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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."
...how much extra does the media cost that'll let you write to the label side?
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
At last the goatse guy can make an album! I've been waiting for so long. And hell, the hold is already built into the disc!
--
RumorsDaily
Now they can nail you for reproducing copyrighted artwork on your CDs full of downloaded music...
Add another 20 years in the pokey...
apparently a bad word choice for "word choice?"
Er, they are already available. I know someone who has one....
*** Quantum Mechanics: The Dreams of Which Stuff is Made ***
This will make it much easier to label the 42 DVD+Rs it takes to back up the home MiniDV digital camcorder videos I store on my computer.
Now if only they'd do something silly, like agree on future DVD standards that actually might make a removable media device that keeps up with today's hard drive sizes, we'd be set. In the meantime, we now have been spared the torture of printing DVD labels on a separate device. That's something.
I'm a big tall mofo.
Cool ... finally I can make pretty images for my Linux distro CD's !!!
I think this will be good for the home user and hobbyist but not for professionals.
Michael.
Linux: For those able to think out side of a window
From march
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Call me when they print in color, the FAQ says it only does grayscale.
"Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
It is actually pretty pointless. Seems like a gimmick to keep drive prices high, and therefore profitable.
That's the tech where you can burn an image into the data side of the CD. This is different.
Sure, it's cool... the first time you see it. But it's all done in one sepia tone. I don't see how the technology could advance to include color using a CDR laser, so prepare to get all the monotone fun you can handle. As soon as a more useful idea for CD labelling comes along, no one will be impressed with LightScribe, and the people that couldn't wait to use it will be embarassed to, because it will have gone from looking "high tech" to very dated.
Kind of like my Casio wrist camera.
Is something burning?
Oh, it's my karma.
Since probaly 90% of CD burning is disc duping, you really need a scanner to dupe the label too.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I'm not seeing the "pointless" part. At the moment, I label my CDs and DVDs with a black marker (which can result in illegible labels, at least for others). My other option is to use a round-shaped label and a separate printer (and hope that either I or the printer don't screw up and have to print a second copy). I don't see that something that takes additional user error and adds convenience is entirely 'pointless'.
... are available right now at Costco. It blew me away -- there's a separate feed for putting your disk in the printer, and it prints your image on the textured label side of the 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.
Dupe.
... hidden somewhere else.
This only confirms that the finger of this site isn't on the pulse, it's errr
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
This is a dupe of a dupe
Stupid like a fox!
From the article:
More recently, special printers that print directly onto a disc's label side have come onto the market, but the process isn't very user-friendly.
My Epson Stylus R300 can print directly onto printable CDs. The process isn't that hard. You have to feed a special tray into the front, but that's about it. You have to use Epson's special software, but you also have to use special software for these doodads. Yeah, you have to buy special media, but I'm guessing the price is about the same as for the LightScribe discs.
And the Epson does pretty darn good color and has software for the Mac. (At the time of this writing, Mac support for LightScribe was only available as an SDK for integration into other applications.)
-mo
Now if only they'd do something silly, like agree on future DVD standards that actually might make a removable media device that keeps up with today's hard drive sizes, we'd be set.
There are two such standards: "USB hard drive" and "FireWire hard drive".
It should be able to add something to an already labelled disk. Perhaps by printing a marker and reading it.
Here I have a set of shell scripts that make a list of files, do the backups, open the CD tray, pop up a dialog window, and burn the CD when I click "okay". All that would be needed to make it even better is to print a mark on it.
I'm thinking of something like burning a calendar on the CD, then being able to burn over it to indicate the day the backup was made.
Then I hit slashdot and see this article posted. Now thats what I call Extra-Slashdottery-Perception. ;-)
I work at a large national electronics retailer and I can say that HP and Compaq are already shipping systems with Lightscribe enabled drives however we don't yet have the media to take advantage of that yet.
The Compaq SR1350NX and I *believe* that HP A820N both have the Lightscribe enabled drives, but I know only of the Compaq for sure.
Looks like Verbatim and Imation already have their LightScribe DVDs out.
It would be interesting to see this information compared to total articles posted by an editor to come up with a batting average.
Then we could start a fantasy slashdot league, pitting teams of editors against each other. =)
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
So I'm thinkin' of makin' a font called "Sharpie" for those who want to do things the long way round.