Sharpie vrs Printing on Disk POLL

[waheed]

What about the new lightscribe dvd burner and discs.

Has anyone any interest in them?

[dcsos]

lightscribe=too little too late

no dual layer lightscribe anyway

lightscribe takes 20 minutes average to do graphics per disc
text takes 5 to 10 minutes per disc

[macrovision]

Um, Sharpie only pre-DVD printing. Because I use a CIS with my R200 I don't worry about the ink cost. I get about 500 full faced color dvd per $20 worth of ink refills. OEM carts are the worst..."Now every-one that has an EPSON "R" series printer be nice and say thank-you to EPSON for charging 95% the cost of the printer for replacement carts" And post a seperate Thank-You to EPSON for programming these printers to waste your ink doing Auto-clean cycles I.E. it's firmware orders.

[Redd]

Can you imagine the look on a customers face if I were to give him/her a DVD marked with a sharpie? That won't be a return customer. The price of ink and the R300 has been worth the money many, many times over.

Yes, but what about for your own personal use. Ink may look better but is more costly too.

Yep, I print out my own also. Guess if the price of ink really bothered me, I'd get a second job...but wait...I do have a second (video) job. That's why I print on DVD's.

[parman]

has to be the r200 for me. have been using it for 7 months now and had no problems with drying time. Also i use comatable ink which is very cheap
(about 8 british pounds for complete set of ink)and also been good for quality so far.. This is also the reason i havent bothered with the cis system macrovision talks about.( Ive been following the long running best cis thread)

[macrovision]

Imagine....One 100ml Cis....$20 U.S. dollars to fill it....Over 300 DVD disc and DVD Case labels. R200!

[slacker]

For my lifetime of memories...

I tried the sharpies. Truly UGLY!
I tried the labels. Ruined a DVD player!
I tried the r200. Touch and go!
I tried the Lightscribe enabled dvd400e. I'm in love!

For those of you who are into the best that tech has to offer at this moment in time... Truly awesome!

[lifesajrny]

I use a Sharpie on the discs and then print DVD case covers.

DITTO

[waheed]

I just use shapies and keep them in the 100-disc cases you can buy.

[Paul_G]

A 0.7mm (black/blue or Red) marker and print out a dvd case cover. I have no need to bang the bishop over printed cd/dvd labels.

[sjmaye]

no dual layer lightscribe anyway

I have read specs on some lightscribe enabled dvd writers. They show they can burn DVD+RDL, but can find one that burns DVD-RDL.

Has anyone found one that will?

[dcsos]

I have read specs on some lightscribe enabled dvd writers

Yeah, thats all you'll see as the dual capable ones aren't in stores yet
this is my problem with lightscribe

What colors does LightScribe print in?
The current LightScribe technology supports monochrome (grayscale) labeling.

How long does it take?
40 MINUTES to do ONE LABEL in the BEST mode with ALL GRAPHICS!
or 10 Minutes in the DFAFT MODE (look poorly)

What Computers can use LIGHTSCRIBE:
Its for Windows 2000 and XP only..NO MACINTOSH

Whatt junk! and the drive is US$100 more that other drives!
not to mention the single layer media is still way over $1.00 a piece if you buy 100!

And no its actally low tech (40 minutes per full label gosh!)

For those of you who are into the best that tech has to offer

shoud use a full color thermal printer like the Primera or Everest

[macrovision]

I had a modded R200(CIS with waste pump detached)....I can do over 300 full faced DVD's with covers on one refill of my 40ml x 6 tanks...no clogging issues and covers look professional even though I print them on plain paper. I use krylon clear gloss spray to seal them after about an hour of drying. No smudging if applied without using alot of pressure.( I don't spray the gloss on...I wipe it on)I'm even toying with the idea of applying the gloss with a small paint brush. My consumers always compliment me on my work. Primera lanimators and thermal labelers are only for those that have $1000 or more to spare and if your gonna get one make sure it's a robot...It'll cost a few hundred more but it's worth it! I use sharpies only for pre-printing ID and for my personal archived RW discs

[computerchuck]

Just wondering, and its a stupid question but since I don't own one yet, on the R200 if you put a blank label on the dvd/cd and then inserted it into the printer would it print that way? I have some sharpie DVDs that if I bought this printer, I'd like to relabel them in that manner since it would be tacky to try to print over the sharpie writing. Also would like to know if its possible to lock in the ink? like the previous post on krylon gloss to prevent future wetness or sweaty finger smudging.

[e404pnf]

if you put a blank label on the dvd/cd and then inserted it into the printer would it print that way?

Short answer...Yes. I have a Canon i865 and have no problems so shouldn't think that the R200 would.

But before you go down this road though there is increasing evidence that skicky labels can affect DVD play back. Have a read here... or do a few searches before you label all your disks.

- e404 pnf

[macrovision]

True...Sticky labels may corrupt the disc because of the "wobble effect"...this is when the label causes unbalancing of the disc ..air bubbles,weight, and possibly friction will cause the disc to spin wrong and the laser won't refocus fast enough. but the R200 will print on a labeled disc however you might want to use clear lables or glossy...I don't think the ink needs to be locked in with those.

[Mawdryn]

I got my US Canon Pixma 5000 set up for DVD printing now and I love it. I've been using labels without problems, but I'm switching over to direct printing.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I use a Sharpie on the discs and then print DVD case covers.

Me too,I see the cases more than the discs.
I think lightscribe will go the way of HD-BURN:nice idea but impractible.

[Legendsk]

Let's look at this choice rationally. Obvious problems with labels have been pointed out. The Sharpie is a good solution, except you don't like the way it looks. Whose fault is that? Put a little personal effort into it. Go take a calligraphy course and make beautiful labels with a Sharpie. There is probably even a good market for beautiful hand labeled items.

[Noahtuck]

R300 all the way. I may never buy a non-inkjet printable DVD again. And no, never had a drying issue with the Epson printed media. Also Krylon 1313 acrylic spray on them makes it look like it was done commercially.

I also go for the R200 & R300!! i will rarely if ever buy a non printable dvdr again!! and i also have never had a problem with my dvd's drying, as soon as they come out of the printer i handle them and put them in the case and never had a problem with them being wet.
I have even read where they will smear if gotten wet, i tried on a few, even spit on my finger and rubbed acouple of goof's and did not get them to smear 8)

And with the CIS systems, very, very cheap to run!!!! has paid for itself for me also many, many times over!!

[JDPRIV_]

I have been hearing alot about the R200 and R300. I have a epson stylus photo 900. Is the 900 better than the 200 and 300?

[ozymango]

Can you imagine the look on a customers face if I were to give him/her a DVD marked with a sharpie? That won't be a return customer. The price of ink and the R300 has been worth the money many, many times over.

What kind of software do you use to generate your labels? Do you have a program that allows you to drag/drop images and text onto a template, or do you just PhotoShop your graphics/logo onto the disc? Did you printer come with any (useful) software for this?

I ask because I've done labels for CDs in the past (paper labels), and while I enjoyed "creating" labels I never had any useful template software so there was a lot of hand-editing in the process that slowed me down a lot. So I went back to using Sharpies for 99% of my labels because I'm just too lazy most of the time. Any recommendations on ways to make nice label images?

[D.A.R.J.R.]

I wanted to vote for lightscribe

[e404pnf]

Any recommendations on ways to make nice label images?

At the moment I'm using the software that came with my Cannon printer (so no use to those using the Epson printers). It is quite limited, but will obviously import images created in Photoshop, add text etc so does everything I need.

I have also just found a app on the SVP site called Easy Media Cover. I've not had time to install it yet so don’t know if it’s any good. It could be well known within this forum to be complete crap but thought I'd mention it

- e404pnf

[sjmaye]

I wanted to vote for lightscribe

I have to buy a drive anyway. From what I have read the lightscribe enabled drives are good burners and they are selling for just a tad bit more than the others.

For me it's a no brainer. Buy a lightscribe enabled drive. If it does not meet my needs I can always go back to a sharpie or Epson R200.

[e404pnf]

Any recommendations on ways to make nice label images?

...I have also just found a app on the SVP site called Easy Media Cover. I've not had time to install it yet so don’t know if it’s any good. It could be well known within this forum to be complete crap but thought I'd mention it

Had a look at this last night. I was right to be unsure - absolute crap, don't waste your time with it

- e404pnf

[screwup]

I am using the Sharpie, but have heard that it is not good for the disk?
Should use a water-based pen. Any truth to this?

[dvdguy4]

Its all I use. Never had a problem.