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Burn the CD on Both Sides

Posted by michael on from the crispy-on-the-outside-with-a-moist-chewy-center dept.

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.'"

19 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Reminds me of.. by mr.henry · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Reminds me of.. by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 4, Funny


      Yeah, but you'd have to use a hole puncher to make a notch in the DVD to get it to fit into the drive.

  2. No thanks by JustinXB · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:No thanks by polyp2000 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In your own words ...

      I just can't see this technology being common when you need special media - sorry, try again.

      I just buy inkjet coated CDR/DVDRs now.

      No further comment...

      --
      Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
    2. Re:No thanks by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ah yes, but bottled water is "trendy", and it's a visible sign that you're both a "person with a healthy lifestyle" and can afford to "buy water".

      (or so it seems)

      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...

      The Yamaha one wasn't much more than an interesting gimmick - I saw it in a store, but there was nothing that especially made me want to buy one. Feel free to disagree, but we can compare notes in a year :)

      BTW: The latest Epsons print directly onto coated CD/DVDs with no sticky label and no stomper. It's easily as convenient as this device and full colour... And printable media is already out there and easily available.

      N.

      --
      "Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
  3. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    *cough* advert *cough*

    1. Re:Hmm by squaretorus · · Score: 4, Informative

      Advert indeed. In a newspaper or magazine these have 'ADVERTISING FEATURE' written above them. I'd like the same to happen in /. so that I could chose to avoid such content should I so wish.

      Or perhaps all such articles should be filed HERE as a hint.

  4. Did you really have to give an example? by stevejsmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?

  5. Question by gowen · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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.
    So, does slashdot get paid for running such blatant advertising copy for technology that doesn't even seem to exist commercially yet? If so, how much?
    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  6. Re:This is not new by Vo0k · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...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"
  7. From the FAQs by alphakappa · · Score: 4, Informative

    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)
  8. Labeling CD-Rs the old way.. by mr.henry · · Score: 4, Informative
    FYI

    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.

  9. Advertisements by lightknight · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  10. Dupe! by Rico_za · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dupe from 9 months ago! They even have the same CD "Vacation in Hawaii" pictured on both sites.

  11. How cool... by MMMDI · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  12. disc labelling by ajs318 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!
  13. Sharpies are OK to use by sparkhead · · Score: 5, Informative
    There's no problem using sharpies. Touched on this in this thread over a year ago. The summary, from the Sharpie website:

    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.

  14. Burning Data on Both Sides by iCharles · · Score: 4, Funny

    I've been putting data on both sides of my disks for years. All it took was a hole punch. /shows his age.

  15. $2 CD printer by BSDKaffee · · Score: 4, Funny

    This is the only CD printer I've ever needed: $2 CD printer