Thoughts on LightScribe

[nwrigley]

Not sure which forum this belongs under, but put it in here since this is where people discuss printable DVD tech the most. Anyway, what do you think of this technology? It seems to have a lot of benefits since it doesn't require any extra hardware or consumables and the image is permanent. Obviously it would hog your drive since it sounds like the average disc would take over half an hour to burn and print. You could always get two LightScribe drives for the cost of a regular drive and an Epson R200. I haven't seen one of these in action yet, but it seems like LightScribe is superior to inkjet pintables in every way except for the lack of full color. To me, this trade-off is worth it (in the favor of LightScribe), but again, I'll have to wait until I can see a LightScribe disc and an inkjet side by side. At the same time, I'm not waiting around for LightScribe since it could be awhile before media is readily available and affordable.

[winifreid]

It seems to me that it really isn't mich nicer than a sharpie. From ths disks I have seen, it isn't really good for anything other than putting the title on the disk since it isn't in color. Why would you want a monochrome etching of a colorfull disk image? So since thdrives cost more and the media a lot more, I'll stick with my sharpie and once in awhile printing in color with my canon.

[Skith]

Just to play devils advocate, disc mostly spend their time in a case, or in a player, the dvd case cover/insert could be color. Also, do not underestimate greyscale images (although, I may be biased since I like B&W photography).

I would rather see this techonlogy evolve than go the way of the dodo.

Also, I do not know why you think the drives will cost more. If you are refering to the price of the HP drives, they are always expensive when released at retail. Also, if you do not recall, inkjet media also used to be just as expensive, if not more so.
Then there is also the cost of ink, granted you can use generics (risk poor quality/fading) or a bulk system (requires a fairly substantial up front investment, and can be messy).

Not requireing a printer is a great advantage (especially for a mobile user), or great for space saving. Discs are also water proof (a problem with epson disc printers, or so I hear).

Lightscribe labels can look much more professional than a sharpie (business use).

The feature is also very interesting to me, since I do not yet have an inkjet capable of printing discs.