Lightscribe?

[Ken Ibold]

Anyone have any experience with the Lightscribe disk labeling system? Are there any competitors out there that work better?

My kids have a fledgling video production business and are looking for options to the PITA sticky labels.

 

[Greebo]

LOVE IT!

It's monochromatic (sepia tone, really) but it's absolutely incredible looking just the same.

The tricky bit for me was finding software that works well for designing the label that supports lightscribe. We have Roxio but it's not all that great, IMO.

But the product itself is simple - put disc in face up, burn data, put disc in face down, burn label. Takes about 15-20 mins to burn a single disc, mind you - so speed isn't happening.

Competitors? Never heard of one - I think its patented.

 

[Ken Ibold]

YIKES! 15 minutes to burn a label? They're typically selling 30-50 copies of a disk. That's a lot of babysitting the hardware.

Suddenly the sticky labels don't look so bad!

 

[Greebo]

YIKES! 15 minutes to burn a label? They're typically selling 30-50 copies of a disk. That's a lot of babysitting the hardware.

Suddenly the sticky labels don't look so bad!

You might want to look at printable discs instead. Sticky labels have real problems, from what I understand, with balance. Get a sticky label in the wrong spot and there's a chance of doing real damage to a player.

There's also silk screening to consider...

 

[Ken Ibold]

You might want to look at printable discs instead. Sticky labels have real problems, from what I understand, with balance. Get a sticky label in the wrong spot and there's a chance of doing real damage to a player.

What are printable disks?

Getting the sticky labels in the right spot is easy with the little Avery tool; you can't get 'em off center.

 

[Greebo]

What are printable disks?

Getting the sticky labels in the right spot is easy with the little Avery tool; you can't get 'em off center.

Disks that you can print on with an inkjet printer. You do need a printer that can handle it, but they aren't too hard to find with a little searching. Personally I'd be more comfortable getting a disc that didn't have a sticky label on it. I don't think I've ever gotten one like that...

 

[Greebo]

Just one possible source for you:
http://www.proactionmedia.com/cd_dvd_printers.asp

 

[Henning]

What are printable disks?

Getting the sticky labels in the right spot is easy with the little Avery tool; you can't get 'em off center.

You can buy blank disks with a printable surface on them. I have an Epson printer that has a tray and slot that accepts them and it does a great job, in color at that. Photo quality printing.

 

[jesse]

What are printable disks?

Getting the sticky labels in the right spot is easy with the little Avery tool; you can't get 'em off center.

You want this:

http://www.mediasupply.com/62743-1.html

You can put 100 DVDs or CDs in it. The robotic arm will pick up the disk, burn the contents, drop it into a printer and print the label. After that it drops it in the output bin and goes onto the next one. Pretty good quality too. The company I work for just purchased one and it is working quite nice for us.

Lightscribe is just freaking slow. You have to burn the DVD which can take 8 to 15 minutes and after that you have to flip the disc over so that it can burn the label on which will take 15 minutes at best. I have it at home and it works good for that. For production style stuff you need a machine like the Bravo. Worth every penny.

 

[Greebo]

NICE machine, Jesse - how long does it take per disc and can it burn one while printing another?

 

[jesse]

NICE machine, Jesse - how long does it take per disc and can it burn one while printing another?

Printing depends on how much surface area on the CD you print on. We more or less just label and it throw our logo on there. I would say it prints it in about 20 seconds.

As far as burning time figure about the same time as your computer except you don't have to stand there and watch it since it rotates all the discs out for you.

Yes, It does print while it burns.

The nice thing is you just tell the software what you want. Drop 50 discs in it. Come back later and you have 50 professional looking discs with very little effort.