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Disc Writers Now Print the Label Too
gardolas writes "Rippers and burners with an eye for design have a new way to smarten their image. Disc writers that can print images onto the label sides of the discs will hit the market next month. The LightScribe system has been developed by Verbatim and HP."
Er, they are already available. I know someone who has one....
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LightScribe blanks will cost more than ordinary discs, but Verbatim says the difference will be less than the price of a sticky label and the ink needed to print on it. But anyone wanting to use the new system will need to buy a LightScribe drive, and that will cost around $200.
Says the New Scientist article linked to above. So I'd guesstimate that it would be around 50 cents per disk...
I was a beta tester for the LightScribe program and have one of the external burners. Here are some answers about MY experience.
1) There are 3 different modes/quality settings for burning the graphic. Good/Better/Best. The "BEST" setting is the darkest, and takes around 45 minutes for a good graphic. Pure text is quicker. And the "good" setting burns really quick with just plain text.
2) I forget the software provided - but it's a basic label making software package that usually prints on Avery labels. It is pretty powerful and easy to use. Easy to import graphics, manipulate text, etc. Works with any font you have. And even comes with about 30-50 "built in" designs that are soft of cheezy - but look good.
3) The media is "special". No idea of cost. My big complaint was that the print able service was GOLD. So, the dark didnt show up as well as I had hoped it would. If the top was silver or white it would be alot cooler. Hopefully they figure out a way to do that.
4) The external burner is either FIREWIRE or USB2. It is a CDRW burner. It is also a 4x (single layer) DVD burner. Mine is external and BLACK - comes with a seperate power supply cord that is nice and small. I never tried it in Linux, sorry.
5) Right now , the media is CDR only. But when I asked about DVDR media in LightScribe format I was not greeted with "no, way". But instead I was informed that if the media became available during beta testing, they would send it. That sort of tells me its in the works.
Burning: The only problem I ever had was burning some DVDR images using Nero. I dont know why it didnt work. Got to 99.9% done and never finished. The problem eventually fixed itself. Everything worked perfectly with the provided software.
Overall (This is what I told HP as well):
I was happy with the device and would continue to use is AS LONG as the media wasn't TOO pricey.
The burning of the image takes too long - but for CDs that I REALLY care about - I am willing to wait. But I wouldnt use the fancy light-scribe media for all the crap I burn and only use once or twice.
Says the New Scientist article linked to above. So I'd guesstimate that it would be around 50 cents per disk...
Where one can buy a printer like the Epson Stylus R200 and use ink jet printable media. The printer fetches $100 and the printable media 25 cents to 77 cents each plus ink. You can print on regular media but the drytime is 1-7 days and the quality is piss poor. I have only printed 100 DVDs with it so far on one black cartrage. The black cartrage runs about $20 for the Epson or less than half for a generic.
There is also the Signature Z1 CD/DVD Printer which is a 200dpi thermal ribbon printer that fetches $140 or so. The ribbon fetchs $20 or so which from what i've heard prints on about 200 cds. So about 10cents a piece. This can be cheaper if you buy brand name media like Verbatim.
LightScribe looks nice, wouldn't run like liquid ink can, and would take up less desktop space but it isn't here yet. At least with the two above options there is a snowball's chance in hell the media will still be around in 5 years.
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