It is not a matter of spending on an obsolete device, we have two of these units and rather a lot of recorded material which we can't record again until the repeats come around. Additionally when I bought them they were the only offering on the shelves with SCART connection, our two TVs have only SCART or terrestrial aerial inputs. The sound outputs, which I feed to a good set of amplifiers and speakers, are good enough quality for most programme material.
For what the units cost me at the time they were a good find.