Lightscribe CD's - anyone here use them?

[CivPilot]

As the thread title says.... Anyone here use Lightscribe for their disc labeling? I'm interested in knowing what you think.

I've read some people on forums moaning that the image is unviewable, takes to long, etc but I'm interested in knowing what peeps here think?

[thepassenger]

I thought it was an interesting but flawed idea personally.
You can only etch images/text in to the data area of a disk AFIK so if you burn a full disk's worth of stuff you have no area to do the lightscribe to.

I guess if your sending documents to someone then it could be useful but considering you can now get cheapy printers that'll print on to the top of CD/DVD's in colour...

[CivPilot]

thepassenger said:

I thought it was an interesting but flawed idea personally.
You can only etch images/text in to the data area of a disk AFIK so if you burn a full disk's worth of stuff you have no area to do the lightscribe to.

I guess if your sending documents to someone then it could be useful but considering you can now get cheapy printers that'll print on to the top of CD/DVD's in colour...

Slightly incorrect info you have. All of the lightscribe discs I have seen have had a full image covering the entire no playing side of the disc. According to the interweb the disc's are coated on one side with a scribable(sp?) surface and to burn the image you must flip them over. Nowhere have I read that you can only image no used portions of the discs.

Thought about the colour photocopy idea and have tried with a label maker, but the image always comes out very cheap looking. The idea of changing the surface of the disc appeals to me.

Anyone here actually got a Lightscribe unit and made some discs?

[thepassenger]

CivPilot said:

Slightly incorrect info you have.

Do appologise, just checked and yep the DVD burners and more modern CD burners can do that. My info came from an old review of a Yamaha CD burner (probably 1st generation) on tomshardware... which has mysteriously vanished.

[CivPilot]

No worries, it did make me wonder why people were buying them for a second though

I've found a "starter kit" online with a pretty high spec Dual layer DVD Rewriter, full latest version of Nero (With lightscribe support) & 25 Lightscribe enabled blank 700mb discs for just under £40 which I thought was quite good.

[roadsweeper]

I have a Lightscribe unit here and it is correct that the 'non-data' side of the (special) CD/DVD is coated with a substance which the drive then etches using a laser.

Unofrtunately, I haven't got round to actually writing a CD/DVD yet so I can't comment on the quality but the independent websites I looked at were OK and it certainly looked better than printing a label and sticking it on, and I say that even though I have a colour laser here.

[scared but happy]

Never heard of it. But I had to go and have a look about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightScr

[twister]

thepassenger said:

My info came from an old review of a Yamaha CD burner (probably 1st generation) on tomshardware... which has mysteriously vanished.

That would be the old DiscT@2 technology...

[FunkyNige]

Just wrote a DVD and the quality is fine, it's nopt professional quality but size 8 text is perfectly readable. I'll post up a pic tomorrow when it's lighter in my room (my camera doesn't do low light very well).