Trinitron: Sony's Once Unbeatable Product

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Throughout much of the analog television era, Sony was the fairly undisputed king of TVs. Their Trinitron picture tube was a universally well received technology and made a number of important improvements on the standard color picture tube. This is the story of its creation.

**The trinitron CRT wasn't impervious to Moire patterns. However, it was less prone to them because of the lack of a phosphor grid. Vertical misalignment could still occur with the aperture grille, so moire patterns could still appear on patterns with strong vertical stripes. However, moire patterns wouldn't appear with horizontal image components due to the lack of distinct phosphor groupings.

**The patent expired in 1996, not 1998.

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The image of the Chromatron Television was used under Creative Commons License. Photo by Patfass

[dacypher]

Wow, Trinitron was invented only a handful of years after color TVs were first introduced, it stayed dominant while it was under patent and then the patent ran out only a few years before the full-scale introduction of HDTVs. That is a dynasty.

[ZReviews]

I own three 24" Sony GDM-FW900 16x10 High Definition Trinitron Tube Monitors. They are the most glorious things you have ever seen. After about 45 minutes of warm up.

[targetrender]

This guy has an incredible amount of knowledge of how vintage electronics work. And he explains everything so concisely. If he taught this in college, I’d sign up.

[slickstretch]

I remember having a 32" Trinitron when I was younger. Nearly threw my back out when we replaced it and I tried to pick it up. I think that's the heaviest TV I've ever lifted, and working for Goodwill, I lifted a lot of TVs. But, playing SNES on that thing was the bee's knee's.

[TP-rszl]

I love the way TC used the tv's themselves to project his image and show us the differences in real time.

[stacystec]

I use to work at the Sony Support Center in Ft Myers (R.I.P.) and supported the trinitrons and vaio pcs. Funny thing is that our training videos never went to this depth. This video is a great artifact, thanks! When i was first introduced to IEEE in college, I always heard the ewok scream in my mind.

[ChristinaKilgore]

Being a computer engineer major, I hear reference to IEEE all the time.

I've never heard them referenced as they were at 0:35, that was downright the funniest thing I've heard for a long time.

[ironbitch]

I owned two of these flatscreen Trinitron’s they were amazingly clear and amazingly heavy

[midnighttornado]

I remember them Trinitron days. Some of my friends hooked up their Ataris to them, and I was always impressed with how much better they would look compared to other brands. Enough so, that people had no problem dropping all that $ to get one.

[PrincePolaris]

Back in 2015 or so, I found a huge Trinitron Multiscan 520GS and I lugged it back to the IT room to use as my main monitor... and today, in 2020, that monitor built in 1999 is still going! And hey, 1600x1200 at 75Hz is still pretty good ;)

[samspencer]

I still couldn't see the stabilisation wire even when it was being pointed out to me :P

[olsmokey]

Years ago at the local Apple user's group, I dismantled a Trinitron tube for the entertainment and education of the Hardware SIG. After letting air into the tube, I hammered a chisel through the side (which was inside two heavy cardboard boxes for safety) and broke it up into bite-sized chunks of razor sharp glass. Eventually the aperture grill on its rigid steel frame was removed and handed around the group giving everyone a hands-on inspection of this major piece of electronic wizardry. The stabilizing wires were pointed out and their purpose explained. The electron gun was also handed around. And no, I didn't put it all back together.

I won't even mention the SIG where I poured coffee over a computer motherboard and dunked the mouse in the coffee as well, then showed how to clean everything. Yes, it all worked normally afterwards.

Ahhh, those were the days.

[Scott_B]

I have an identical 1985 Trinitron. It cost an eye-watering $300 new. Around 1990 I bought a 27" Trinitron for $680 and it lasted about 20 years as my primary set. People think CRTs were crappy, but these Sonys were a pleasure to watch.

[Crystan]

One of the things I like about your videos is that you show as well as tell. I especially liked how you showed yourself on both TV's so that you can visually see the difference between the two (must be an editing nightmare to get the voiceover matching so perfectly). Fascinating to look at how technology has progressed.

[digimon]

This is an amazing channel. Im also a car guy, but its easier to talk about the history of cars...and almost everyone and any media/social outlet does it in a way thats mainstream. You dont really see that kind of coverage with electronics. Keep the videos coming!!

[thepaulhenderson]

I remember when I could finally afford to buy a new SONY Trinatron! I was super excited and got a 32” floor model from Circuit City for HALF the price, with the full warranty! After I fired it up and started drinking in all that gorgeous picture, I noticed the wires behind the screen, mentioned in this video. I couldn’t believe it it, “You gotta be shittin me, they sold me a lemon!!!” A call to Circuit City led to a visit from the repairman (who didn’t know about the wires) who replaced the picture tube. “Awesome, now we’re set!” NOPE! Could still see the wires! The repairman (who was really nice and accommodating) insisted Circuit City replace the entire set! Mind you, I had paid half price, so now I would be getting a brand new from the box SONY for 50% of the retail! Long story short, I saw the wires in the new one, too, but at least I managed to turn a floor model into a brand new Trinatron! After replacement the new repairman (who DID know about the wires) assured me it was normal, and further convinced me to keep it by telling only 5% of people could see the lines and that if he replaced it again, this time he would be forced to give me a Panasonic which anyone with superhuman eagle-eyed vision (like me) would not be happy with the lesser overall picture quality of the cheaper set. He had me.

[flexiblebirdchannel]

Nice that you mentioned the stabilizing wires. I had 2 Sonys. You mention the convergence problem on delta dot mask screens where the mask needs to fit the phosphorous dots horizontal and vertical while Trinitron only requires convergence in one direction, but this is not an advantage of Trinitron but of all in-line televisions. The advantage of Trinitron is somewhere else: A mask heats up while absorbing electrons and can not dissipate the heat in the vacuum tube so it gets hot, and metal will expand if it gets hot, thereby misaligning the mask to the phosphor. The wires of Trinitron are mounted under tension and will stretch if heated but this will not cause convergence problems, the wire stays at the same place relative to the phosphor.

[BJtheBassist]

Why wasn't this this in 4:3 so I could watch t perfectly on my Multiscan!?

[stephensmith]

I met an elderly engineer from EMI (Hayes). He'd worked on a lot of different projects; but most interestingly, a colour TV system perfected in 1958. This was accomplished using dichromate glass capable of changing colour. It worked but it was too expensive to commercialise. He said the Trinitron tube meant the end for the project.

[EpsilonKnight]

I've had a TV in my house for close to 20 years now that I never knew was Trinitron and what that even meant. Thank you so so much for making such informative content!