I purchased one about a month ago. It's a pretty handy gadget. The advertising says the VCD quality is better than VHS. I would have to disagree with that barely. Being MPEG 1 just has it's limitations, especially when it comes to a lot of fast motion in the shot. It actually records an image smaller than 720x486 (I believe about half that size) and the DVD player just expands it to full screen. I would describe the quality as slightly less than VHS when played back on a DVD Player.
I find the positive points are: 1. Real time encoding to either CD-R or CD-RW disc is nice, no computer crunching and copying afterwards, just a two minute "disc finalizing" process done in the machine. It will record 74-80 minutes depending on the blank cd's you use.
2. Plays back in Windows Media Player (although there is a little trick to get it to find the file) and on most stand alone DVD players, which is a nice convenience. Don't think that it will equal a DVD in image quality because it's not even close...think of the DVD playback as a little convenience.
3. Excellent audio capabilities, great for recording CD's because you can use two different digital audio input choices including the Optical connector.