LightScribe Disc Labeling Poised to Take Over

There should be a program that could make "lightscribe" data based on an image so that you could make cool CDs with a regular drive (they would be useless for data because the lightscribe would be the data, unless you had a 2-sided disc).

There already are. There have been numerous apps over the years that would burn pictures into the unused data portion of the disks. the only thing "revolutionary" about lightscribe is the use of a non-data side of the disk that had a higher contrast ratio. The difference between light and dark on the data side is just not enough to achieve mass consumer appreciation.

No, there is another HUGE difference: with lightscribe you can fill the entire non-data side with an image, like a commercially made CD. You can download playlists for your CDs, or put on photos and text. You cannot do that with anything that marks on the data side, so that's probably why they didn't last in the market.

LightScribe is pretty cool--a little slow right now maybe but it can run in the background so who cares?

It can certainly run in the background with very little CPU usage. In fact, if you have two or more drives, you can be burning data on another drive while labeling with the Lightscribe drive.

Well, all I can say is that this technology is long overdue. I'm glad HP was the first to use this but it's not included on all of their optical drives yet--it's an upgrade only. It's worth the extra dollars, IMO.

You have to wonder, though, if this new feature will be available for the DVD burners only. What about the regular CD burners people still buy?

I wonder why it is so slow. The only reason that I can think of is that the media needs a high level of light intensity, so the disk has to spin slowly.

Otherwise, it should be pretty fast. There isn't a necessity for bit-accurate writing. Slight errors won't be noticed. Error checking could be turned off.

Well I am pretty confident I saw a notebook which already supported LightScribe for sale. I can't remember, but I think it was an HP.

I have never used lightscribe, how long does it take to burn / label a disk? 10 - 15 mins? an hour?

Thanks

Re: Lightscribe in notebook

Special Lance Amstrong edition

HP announced the L2000 notebook, and it's a little different than the company's usual suspects. This one is racing bike black, with the phrase LiveStrong emblazoned in yellow on the front.......

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ZDM/story?id=774993

I have used Lightscribe and it is pretty cool. The disc looks great although it is printed in greyscale. I hope they come out with acolor upgrade and I am sure that even though the media is priced higher that the media price will drop as the technology becomes widely used. Keep up the good work. I bought my HP DVD640 drive with the Lightscribe system at Wal Mart for under a $100.00. It is definately worth the price.

I have the HPdvd640i. I thought it was a great idea: Lightscribe. No more labels or permanent markers. It is just the start....give it a break. I have shown my Lightscribe dics off; have impressed everyone that I have shown. AND, not one person has said; Oh, too bad that it wasn't in color. Keep up the great work guys and gals.....

I WANT TO BURN MULTIPLE DISKS THEN CREATE IMAGE WITH LIGHTSCRIBE. I WANT TO DO THIS AS A DVD DUPLICTOR TOWER .IS THERE ANY CONTROLLER THAT CAN HANDLE THIS FUNCTION?THANKS GEORGE

i would be happy if they came out with different colors on the top maybe some silver, red, or blue. or make everybody happy and come out with every color of the rainbow.

Does anyone notice the quality betwen DVD and CD? The CD is clear but the DVD seems a little blurry.

this thing won't be useful for a duplicator because it takes too long to print a disc (15-30 minutes). it is perfect for someone who burns a disc occasionally. of course, if you build a duplicator with one drive to burn discs and several drives to burn the label, it might work. i wonder if a pc can handle 5 external burners all writing labels at the same time.

The reason for the quality differences is because there are two layers in the DVD label vs. one layer in the CD.

A PC can handle 5 burners it just has to have the memory capabilities. As for CD colors it should be out in the fall.

so there is no way to get around the bluryness on the DVD? That sorta sux. It looks very nice on a CD, Im not sure i would want to give the DVD with lightscribe to someone.

I'm experiencing the same problem. I bought the Lightscribe system for occasional DVDs that will be used for business, but it is BLURRY! I mean, not even useable. The CD-R I printed looked great, so I got my hopes up, but then I started trying the DVDs (my reason for buying the thing), and I'm quite displeased. Does anyone have a solution? Perhaps better media? I'm using all HP Media, which I thought would be good since they're the innovators here.

I just got mine and love it. My customers love the fact that there event is printed on the cd

just purchased a new computer equipped with LightScribe it works great ---that is if you can find the CD-R'S that are workable HP has a lot of junk discs stuck in there packs I have a pack of 25 and so far i can only get 2 to inscribe. From the research Ive done they have to know that they have a lot of rejects. but they are still trying to dump them on the consumer instead of the trash can. They will burn great but when you flip it over and go to inscrive the front side. you get an engine error: not recognized as a lightscribe disc.Duh!!!one side is lightscribe and the other isn't!!!!!

I have the same issue with blurry low contrast DVDs on my HP 740i DVD (I'm using Memorex media). I was all excited about this first burn, now I am embarased to give this to the friend I burned it for...This all after the drive I purchased wouldn't read DVDs and I had to send it to HP for 3 weeks until they sent me a new one...I'm not to thrilled with this product so far.

Cany any one tell me if I can purchase a Litescribe drive as a standalone unit.(one that dosent burn dvds or cds) I alredy have two dvd burners and now I only need the Litescribe feature

Can any one tell me if I can purchase a Litescribe drive as a standalone unit.(one that dosent burn dvds or cds) I alredy have two dvd burners and now I only need the Litescribe feature.

Have an I/O Magic unit, burned two labels and promptly bit the big one. I had to use another drive to burn the data. I'm in my second month of trying to get an RMA to replace the thing. I build media presentations and thought the "gold" look would be nice for archive masters for my customers. Those first two did impress, but they burn awfully slow.

hi!

thinking about buying a lightscribe burner rather than a printer that prints directly to disc...

-does anyone know what kind od media it uses?
-which do u think is better?

thanks!

ka

is there a lightscribe site that lets you download more pictures or themes to choose from when burning images onto the cd or dvd?

I thought the lightscribe would be faster. Complicated or simple labels all seem to take about 17 to 20 minutes.

Fine for single cd, but not good for jobs of any size.

Definition of the burn is OK, but not spectacular if you are burning photos onto the disk.

I thought I would be whipping on burned labels for a number of talent show DVD's we made, but the time restraint is changing my mind about that. 5min to burn the DVD 20 Min to put a label on it....

We have already pass the fall season, it is now January 2006 and I still have not found the various colored disc. Especialy the silver one, which is the one i'm mostly interested in useing. Can anyone please tell me if there was a delay in the production or release date of these new disc, or are they availible already, and if so, where can I find them? My next question is, will they also be compatable with my external unit. I'm asuming they should be, but can you please confirm that for me. Thanks.

I still haven't seen a reply to the question about the stand-alone lightscribe burner (no dvd or cd). Does one exist yet?

Malik - That would be pointless, as it would be a glorified disc labeller, for the cost of a DVDRW Lightscribe drive.

As for different colours, that would be neat.

My main problem with Lightscribe technology, is the lack of uptake from those companies licensed to create the drives.

I'm in Australia and after heaps of research, it appears only the Lacie, HP, and Benq drives are available.

Thats fine, but HP DVDRWs previously had ALOT of problems failing within 12 months of operation, I don't like BENQ as a brand (poor quality), which leaves the Lacie.

Pioneer, LG, and ASUS are meant to have LS DVDRW drives, yet not even a mention about them on their websites.

Samsung and Sony dont have these drives either.

Until these other companies join the LS battle, I cant see it really taking off in the mainstream.

Once faster label burning, and clearer labels for DVDs are available, I'll be buying one for sure.

I bought the 740i and tested printing DVD and CD on Memorex, Verbatim and HP media. On a scale of 1 - 10 Lightscribe on CD's is about 9. Printing on DVDs is abyssmal. Don't waste your time. I'd like to give it a 0 but my scale is 1 to 10. I only copy DVD's so I'll return mine to best buy and get a generic which can burn cds and dvds as well as the HP.

I work for HP on optical drives and as far as I know, there are no colored discs and I am not aware off that they will have them. As far as I know, in the future there will be LS drives that support ?color burning?.

I have the dvd640e and I love it! I mostly print dvds, but I have done a few cds. The only difference I get between the two is that cds are darker and dvds are brighter. I have burned close to 30 dvds so far and only a couple have come out a little blurry. I think this has to do with the photo quality and the quality setting when you burn the image. Most of my dvds have come out high quality (very clear and detailed). I can't wait for color!

P.S. Have you updated your firmware?

for a better dvd image, burn the label twice. it'll bring out the sharpness. the barcode at the hub gives the laser a starting point.
there is supposed to be a firmware update out sometime in the 2nd quarter to speed up label burns significantly. and since this is a colliltion of companies, all should get it....

I saw an external lightscribe drive in Walmart a couple of months ago for about $500.

I just got a lightscribe drive that came with my new laptop. I like the job it does, but the problem I am having is with the media (Memorex). Only 4 out of a 10 pack recognized the disk. I got another three of them to work by wiping the disk repeatedly, but that may have been just a coincidence.

When they work, I like the way they come out. My expectations were not very high to begin with since it came with my laptop; so I'm pleased.

What is the easiest labeling software to use with lightscribe. I currently have Roxio ez 6 but it does not support lightscribe. Does EZ 8 support it?

How can i get darker images (DVD labels) using lightscribe?

I just burned my first discs with my new Lite-on Litescribe. The disc it shipped bombed. Said it wasnt Litescribe medium. Fortunately I had bought some HP blanks.

One other didnt burn right and so I tried to burn it again and it wouldnt let me. Odd that the DVD's will let you reburn eh?

BTW i couldnt figure out how to work the Nero 6 version it shipped with..........Spent days on it. So downloaded the freeware from litescribe.com and took me an hour or two of trying and got it.

My first DVD burn came out BLANK!!! after 30 min of a burn. How frustrating. But I thought ok lets try it again. It burned this time albeit a tad blurry but still decent. Maybe I should burn it again and it will come out sharp.

I owned a HPdvd840 for a few weeks and its burned 100% success on at least 50 lightscribe DVD's.

The SureThing CD Labeler software that came with my drive (UK) is OK, and does the job without too much hastle.

Okay, perhaps the important thing, im using Verbatim DVD+R media 8x (in 5 packs) they are the best media ive ever used full stop!

In answer how to get darker images, just redo the label onto the same disk, even if you have burned it on quality setting, twice over gives a much better result, three times is not too much better than the second burn.

So just to confirm, with this drive and media, not one coaster, not one failed lightscribe burn.

This isn't exactly what I was expecting. I needed to mass produce 50-100 CDs for an event this weekend. I have a flight tomorrow and I'm sitting at the office at midnight burning away with at least another 30 to go. I've been doing this for hours. I even ran out and bought ANOTHER lightscribe drive to speed things up. I should have just bought a CD printer. The contrast on these is pretty poor compared to some of the examples you see with a google images search on lightscribe. It's clear to me those are two or three pass burns, easily over an hour burn time.

This is neat for one here one there, but forget it for duplication.

I have yet to get my LaCie d2Dual DVD+- RW Drive with LightScribe software to burn a label. It does not recognize the disc...and yes, I have it turned over on the correct side with the label side down...still does not recognize the LightScribe disc....
I have done all of the updates including the host software for the Roxio Easy Media Label Creater and also the Sure Thing Labeler...still same results...none

No one seems to be able to answer the one question i keep seeing and wondering myself. Can you make it burn DARKER? and FASTER? It dont matter what setting you put it on. Good, Better Best all take 20 min to burn.. Hell it only takes me 10 min to burn 4.7 gig of data why so long to label? Is this not the same laser doing the buring? and can you use a NON-LIGHTSCRIBE disc in a drive and lable it with the lightscribe drive?

I Purchased a Benq 1655 for the Lightscribe. It came with 1 piece of media which burned the image rather quickly. I then used memorex media and it seems to take forever for the same image/text. 1 image took 3 hours. Anyone else experience this?

HOLY CRAP! After 6 months of trying to figure out why my Lightscribe DVDs look like crap I finaly found out from all of you that HP made it that way. I thought I was the only one. My lightscribe CDs look awesome and the DVDs look terrible. I thought the drive needed updates. I updated. I thought the software needed updates. I updated. I thought the drive needed a different brand of DVDs. I switched brands. I finally concluded that I got a lemon. Then, out of the blue, I find this message board and lo and behold... we've all been deceived. The advertisment I saw showed a CD! HP you suck! I thought I was taking crazy pills!

My CDs came out with BLEAK images after LightScribe burning. I expected much better contrast. I have not tried to do second pass as recommended above by another user. Typical burning time was 17min. I am using Samsung OEM drive (got from MicroCenter, Houston, TX a week ago; comes with Nero software package). I used trial version of SureThing to compose CD labels.