I have the converter mainly for my own use, but often
do conversions for others who need them. As the equipment
is quite expensive though, I must charge a minimum amount for
each tape I convert for others (about $US 10.00), just to help
cover the cost of owning and maintaining it. Don't get me wrong
though - this is not a business of mine! It is just simply not
cheap to own and maintain a standards converter, and anyone
who's priced getting a tape converted commercially will know.
As Juerg pointed out, there is a slight loss in image quality
in the conversion, but if the original master tape is of good
quality, the difference is usually minimal.
As for most home VCRs being multistandard (capable of reading
various standards), this is only true in some European and
Latin American countries such as Switzerland and France, but not
in others such as the USA, Spain, the UK, etc. where
multistandard VCRs are higher priced, non-standard items.
Best regards,
Gordon Wells
Instituto de Cibernetica
Diagonal 647, planta 2
Barcelona 08028
SPAIN