Trinitron is Sony's brand name for its line of aperture-grille-based CRTs used in television sets and computer displays. One of the first truly new television systems to enter the market since the 1950s, the Trinitron was announced in 1968 to wide acclaim for its bright images, about 25% brighter than common shadow mask televisions of the same era. Constant improvement in the basic technology and attention to overall quality allowed Sony to charge a premium for Trinitron devices into the 1990s.
Patent protection on the basic Trinitron design ran out in 1996, and it quickly faced a number of competitors at much lower prices. Sony responded by introducing their flat-screen FD Trinitron designs (WEGA), which maintained their premier position in the market into the early 2000s. However, these designs were surpassed relatively quickly by plasma and LCD designs. Sony removed the last Trinitron televisions from their product catalogs in 2006, and ceased production in early 2008. Video monitors are the only remaining Trinitron products being produced by Sony, at a low production rate, although the basic technology can still be found in downmarket televisions from third parties.
The name Trinitron was derived from , meaning the union of three, and tron from electron tube, after the way that the Trinitron combined the three separate electron guns of other CRT designs into one.
Color television had been studied, but it was only in the late 1940s that the problem was seriously considered. At the time, a number of systems were being proposed that used separate red, green and blue signals (RGB), broadcast in succession. Most systems broadcast entire frames in sequence, with a colored filter (or "gel") that rotated in front of an otherwise conventional black and white television tube. Because they broadcast separate signals for the different colors, all of these systems were incompatible with existing black and white sets. Another problem was that the mechanical filter made them flicker unless very high refresh rates were used. In spite of these problems, the United States Federal Communication Commission selected a sequential-frame 144 frame/s standard from CBS as their color broadcast in 1950.