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Old 20th Mar 2012, 10:40 am   #19
ppppenguin
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: North London, UK.
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Default Re: Auroras at Crowthorne Tubes

I have no idea about the original cost of the CO6/501 and CO6/509 converters. The analogue CO6/501 was state of art when it was designed in the early 1960s. It must have cost a good many £1000 then, heaven knows what at today's prices. The digital CO6/509 was also close to state of art in the 1970s but remember that DICE came very soon after. Probably not as expensive in real terms as the CO6/501.

It would be intresting to know what problems they had at Pye when they built the CO6/501 for ITV. Transferring BBC designs into commercial production has a reputation for not being easy.

An unmodified Aurora could have been inserted in the broadcast chain. Direct comparison should show that the Aurora is better than the CO6/501 and possibly very slightly worse than the CO6/509. In practice with colour inputs the Aurora would outperform the CO6/509 because the Aurora has a comb filter to separate the luminance. In all other respects, reliabilty, size, power consumption, the Aurora wins hands down.
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