I think its very unfair to refer to DVHS as a "laughable mess" surely this applies to recordable dvd with different and incompatible formats, and pathetically short recording lengths.
Whilst the Flourescent discs sound great I would have thought that if they have any commercial use it will be for distribution of films in a hi-def format for digital projection in the cinema. I cant see them becoming a consumer product in anything like the near future.
DVHS on the other hand is here, now and it works!
I bought my deck for £950 in April and its fantastic. Off air recordings generally look superb, but where the machine comes into its own is archiving a large collection of tapes.
The 4.7 mbps recording mode is perfectly adequate for copying VHS and SVHS recordings and by using Pro Grade SVHS E240s I can fit about 17.25 hours of material onto one tape. The digital recordings look pretty much identical to the original recordings (viewed on a 41 inch RPTV) and its a joy to be able to fit whole series onto one or two tapes.
For example all 38 episodes of Survivors onto 2 tapes, All 3 series of Cardiac Arrest onto another. You can even fit 42 episodes of Doctor Who onto a tap should you so wish.
Ok, you dont have instant access as you do with a disc based system, but because so much is packed onto the tape, the fast forward and rewind are extremely quick.
I'm now able to sell most of my VHS sell through collection, and indeed some of my off air recordings as I have them on DVHS, and am looking forward to buying a second machine for the bedroom.
Of course its not really a mass market product - but then again, no digital recording system is currently. I suspect we'll move towards hard disc for convenience (as it will be built into most set top boxes) and for those who want something more, that is available now, well DVHS seems to offer the best current solution.
Its horses for courses really - if you want to edit then get the superb DV format, if you want to archive your collection and make off air recordings to keep go with DVHS. If you want to timeshift either keep the humble standard VHS or get a hard disc when they come out. Either way it doesnt leave much room for recordable DVD - a system which seems inherently flawed and which I suspect will have to offer really low bit rates to give half decent storage...
Duncan