Lightscribe

[Chuck Engels]

My oldest DVD burner, a Philips model, started giving me a little trouble so I went out a purchased a new drive.
Got a nice deal on a Pioneer and it has Lightscribe, guess I will give it a try thanks to all of the great comments in this thread

[George Tyndall]

Got a nice deal on a Pioneer and it has Lightscribe, guess I will give it a try thanks to all of the great comments in this thread

Hi Chuck,

The best price I've seen online is at http://www.frys.com: a 50-pack of hp DVD-R 16X Lightscribe blank DVDs as of this moment are going for $24.99.

I've always used the DVD+R at 16X and never had a problem with either the burn surface or the lightscribe surface using the Toshiba burners that came with my hp MCE PCs.

I am assuming the DVD-Rs are of the same quality as the DVD+Rs, but I am not sure of that.

[Chuck Engels]

Actually the -R is a bit more compatible with older DVD players George, so in many ways they are even better than the +R format
I just recently used +R for the first time because I got an excellent deal on Verbatim Inkjet Printables, 50 for $14.95
They have been working fine and all have played on multiple DVD players so I am happy.

Unfortunately Frys is a little far for me to go, probably will end up at Micro Center again (twice this week now)

[momoffduty]

Did end up getting the Lightscribe. Thanks for everyone's advice. Found a template online to use in PSE and everything works now. Had a problem at first, but everything is up and running.

When using a photo, is it best to change it to black & white? Change the contrast to get a better imprint?

[Chuck Engels]

Thanks for the tips Cheryl, I will be trying mine out this weekend
We will also be heading to the North Georgia State Fair on Friday night, going to see Mark Schultz in concert
Maybe I will have some video to share

[momoffduty]

Chuck, like to see some video. Lots to film at a State Fair.

On the lightscribe, had to install Nero 7 to get the driver for the burner. Maybe your model isn't the same way. Anyway, did find the serial number for the old Nero before I installed 7 since it uninstalls previous versions. But, the lightscribe software was suppose to be in the Nero 7 and it wasn't. After searching for the logo in Nero 7, went to the Nero site and downloaded it there. At the Nero site it said that versions 7 & higher have the lightscribe software, but mine didn't.

[jackfalbey]

I found the Nero 7 Essentials that ships with many Lightscribe drives to be a bit "intrusive" on my system. As an alternative, you can get drivers and basic design software right from the source: www.lightscribe.com.

[Chuck Engels]

Back to this topic again

I am going to use my new (about 6 months ago) Pioneer drive for the first time to label a DVD using Lightscribe.
Thanks so much for the links Jack, they really came in handy

[George Tyndall]

I am going to use my new (about 6 months ago) Pioneer drive for the first time to label a DVD using Lightscribe.

Chuck, my experience is the same as RJ's: If you print text only, the labels print in 2-3 minutes, depending on how much text you have. It's only when you add an image to the background that it takes much longer. Also, if you are doing text only, my experience is that a single pass is sufficient for good contrast.

BTW, if the Pioneer Drive that you are referring to is the DVR-X152, my experience is that you will get excellent results--however, I did NOT install the Nero 8 Essentials software that comes with the drive. Instead, I use the Express Labeler software that came with my computer.



Addendum: If you go to lightscribe.com and click on Media, you will see that lots of vendors sell DVD+R but fewer sell the DVD-R. After you mentioned elsewhere that DVD-Rs may play better, especially on older players, I began buying them instead. I use hp, and I get them from Fry's on the internet for $24.99 per 50. They are the green color that I believe RJ is referring to, and I agree that with this color a single pass for text is all you need.

[Chuck Engels]

Thanks George

[RJ Johnston]

Verbatim has some colored lightscribe discs that are way better than the other lightscribe discs I had been using. Without going through my drawer, I think the other ones are Aptivo. The green Verbatim discs require only one pass to get a nice contrast, whereas the Aptivo ones required three passes.

[Chuck Engels]

Thanks RJ, I have a 30 pack of Verbatim Gold color discs and a 25 pack of Verbatim color variety

[Chuck Engels]

I am still learning but the Lightscribe labels look nice, they just take forever to print and I usually have to run them through more than once.
Minor graphics and some text take upwards of 20 minutes per disc (just the first time), this is not going to work for any major productions.

[Chuck Engels]

And Jack, I did download and used the trial of Sure Thing http://www.surething.com/ST/
Very nice, thanks for the recommendation

[ScrugneysGundogs]

...the Aptivo ones required three passes.

Just in case you weren't aware of this, Lightscribe Control Panel has adjustments for how dark the labels print. The darker you want to print them, the longer it takes. I set mine to "best" and to print a full disk label (rather than a thin text label) it takes about 30 minutes.