Finally got my BenQ in exchange for the crappy Nextbase unit.
Here's the Lowdown:
- Plays DVD, DVD-R, VCD, SVCD
- about the size of a small discman but thicker
- No skipping issues
- initial menu is in japanese, remote is in japanese, but instructions are easy enough to figure out how to turn OSD to english
- play/pause/open/stop and volume are the only buttons on the unit
- top loading, opening controlled electronically instead of a physical open mechanism
- gets rather warm, but doesn't seem to affect play
- All functions trigger OSD text

I will do a proper review soon..this thing is just too cool to make you wait.
This is a standalone VCD recording deck...records VCD from NTSC or PAL Compsite/SVid, with stereo audio in realtime...AMAZINGLY high quality mpeg1 encoding!