Maximum PC

What are your thoughts on what direction you believe the CD/DVD/BluRay labeling technology will take!

I am curious because of what I saw at my local Fry’s!

Right now I'm using Lightscribe for discs that I'm going to keep for a while.

For discs that are for temporary use I just use a sharpie.

The resolution of a Lightscribe label is decent but since it's greyscale it isn't the best solution.

I'd love to see a cheap inkjet printer that prints directly onto a disc.

I've been using both for years. Lightscribe media is generally cheaper, and produces excellent photo quality results with multiple burns, but as Satchboy mentioned, only grey-scale. It's also slow per burn and for photo graphics, requires 2 - 6 burns for desired look. An example of "slow", for a full disk coverage photo lable, on 'economy' (fast) single pass print, it's about 2.5 minutes. One positive with Lightscribe, you can go back later & add to the label as needed/wanted, each disk has an alignment grid on the inner ring that the burner reads for proper orientation of the disk.

Inkjet printable media is more expensive, but also more flexible. With a variety of surface options to choose from like white matte, white gloss, silver, gold, etc, all of which give a different finished look. Unfortunately with the demise of the low-end Epson Stylus Photo printers, the "cheap" option from Epson (haven't looked for any other brands) appears to be the Artisan 50 at $150+... I bought my Epson Stylus Photo R200 specifically for direct CD/DVD printing at just $80 several years ago, unfortunately, it no longer works. Also, you cannot use anything other than Epson inks for printing to CD/DVD or you'll get horrible results including but not limited to inks rubbing off on your hands, running inks if they label surface gets wet later (Epson inks are waterproof), I tried 8 different generic ink's including 2 that said they were compatible with direct CD/DVD printing... As a result, you'll spend a lot of money on Epson branded inks, especially if you're printing full coverage photo labels.

Best surface for direct inkjet printing IMO is the white gloss (still have about 50 blank DVD's), it gives a photo appearance that lasts for years. White Matte surface changes the colors a little, but otherwise looks decent. Silver & gold disks are nice, but they have a metallic look after printing where I would preffer something that looks more like silk screening. It's not possible to deposit enough ink in a single pass to make the ink opaque. Since there's no means of alignment it's also impossible to re-print onto these disks after the fact without messing up the original print.

I use a sharpie, because I don't feel the need to make labels. At least, for home use.

Should have mentioned in my first post, I probably do 90% with Sharpie. I only use LightScribe or Inkjet printing for disk's that go to other people, and few personal things like vacation video compilations or certain programs / OS's like Parted Magic or Ubuntu / Mint / PCLinuxOS, etc...

Thanks for the input, guys!

When I was at Fry’s trying to purchase another 50-pack of Light Scribe DVD’s, I couldn’t help but notice the lack of them… only 5 each 10-packs! And yet there were stacks (those isle islands) of printable DVD+/-R’s!

I talked with one of the department managers about this and he said, “More and more printers are available with DVD printing capabilities. People are buying more printable DVD’s than Light Scribe!”

I replied, “It makes sense you’d sell what sells!”

It has me wondering if Light Scribe is becoming a ‘legacy’ burner.

I did a Google search for ‘DVD Printers’ and got a plethora of nothing… well, a few hits. But it looks like DVD Printing for printer manufactures has yet to become a selling point.

While at Fry’s, I checked out their printers. Some advertised DVD Printing but it was mixed in with their other attributes like, ‘wifi, color, double-sided, etc.’

The next time you are at you local computer store, look to see what you believe to be the trend… more or less Light Scribe vs. more or less Printable!

Please post back with your opinions. Myself, I’m sensing a change in the media labeling forecast!

I didn't know you could do this.

I guess I have some experimenting to do now.

Thanks

Lightscribe media costs more.

Takes a heck of a long time to burn the image.

Poor contrast means hard to see except in strong light or young eyes.

Sharpie or print a sexy label and use a label mounter.

Yep, one of the few real positives with Lightscribe, even if it takes a while to get good results.




Got to keep my options open since Win 8 looks like a busted watermellon

If you don't mind spending the time for multiple burns, you can get near black & very high contrast with Lightscribe.

Last time I purchased media, the Lightscribe media was half the price of inkjet printable media (both Verbatim 100 count bulk pack), of course I see that prices are much closer now with Lightscribe media being +/- 5-10% of inkjet printable media of the same brand. But if you take the cost of ink into the equation, Lightscribe is still the cheaper of the direct printable media.

I hate stick-on labels. If you get them off-centered to much or if they start to peel, they can destroy your player or drive. Had one come loose in a $500 DVD player which hasn't worked since. I used to use them for music CD's I'd burn, messed up a portable player & a car CD player... The portable still works, but will scratch disk's over time where the read head now contacts the disk because the carrier has been displaced slightly. However, I had to replace the car CD player because the CD would not eject... but at least that was an upgrade I had wanted since the day I bought the car! Of course dozens of others have never caused problems.

I’m with Satch on researching this further and I think I may know how to approach it. Thanks for the heads-up!




You are right on that point, ink isn’t cheap!

Question: When was the last time you purchased media and did you notice a rise/decline in shelf space for one or the other… or do you purchase online? I ask because I saw a drastic change at my local Fry’s over the weekend.

I’m curious if this is merely a local situation or a trend!

Thanks mang!

No Fry's or Micro Center or the like around here to buy quality bulk disc's http://www.cdrdvdrmedia.com/ is where I purchased the last couple times. I think the last time I bought Lightscribe & inkjet disc's at the same time (DVD+R for both) was probably 3-4 years ago.

Locally, I've only seen inkjet printable disc's at Best Buy, though just about everyone carries lightscribe disc's in-store, even Wal-Mart, so I would guess they're following the local demand around here.

Thanks for the input!

Also, thanks for the online link. I browsed through it and bookmarked the Light Scribe Link.

Looks like I’ll have to spend a little more time at places like Best Buy and Wal-Mart to see if they are following a similar local trend or not.

Again, your input has been invaluable in my quest to discover a trend. Thank you!

I cannot believe how unimaginably simple this is to do! Thank you for opening my eyes!

As a test, I sacrificed a new disk with an image taken from the ‘net. I burned the image and when done, clicked the ‘Print Again’ button.

I thought for sure there would be a dual image when it completed. There wasn’t!

The results were impressive!



The following is an image I copied from the ‘net of a DVD label. This is the result of a single burn:





For the second burn, I just clicked ‘Print Again’. I was amazed at how well the DVD looked!



For the third burn, I exited the program, rebooted my computer, reloaded Light Scribe’s program and my saved file. After burning, this is what I saw:





It all hinges on having saved the original file and the disk associated with it.

I spent a total of $0.35 and 1 hour… time and money well spent for something I had no idea existed!

Thank you dsm!

You're welcome! I'm surprised more people don't know about this feature in Lightscribe. I learned about it years ago while downloading a Lightscribe software update from the lightscribe website. It was one of the top tips they had posted at that time.

Ahhhh! Now that makes sense. I became a Light Scribe user less than a year ago. I have never seen that tip!

I am glad you joined this thread. Otherwise, newbie’s like me would have never known!

I've had my Lightscribe drive for over 4 years now and I didn't know you could do multiple burns so don't feel bad.

I guess that's one of the problems with companies eliminating printed manuals for their products. There's no way of knowing if you've missed important information unless you stumble upon it elsewhere.

You know, it’s kinda funny how a few, seemingly innocuous lines in a post would have such an impact:


Just… simply… amazing!

You, me… I’ve even called friends that have Light Scribe and told them about this!

I am currently adding a ‘second’ burn to my collection to get rid of that ‘washed-out’ look!




Couldn’t have done it without ya, dsm!