about it.
Notebooks screens are particularly annoying in that no matter how much effort you expend in tweaking gamma settings, black is never black, and the grays are all really blue. Small wonder the default desktop colour scheme on most systems is blue.
Still in use here... (Score:2, Interesting)
I still have an old 17" Trinitron monitor which I use for an elderly PC hooked up to a weather station. Just for fun a few weeks back I hooked it up to this PC, alongside the LCD monitor: I was amazed at how vibrant the whole thing was, the reds in particular were really vivid. I just has to fire up Doom for some old-school action - it's just not the same on an LCD panel.
It'll all become irrelevant in the next decade or so anyway, as people will forget what a CRT monitor could offer. I don't plan to throw that Trinitron monitor away though, not as long as it still works anyway! Maybe in 2018 I'll be able to wow people by showing them what we used in the dark ages...
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Ancient Trinitron (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Memories (Score:5, Interesting)
Although my fiance and myself have given up cable (Family Guy is broadcast, w00t!), she comes from a family where the TV is just ON. I hate it, but the typical procedure for 5 years ago went like this:
6AM - Dad wakes up, turns on TV, watches weather and traffic report, leaves TV on, takes shower
7AM - Dad checks TV again for report, Mom wakes up, views report on TV (report is discussed between Mom and Dad), takes shower, Dad leaves for work
8AM - Mom fixes breakfast (and lunch) for kids (who watch cartoons), gets ready for work.
9AM - Kids watch TV until time to leave, leave, mom takes them (leaves TV on)
10AM - Mom comes back, views weather/traffic, finishes getting ready for work, leaves for work, TV is turned off
2PM - Mom comes back from work, turns TV on, watches soaps, eats potato chips
3PM - Mom picks up kids (leaves TV on), takes kids home from school (kids watch Simpsons or whatever)
4PM - Mom watches something on TV, cooks dinner, Kids play games or HW, or whatever
5PM - Dad gets home (dinner better be on the table!), TV is on news while dinner is consumed
6PM-9PM - TV time with family, smoking, leisure time, possible do some home repairs (TV stays on, don't worry)
9PM - dessert (watch a movie?)
10PM - kids go to bed, Dad stays up and watches news
10PM-12AM - Dad falls asleep while watching news, Mom wakes him up at midnight to get him to come to bed, turns TV off.
So, the TV is off for 10 hours, daily (6 hours during the night, 4 hours as both parents work). 14 hours of TV, daily. No, I am not kidding at all. Yes, her parents smoke, drink, and lounge about the house gaining weight and killing themselves. Sadly, I am not kidding.
PS - weekends are actually worse, TV is on for 18 hours (6AM to midnight). Also, 2 years her mom quit her job (she doesn't like working), and added those 4 hours back in for a total of 18 hours daily. It is not even fair to compete under these circumstances.
PSS - the TV is on during Christmas (in case you wondered)
Re:Tipping my hat and a moment of silence. (Score:3, Interesting)
1) They use WAY more power on a per-size basis compared to modern LCD panels.
2) Adjust CRT displays for proper geometry can be a frustrating experience--most LCD panels usually don't have such problems.
3) Today's latest LCD panels now have pretty good picture quality.
not bad 4 a technology invented to avoid a patent (Score:4, Interesting)
I suppose nowadays somebody that didn't invent anything would have patented "sending TV pictures in colour" and everyone would have had to pay royalties to them.
Re:Memories (Score:3, Interesting)
I still have my 1985 Sony Walkman Sport (the yellow water resistant model) Both the Cassette player and the radio still work, and I still have the fully functional headphones that came with it. (The yellow and gray "sideways earbud" ones)
That thing got SO much use when I was in HS. I couldn't bear to throw it out, even after CD's replaced the cassette completely, I held onto it. (besides, I still have a cassette collection that has some albums I couldn't find on CD!) When I moved recently I found it in a box of high-school momentos, perfectly preserved. Amazing that it survived as long as it did. I dropped the thing at least once a week back in HS.
Even older, I have a 1975 transistor radio (I forget the manufacturer right now) that runs on AAA's and still works fantastically! The old stuff worked the best. Newer stuff breaks WAY too easily. I guarantee, 10 years from now, when the first 15 generations of iPods and iPhones are filling landfills (or being properly recycled) my old transistor radio and my old Walkman will still be working.
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I want tougher LCD's (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Obituary for the 2 horizontal lines (Score:4, Interesting)
Cheap flat-panels have fewer of these tricks implemented, and generally keep the bit depth low to reduce data bandwidth and allow cheaper components in the electronics, so their color reproduction is not very good.
It's common for people to assume that flat-panels are better than CRTs in every respect. It's simply not true. They are better in terms of size, weight, sharpness, and (usually) power consumption, but CRTs are better in terms of color and frequency response. Moving to flat-panels involves trade-offs, as does pretty much everything, it's just that popular opinion is that these trade-offs are worth it, even if they don't consciously realize they're being made.
Re:Obituary for the 2 horizontal lines (Score:3, Interesting)
But thats why I got a 55" Sony SXRD rear projection. It uses 3 1080p LCOS chips to generate the image (unlike the DLP which use a half-1080 chip and a spinning color wheel - so no rainbow effect). While it takes about 45 seconds to warm up to full brightness, thats perfectly tolerable - image us viewable within 10-15 seconds of turning it on. Standard Def looks great, even at 55", in any of the 4 aspect modes available (no change, stretch to widescreen, and 2 scale and crop modes). HD looks amazing. The unit weighs about 80 lbs, and goes for about $2k.
Unlike other rear projections, I don't have problems with poor brightness or horrible contrast - Battlestar Galactica is very watchable without turning off the lights or cranking brightness up... so thats saying something!
Re:Gravitational pull is right. (Score:2, Interesting)
I have 3 of them on my desk. LCD colour sucks seriously and unless you spend a lot more than I'm prepared to spend on a car you are not going to get colour accuracy. I used to print colour photos for a living so this seriously matters to me. I get the screens from unwise design places for nothing when they ditch them for usually nasty cheap LCDs so I'm not about to run out of them.
Most standard res TV is unwatchable in terms of content, let alone display - I do not own or want a TV set. However, I find standard PAL TV unwatchable on large LCDs as it almost makes my eyes bleed. Nor is my eyesight up to silly resolution LCD screens - I own a 1600x1200 16" screen Sony laptop which i cannot read anything on till I turn the resolution down to something sensible or up the display font size to something silly. Or wear glasses.
Still have a Sony radio that I use every day as i have done since i bought it in 1984 (ICF7600D). Cost more than a large colour TV at the time and has been worth every penny. Now there is nothing made by Sony, other then their Ericsson designed phones, I'd even consider buying - i got given the laptop.
The Trinitron was great - I've never, ever been bothered by the wires. Never seen a Daimondtron I liked though. there are a few in the garage for the day that everything else fails.
RIP Trinitron.
Come to that: RIP Sony, you used to make great stuff.
was the crt the last vacuum tube? (Score:3, Interesting)
when i think of mainstream and state of the art electronics (retro stuff notwithstanding) i can't think of any modern electronic devices that use vacuum tubes except for the crts found in computer monitors and televisions. this announcement seems to be mark the end for the vacuum tube - this is not just the passing of what was once the best video display technology, but also the final passing of the vacuum tube, once used in every electronic device ever made including the first digital computers.