You might have seem some DVDs, CDs or drives advertise themselves as “Lightscribe-compatible”. But what does this mean? Lightscribe is a technology that allows discs to be labelled by the DVD drive itself- no separate printer required.
Once you’ve written data to the disc in the usual way, you eject it, flip it over and put it back in the drive. Then, using the special software, you’re able to create and burn your own label design.
The way it works is simple but clever- the label side on the special Lightscribe discs contains an infrared-sensitive dye which responds to the varying output of the drive’s laser. By carefully controlling the laser output, different patterns (and pictures!) can be drawn on the disc’s surface.
Compatibility
If you want to use the Lightscribe facility, you’ll need both a Lightscribe-compatible drive and special Lightscribe discs. However, Lightscribe isn’t a new disc format in itself. It’s simply a convenient extra that lets you easily add label images to current disc types (such as DVD+R, DVD-R and CD-R). Lightscribe makes no difference to the main business of actually storing data.
Lightscribe discs can be used for data storage (as normal) in non-Lightscribe drives; you just don’t get the convenient labelling facility. The same applies to non-Lightscribe discs used in Lightscribe drives.
LightScribe has many problems associated with it. It works very slow (over 20 m per disc) It of course only uses 2 colors and the label can be so light that it becomes difficult to read. Until HP works these problems out I will stick with my DiscPainter disc printer. It prints in clear vivid color and it is very fast (1-3 m). Yes the LightScribe writer its self is cheap but the discs are expensive.
Comment by Norman A — May 13, 2008 @ 8:50 pm
I have two lightscribe drives on my PC and have never had a prolem with them (LG Drives). Discs are cheaper than they used to be, and if you only use them for those occasional ’special’ disks, weddings, birthdays etc, they’re economical to use.
The contrast can be increased to make the etching stand out more, but also choosing a good image as the source helps a lot, something with lots of contrast. As I say, best kept for occasional, special events use, but everyone I’ve done them for have been very pleased with them. It’s something unusual, diferent from the normal print to disc or stick on labels. No-one I’ve done one for up to now had even seen one before. Each to his own, but I think saying it has many problems is misleading, and may be off putting to new users.
Comment by Mark S — June 26, 2008 @ 6:01 pm