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Burn the CD on Both Sides
apocal writes "How cool wouldn't it be to be able to burn the label on your cd using the same laser you used to burn the cd in the first place? Well, I guess this technology called LightScribe will be coming soon. 'Suppose you have just created a compilation CD of a dozen or so of your favorite songs. Now you want to make a label that contains the song titles, artists' names, and some personal information and design elements to make it special. First, burn your tracks onto the data side of the disc. Then open your favorite LightScribe-enabled label-making software and go to the CD template work area. Now you do all of your creative design workcompose pictures, copy, artwork whatever. When you are satisfied with what you have done, take the disc out of your drive, flip it over to the label side and put it back in the drive. Now go back to your label-making software, and simply click print.'"
Yamaha came out with something similar back in 2002 called DiscT@2 that let you put text and graphics on the unused portions of the data side. It never really took off.
It combines the CD or DVD drive of your computer with specially coated discs and enhanced disc-burning software to produce precise, silkscreen-quality, iridescent labels.
I think I'll pass.
*cough* advert *cough*
This reads more like an advertisement - do you really need to spell out to us a "possible use" for this? Don't think you could have left that up to our imaginations?
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
...or more.
But only on the "writable" side, using the remaining space, so i.e. you burn 200M of data which forms a uniform circle in the middle of the disc, then use remaining 500M to "draw" the picture using the property of CD that it slightly changes color after it's written. I think some Yamaha writers had this feature.
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
If its priced similarly to your average burner it would be useful for somebody who doesnt have the time to fiddle with a label maker (or for that matter, Sharpie all the cd's in a batch). Hopefully technology like this will gain popularity so the average person can have their own small scale cd factory.
LightScribe is actually an Hewelett Packard product, so the chances of this technology actually being licensed and incorporated in regular disk drives and media is pretty good.
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Yeah, this would be cool if you could burn data on both sides. It'd probably cost more though, and the burners might be more expensive. It could even, with a little work, perhaps go up to 3 gigs! Think of the versitility. And it's digital too. We could call it a Digital Versitile Disc.
/vertisement (and isn't even as cool as a double sided CD (they have double sided DVD's, too ))), this is all I've got to say.
As for the product being advertised here (because that's what this is, a
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
Don't Use Sharpies on CD-R: There is a modest amount of anecdotal evidence that the use of solvent-based ink markers (Sharpies use an alcohol-based ink), particularly on CD-R/RWs without a protective coating and CD-R/RWs kept in a warm to hot environment can lead to long-term penetration of the ink to the data layer with resulting damage to the data.
Remember, there was some rule, stating that your data will always take 100.1% of your available storage space. Now you can encode the remainder using Paperdisk and write it on the surface, then read it back with a common flatbed scanner!
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
Ok, this is annoying. Second advertisement in a row. The question now is: are the editors just slow, or they are getting paid for this?
I am John Hurt.
Frankly, this is just a gimmick to sell over-priced media to the masses.
If the label is for my own use, I'm quite happy with a marker. It's got to be MUCH quicker and just as effective unless there is a vast assortment of files on the cd -- in which case the surface is too small anyway.
If it is for others, I want full color graphics anyway so why would I use this thing?
Mod me up, mod me down, flame me, praise me -- whatever you do, you help prove I exist...
First, I agree this reads more like an ad. Second, this really cannot be called "news" under any circumstances, let alone on /. -- this was in PC World in *March*: http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,114592,t k,wb030804x,00.asp
Dupe from 9 months ago! They even have the same CD "Vacation in Hawaii" pictured on both sites.
I thought this article was going to be about burning data on both sides of a CD, instead it's a barely disguised sales pitch.
Does anyone really need laser etched CDs? Can't you just buy a printer that supports direct to CD printing? Probably cheaper, a lot more useful 99% of the time and you can get G04 DVDs with a printable label surface today.
Advert or not it's still an interesting technology that will have some application even if it doesnt take off as a comsumer technology.
Small buisness cd duplication anyway ?
Thats where I see this getting used, I hate when we receive software from smaller companies on cdr's with the details jotted on with a pen, id rather like to see a "tattooed" label, god knows those stick on label kits are awful.
Lifesigns: Present Hair: Escaped Age: Increasing
How cool wouldn't it be to be able to burn the label on your cd using the same laser you used to burn the cd in the first place?
That summary was spot on, wow.
CDs are for listening to {if they contain music}, or backing up files to. They are not for looking at. DVDs arguably are for looking at, but only with the aid of a device {placeholder for robot joke}. I think I'll stick with my trusty OHP marker, if it's all the same to you guys. I don't need fancy gimmicks. In fact, most of the DVD+RWs I use with my TV recorder are totally unlabelled! I simply write the name of the film on the paper inlay, and never, ever take more than one disc at a time out of its box. For time-shifting regular programmes, I just use the same one disc over and over again ..... I haven't yet run afoul of the limited-write thing.
Of course, if it's something special, then I'll add a self-adhesive paper label, printed separately using a template I knocked up in OpenOffice.org Draw. And given that printing the label is likely to be as expensive as burning the disc, I'm glad it's a separate process as this cuts down on muck-ups.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Is the SHARPIE marker safe for writing on CD's?
Sanford has used SHARPIE markers on CDs for years and we have never experienced a problem. We do not believe that the SHARPIE ink can affect these CDs, however we have not performed any long-term laboratory testing to verify this. We have spoken to many major CD manufacturers about this issue. They use the SHARPIE markers on CDs internally as well, and do not believe that the SHARPIE ink will cause any harm to their products.
I picked up some Verbatim discs with a deep blue metallic dye, and the T@2 definitely shows up. It's still completely useless to me, though, since it can't write on the data portion.
The actual drive is one of the best investments I've ever made, though. I've only burnt coasters doing on-the-fly copies from lesser drives.
I've always wished that someone would figure out how to use the DiscT@2 ability for burning pits of arbitrary length and breadth of the CRW-F1 to burn CDVs (CD-sized laserdiscs) -- but even if it's theoretically possible, I doubt it'll ever happen.
If you look at the "who is licensed?" page at http://lightscribe.com/whoislicensed.aspx You can see that many major companies, already has licensed the technology so I can already see this becoming some sort of standard. At least when major software, hardware and media companies like Ahead (Nero)/Cyberlink/Intervideo (software), Memorex/TDK (media), Toshiba/Philips/Hitachi (hardware) support them. No, I'm not working for any of them, just stating that when some of the major companies in the industry support something it usually becomes a standard sooner or later.
this japanese article shows the MOD,to burn some image or text.
Frankly I would rather have two sides of music than one side of music and a pretty label on the other.
I've been putting data on both sides of my disks for years. All it took was a hole punch. /shows his age.
This is somehow newsworthy? There are a number of ink-jet printers out there that are modifications to existing HP and Epson priters that allow you to put a CD in a specific CD-sized tray to print directly to the disc. The only requirement is that you use discs with printable surfaces. Otherwise, it's an ink-jet printer. So, you get full color and the ability to use relatively inexpensive inks (refills, anyone?) with out the costs of proprietary software or hardware, toner, or other kind of inks.
... er ... article is that somehow the disc is not professional unless it has its text directly embedded onto the disc. Don't be ridiculous. I've been using full-coverage labels for my CDs for years and no one has ever complained about "unprofessionalism".
And seriously, folks, is it that difficult or embarassing to use a Stomper or similar disc labeling tool? The implication that I read from this advertisment
Sheesh. All of this time I thought that I was buying CDs for their content. I guess that everyone else was more concerned about the professionalism of the disc top.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
This is the only CD printer I've ever needed: $2 CD printer
Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the recording surface very close to the top of the disk. Meaning when you scratch the top of the disk, it damages the recording surface. This is the impression I had, and if this is the case, it seems advantageous to have a paper label affixed to the disk. It seems like the paper provides an extra layer of protection.
I don't see why this is such a great thing. Just get inkjet printable CD or DVD discs and print your own full colour custom label. Some of the ~$149 Epson printer support this now. Take a look at the cool stuff you can do! (Admittedly this is quite a simple design. I have done some much fancier ones more recently.)
A few years ago, I read about some blinded taste tests of popular bottled waters and water from other sources. The results? The number one best tasting water...New York City tap water. ;)
Also, studies by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) found that bottled waters tended to be less safe from a microbiological-purity standpoint. You can read more in a Scientific Amierican artlcle here
Why burn just a label? If the laser can burn pits with optically different properties from the untouched label, without affecting the optical pattern of pits on the other, "data" side, how about letting us burn another CD on the label? I want a 1.6GB CD, and then a double-sided laser head so I don't have to flip it!
--
make install -not war
CD sized laserdiscs? Aren't laserdiscs simply 12" sized CDs?
Laserdiscs are analogue encoded, CDs are digital.
The need to purchase special media is actually a plus in my book. AFAIK, this will be the first labelling solution for optical discs that was actually designed by people who have to make optical discs work correctly. No spin imbalance due to "painting" on only parts of the disc, no chemicals leaching through to the other side, etc. If I can make a lovely graphical label without worrying that it will decrease the odds the disc will be readable in 5 years, that will likely be worth a modest price penalty in media to me. At this point, there is still no word on what the price penalty will actually be for a drive or for the media.
The real disadvantages are: quite slow to burn (think 20 minutes for a complex graphic) that high-res image, and only monochrome. So, if you sell software, don't think this is going to be a neat way of producing labels for shipped product.
What it will be really cool for is things like handing a home movie DVD to your inlaws with a picture of their grandson burned on the disc. For casual writing, I'll still use a special felt pen. For high-value discs that I'm going to bother to make a custom jewel case jacket for, I'm definitely looking to Lightscribe as my on-disc labelling solution.
...you risk looking like a fool.
Phones and TV were written off as gimmicks. Later some argued non-VHS/VHSc camcorders would die off becasue they used different media than the most common VCRs. There were good arguments made for those cases, but those who made bold statements without a good arumgnet ended up looking pretty foolish.
But no, I firmly believe this won't find a niche. Most people wanting blank media just want them at absolutely the lowest cost possible...
Well, I guess I'm not most people, but I'm sure many people out there do NOT want to trust important data, precious photos, etc to the abolutely lowest cost media available.
The Yamaha one wasn't much more than an interesting gimmick
IIRC the Yamaha system burnt images on the same side as the data, reducing the usable capacity of the media. If you wanted a detailed, full sized image your disc would be about as useful as an old AOL trialware CD. Is it no wonder this was a gimmick?
BTW: The latest Epsons print directly onto coated CD/DVDs with no sticky label and no stomper
What if you already have a perfectly good HP or Canon printer and you think Epson printers kinda stink? Even if they don't, I wouldn't be motivated to replace my printer or add a second one to clutter my office just so I can print right onto a CD. Presumably, this labelling technology could be incorporated into a drive costing 1/2 the price of the cheapest inject printers. Also, the disc will cost maybe 2 cents more? Probably costs more than that per CD to use ink that the Epson would need (at least for ink that won't smudge if you accidentally sneeze on it). I'm betting the injet method is slower too. I'd say the only issue to ponder would be colour--but I can count on one hand how many times I really wanted to print ANYTHING in colour, much less a CD label.
Given that I don't need ink or toner, the drives and media will be nearly the same cost as now and available from multiple vendors and the media will have the same capacity and speed as always that it stands a good chance of doing well in the market.