A short-lived dream for home theater purists has officially come to an end. This week, Philips and Vizio confirmed they are completely discontinuing their native 21:9 Ultra-Widescreen HDTV lines, marking the commercial end of the constant-image-height experiment in consumer living rooms.

First introduced as a high-end concept by Philips in 2009 with the Cinema 21:9, and later brought to the US market by Vizio with their CinemaWide series in early 2011, these 2560x1080 displays were designed to show 2.39:1 CinemaScope films perfectly flush without any black bars. For a brief window, enthusiasts had hardware that treated theatrical cinema with the respect it deserved.

Ultimately, mainstream consumer confusion killed the format. Casual buyers complained bitterly about the massive vertical 'pillar boxes' on the sides when watching standard 16:9 television broadcasts or playing video games. With panels proving expensive to manufacture and average consumers unwilling to adapt to changing aspect ratios, manufacturers have thrown in the towel to focus entirely on standard 16:9 4K resolution displays. The black bars are staying.