Lightscribe DVD-R'S

[wwotr]

I've noticed and was wanting Clarification on, was the "Color" of the Top of these Discs.
A lot of the Lightscribe Discs, seem to be Gold on top, but I thought I found some that were Silver also.
Were the Gold Tops, produced when they first came out, and now they're making Silver tops now too,
Or am I mistaken and its just Gold Tops?

I was looking at the following brands of Litescribe discs, and was wanting your opion on Brand/Quality.
I was mainly going to use them for burning D/L Torrents.

I'm looking at:

Optimum Lightscribe DVD-R 16X 4.7GB Branded Gold Surface

Microboards Lightscribe DVD-R 16X 4.7GB Blank Media Discs

Optical Quantum 16X DVD-R 4.7GB/ 120Min Lightscribe Disc

HP 16X 4.7GB/ 120Min Lightscribe DVD-R

Philips Lightscribe DVD-R 16X 4.7GB Version 1.2 Blank Media Discs

Optical Quantum Color 16X DVD-R 4.7Gb/ 120Min Lightscribe Disc

[fritzi93]

There are no *good* quality discs on your list. None at all.

Brand means nothing, it's the MID (Manufacturer's ID) that matters, i.e. who actually made it. I can say with confidence that the HP and Philips discs are almost certainly made by CMC. CMC dominates the U.S. market, which demands cheap discs above all. At best, it's second-class media. It's likely more discs on your list are also CMC.

Anyway, I use CMC discs for "tossers", that is, unimportant stuff. If you use IMGburn, verify all burns, and burn at 8x or less, your success rate is likely to be fair.

If you want *good* quality discs, use Verbatim (but not the "Life" series, which is actually CMC). Or buy Taiyo-Yuden online.

Look here:

http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-media.htm

[EDIT] I've only ever used gold-top lightscribe discs. I haven't looked hard to find any other color, but that said, I've never seen any.

[jman98]

As fritzi93 says, you'll have to stick with Verbatim. As far as I know their infamous "Life" series of low quality discs does not extend to Lightscribe. But you should double check that. You may have to order them online from rima.com or supermediastore.com as it may be hard to find Verbatim Lightscribe discs in stores. I don't have any evidence that Taiyo Yuden even makes Lightscribe discs. Verbatim mostly makes gold (I've NEVER seen silver) but they do have a multi-color pack as well.

I'm not real sold on Lightscribe. I used to be a supporter too. Back when it first came out, printers that could print to disc surfaces were insanely expensive (I think approaching $300 US at first) so Lightscribe was a cost effective alternative. I used them for a few years but eventually I gave up and bought a Canon printer that can print to discs. The quality is far superior on good quality discs like Taiyo Yuden's glossy Watershield line of discs. Lightscribe never really burns dark enough. Sometimes it's OK but most of the time it's too light. This is even after using the most updated software and using the darkest burn option which still takes about 20 minutes. EVERY burner I ever used to burn Lightscribe went defective on me within a year or so. First they stopped being able to burn DL media. Then either CD or DVD but not both would fail to burn too. Can't say I'm real thrilled with it.

[fritzi93]

Yeah, I've gone to hub printables. Cheaper than Lightscribe (without factoring in the ink) and much nicer. Although I have some Lightscribe discs left and occasionally use them, I haven't bought any in quite a while. So I'm not up on what's available currently.

Anyway, Lightscribe is okay for a simple, short, large text label. At maximum contrast. All the fancy designs one can download for them look like crap.

[wwotr]

Thanks Guys. I think I'll at least give it a try and see what its like.
I appreciate the Feedback.