Lightscribe worth it?

[newworldman]

Well I am getting a high end PC for my HD DVD burning and Cam software. But i am not sure on what Blu-Ray DVD recorder and DVD playper to get. This is what I have so far. LG Blu-Ray 16X DVD writer & LG lightscribe DVD palyer. But I have been reading and most people don't like the LG players & writers why? What is the best for Blu-Ray burning? Will I need the lightscribe? Confused now i thought i was ready to buy this PC.


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[CBC]

Hi

Do you even know what Lightscribe is? Have you bothered to Google it to find out?

[newworldman]

Hi

Do you even know what Lightscribe is? Have you bothered to Google it to find out?

yes it is to burn images to a DVD face. I think that is awesome for labeling DVD's would be nice. But I have read that they go out after a few months. Is this true? Or is there better technology now?

[lordsmurf]

Read some good comments here:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1330&postcount=8

[minidv2dvd]

the image doesn't fade, but the coating with the label will wear off easily. storing them anyway but in a plastic case is not a good idea. designing the label is harder than it looks, as you only "write" in one color with limited contrast. the only thing they really have going for them is that the label is completely waterproof, unlike inkjet printed labels that run if gotten wet.

[jman98]

Unlike many people here (not necessarily including those who have responded), I actually used Lightscribe for several years. At the time I bought a drive that could do it, it provided a cost effective means of putting labels on discs because at that time printers that could print to discs were priced around $300. The price of printers that could print to discs continued to fall and now you can easily get one for about $100 or perhaps somewhat less.

Since Lightscribe cannot burn in color, all you get is monochrome. I've got some custom labels I created that actually look great in the format. But the downside is that even at the most intense setting, none of the burns are really dark enough. Not really. One way around that was to burn the same image twice, which did darken it enough. The downside of that is that although theoretically it would not damage your writer, my Lightscribe writer was never the same after I did that one time with a disc.

I kept having Lightscribe burners fail on me in pretty short periods of time. Two or three months sometimes. It got really old really fast. I remember at one time having one burner I reserved for only Lightscribe burns as that ended up being all it could burn reliably. All of my Lightscribe burners ended up having burning problems with DVDs. Dual layer burning was the first thing to start failing, followed by (in some cases) an inability to burn even single layer DVDs. While theoretically this also is not supposed to happen, all I can say is that whatever the cause, it happened to me with all 3 different Lightscribe burners I tried.

The images I burned are mostly OK, but I've got a couple that appear to be fading. It may just be as minidv2dvd says that the coating is actually wearing off and that's the real problem. Honestly, with cheapish printers able to print to discs now and high quality consumer ink jet printable discs like Taiyo Yuden's Watershield line, I have permanently abandoned Lightscribe. Too much trouble, too much time, results inferior in every way to printing directly on the discs. Note that burning Lightscribe labels at the most intense setting for the darkest burns still takes about 20 minutes. Yes, 20 minutes. That sucks.

[victoriabears]

I do have to ponder the question, why label discs at all, the aesthetic benefit, surely, is minimal, unless we are giving them to folks for gifts, that I do, but why bother for just ourselves to keep?

[johns0]

I do have to ponder the question, why label discs at all, the aesthetic benefit, surely, is minimal, unless we are giving them to folks for gifts, that I do, but why bother for just ourselves to keep?

Cause some people like em.

[lordsmurf]

Disc labels get almost zero attention (zero ROI of time/money). If you want "pretty", then make better DVD menus and DVD cases. I'm amazed at the shitty quality audio/video+menus I see on discs that have had so much time wasted on the least important aspect of the disc (the stupid label).

[Nelson37]

My experience with Lightscribe burners is similar to Jman's. I rarely actually burn the label, but have had three drives, all failed relatively early, the last one still works but won't burn DL disks. Most likely won't buy another one.

They do make nice, crisp, easily readable lablels. Look better than the best I can do with a Sharpie. But not by much.

Inkjet-printed full-color are much nicer. Printable disks are not as easy to find locally as the Lightscribe disks is the only problem.

[jman98]

Yes of course. This question prompts the inevitable rejoinders from lordsmurf and victoriabears that labels are for losers, yada yada yada. Really advances the original poster's question, doesn't it? Guys, can you not please just drop it? This really gets old.

Personally I think worrying about menus is in most cases a waste of time. And anyway, really, what does it matter? If I want pretty labels, so what? What is that to YOU, lordsmurf? If you spend hours designing your menus, what is that to ME? To each his own.

[lordsmurf]

Personally I think worrying about menus is in most cases a waste of time. And anyway, really, what does it matter? If I want pretty labels, so what? What is that to YOU, lordsmurf? If you spend hours designing your menus, what is that to ME? To each his own.

It's worth making somebody think "Why am I doing this?", that's why. 8)

[fritzi93]

Might as well offer a differing opinion.

I have a Samsung and an LG lightscribe burner. Probably done less than 50 labels with each burner, so dunno about longevity. Had the Samsung two years now and the LG nearly one year. No fancy labels for me, just plain text. For that, it's fine. I prefer it to my own writing. :P

Only problem ever was when the software couldn't recognize a single disc as lightscribe in the LG, although it did the job in the Samsung. (The disc was a Verbatim MCC-004). Latest software enables you to increase contrast, although yes, you can do the same disc twice and it will index to the same starting point. Not necessary if it's plain text, as it's perfectly adequate for that.

I did use one of the supplied label designs once and thought it looked...shitty. Did it again to increase contrast...still shitty.

[EDIT] A plain text label takes me a minute to type in, tops, and another 3 minutes to "burn in" the label. Not small text either, but as large as will fit in the space available. A fancy label design may take up to 20 minutes, which is the time it took to "burn" my solitary crap label.

[jman98]

Personally I think worrying about menus is in most cases a waste of time. And anyway, really, what does it matter? If I want pretty labels, so what? What is that to YOU, lordsmurf? If you spend hours designing your menus, what is that to ME? To each his own.

It's worth making somebody think "Why am I doing this?", that's why. 8)

I used to fight windmills here too all the time. I would see people doing things that took them 8-10 hours to do for free when they could spend $20 for a piece of software and get it done in 10 minutes. I learned that it's pointless for me to keep telling people to stop doing stupid stuff. If people don't value their own time, it's not my business to get them to see the error of their ways.

This is just an issue of personal choice. That's it. I think it's sad that you have instead chosen to view this a completely black and white issue in which you are on the side of intelligence and right and truth and the American way and anyone who disagrees with you is an idiot. What does it matter? It's sad that you think it does matter.

[victoriabears]

"It's worth making somebody think "Why am I doing this?", that's why."

Thats all I was doing, Lordsmurf and I have many years of hands on practical experoence in trial and error, it has cost me many $1000's, and we are merely passing on our experience.

If one person chooses to go a certain route, then obviously fine, no offense was meant.

[stiltman]

Disc labels get almost zero attention (zero ROI of time/money).

You are wrong.

Plain white/silver disc = 35 cents
Plain white/silver disc with sharpy writing = 36 cents
Son's face and comments when you show him a printed color custom label = Priceless

The same would go for any client I produce a disc for

[Wink Dinkerson]

I just installed the Plextor PX-880SA DVD burner, which has lightscribe ability. I never had lightscribe prior, and would use the "permanent marker" method of disc identification. I burned a disc, and then utilized the lightscribe label burning to make a custom label. As others have stated, the customization of the burned disc label has a nice "wow" factor for the recipient. My opinion is to use the lightscribe labeling for marking discs I give as gifts and archival family videos. Burning was time consuming, and I will use the "permanent marker" method for my everyday back-ups. At $50, the option to use the lightscribe is nice, and not at an additional cost, other than the cost of the lightscribe discs (fifty-nine cents per lightscribe disc V.S twenty-one cents non-lightscribe).