Quote Originally Posted by Gnoman View Post
The only thing that prevented widespread deployment of this new standard 37 years ago was the limitations of CRT technology - it wasn't until LCDs became cost-effective that they were able to deploy the new format.
I agree with everything else you say, but will point out here that CRT widescreen TVs were a thing for years--I owned two of them, and only actually bought an LCD widescreen last year. They even briefly sold high-definition CRT widescreen TVs--my brother had one, which he passed on to my mother when he upgraded to an LCD.