What's the deal with LightScribe? Is anybody using it? I'm not happy with the quality of inkjet printing and have been considering picking up a Lacie dual layer burner w/ lightScribe.

From what I have seen LightScribe can only do mono prinitng and the quality is not better than any decent inkjet printer.

Just a personal opinion:

I'm getting the impression that it isn't really ready for prime time, and have lost interest for now. The initial enthusiastic reports were that it was going to be ubiquitous, not more than pennies per disc more expensive than existing stock, and no mention was made as to the quality of the printing.

What I'm currently observing is that LightScribe CD-Rs are several TIMES more expensive than regular CD-Rs and hard to find, DVD-Rs are either rare or nonexistent, it only does monochrome printing, there are concerns about sunlight or heat ruining your nice graphics (more so than regular home-written discs, apparently), and though drives with the technology exist (outside of HP's online store), they are not exactly filling up retail store shelves.

Maybe if the technology survives to have a second or third generation, it'll be The Next Great Thing. I tend to lean towards being an "early adopter" but I'm not ready to bother with this technology quite yet; feels too much like half a solution.

go and get urself a Yamaha F1 burner for cd's and u can actually burn 300dpi onto the disc burn surface itself..

if u dont like teh quality of print, maybe its ur choice in media..
Rytek, or Ridata for DVD offer plastic smooth disc surface and is awesome. I use a canon i865 printer and i cannot fault the results when using high dpi images.

for cd's i use printable verbatims which have a strange holographic edge... these are a glossy matte finish

I dunno, maybe this article is too old, but this DiscT@2 doesn't look like anything I'd buy:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/88/4

CD-R only, uses the data surface, disc must be closed, visibility depends on the type of dye the disc uses. A long way from being a comprehensive, convenient DVD-labeling solution.

For now, I'm just sticking with Sharpie markers....

It's so much the quality of the image with inkjet DVD. I've been having a problem with smearing. Even after letting the disk dry for three days, some of the ink, especially black, will smear if I press down hard enough and rub with my finger. I've tried multiple brands, including Verbatim, Rydata, and Prodisc, but the ink smears on all of them. Epson keeps saying it's the media, not the printer, but there is only so much money I can spend on testing discs.

have you tried maxell or taiyo yuden dvd-r's? they work great on my epson printer.

I use Prodisc with my Epson R200. I paid $78.00 for the Epson brand new at B.J.s warehouse with ink, and Prodisc at 35 cents each. Never a problem. Your problem does not sound like it is the disc unless you are printing out side the white area. Good Luck!

Mike

I don't think the problem is with the disc either. I think it's with the printer itself, although Epson doesn't want to admit it. It's putting too much ink on the DVD, and I can't set the quality to anything other than best photo. I talked to a friend who used the R200 and he said he can lower the quality on his PC. I'm using an Apple. Epson said there's nothing I can do about it.

I have been using a BenQ 1625 LightScribe burner for a few days now. The images are nice, although I am anticipating the new Photo Quality DVD blanks to be a better solution.

The label burning time under "ideal" circumstances is 20 to 30 minutes. One plus is popping the DVD into the drive for LightScribe labeling is much quicker and easier than setting up my Epson 900 for a DVD print.

Ted

my epson 900 printer had a clogged black inkjet head that was leaking ink and making a mess... i tore it down, took the head out of it, and swabbed the bottom of the head off with alcohol in a cotton ball... it's been working great, no more splatters of ink... i wonder if your situation is sorta similar? is the printer old?

No, I picked it up last month.

I'm using the BENQ lightscribe..It works great for me I just do text labels on them and take 2-3 mins to do that.. I did the fullquality grayscale pic and it took like 30 mins..lol! It was very detailed, but takes way to long..

http://www.maximumpc.com/reviews/optical_drives/review_2005-04-13b.html

Pat,
Have you tried LightScribe on DVD disks?
If so, what brand?

thanks,

Theo

Verbatim DVD+R Lightscribe disks and no problems with playback..

I wish I could find some DVD-R.. IMHO I have better luck with DVD players in the -R than the +R

Does anyone know if there are DUAL-LAYER DVDs with Lightscribe? I can't seem to find them anywhere online. There's regular 4.7GB Lightscribe DVD+R, but not Dual-Layer 8.5GB Lightscribe DVD+R...