Sonic the Hedgehog
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Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
Hi everyone,
I've been using thermal printing for my projects for years, but as this service is becoming harder to find(here anyway), what do you guys think about Lightscribe? Is it any good?
Thanks in advance!
''I work to live, but live to make music'' -Mahler
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Jamz0r
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/14 22:33:49
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ohhey
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/14 23:32:01
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ORIGINAL: Sonic the Hedgehog
Hi everyone,
I've been using thermal printing for my projects for years, but as this service is becoming harder to find(here anyway), what do you guys think about Lightscribe? Is it any good?
Thanks in advance!
I think lightscribe is just monocrome, you can't do color. You also have to have special blanks and they can be hard to find and expensive. I use inkjet blanks and an Epson R series printer. It's fairly fast and photo quality in color. I use it for both CDs and DVDs the blanks are easy to find and fairly cheap. Mine is an Epson R300 it's discontinued now but they have a new one that does CDs also, I think it's the R380. In fact, the R320, R200, R220, and R800 do them too. Check to see what models you can still get that can print CDs. I think Epson is the only one of the big printer makers that see a printer that can print CDs.
post edited by ohhey - 2007/02/14 23:58:31
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Phrauge
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/14 23:53:44
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I agree with Frank. I've got an Epson R220 at home and an R320 at work. Beats the hell out of Avery labels. Just don't wet your thumb and run it across the printed CD/DVD. 
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Sonic the Hedgehog
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 00:33:35
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Thanks Frank and Phrauge for your bias towards inkjet.
JamzOr, thanks for the picture. Of course, it looks nice, but that green-ish-gold strikes as odd. I'll try to look for other examples...
''I work to live, but live to make music'' -Mahler
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Jamz0r
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 02:23:17
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Yeah, that pic does look a bit green...they're more gold and black in person. IMO, for the cost, $37 shipped for 20x DVDr / 48x CDRW combo...with lightscribe if you want to use it...kind of a throw in. :) I've been looking at those printers mentioned above, and am tempted, but I LOATH paying for ink, since I never use it that much...and smudgy labels would bother me. Here's another sample: http://www.windowsusers.org/CES2004/LightScribe.jpg Couple more: http://ciaff.info/scca/images/lightscribe.jpg
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scook
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 09:08:29
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supermiah
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 09:58:07
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What about the Primera Technology Bravo II Disc Publisher? Good? Bad? Two Expensive? thoughts on using this for small and medium runs?
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Sonic the Hedgehog
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 11:47:58
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Jamz, thanks for your examples. Check to see what models you can still get that can print CDs. Frank, what do you mean by that? Don't tell me that there's a distinction between the printable surface of a cd and that of a dvd? 
''I work to live, but live to make music'' -Mahler
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lazarous
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 11:57:31
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ORIGINAL: supermiah
What about the Primera Technology Bravo II Disc Publisher? Good? Bad? Two Expensive? thoughts on using this for small and medium runs?
I can tell you from personal experience Primera is a PITA to deal with. They sold my church a lemon Bravo and refused to back it up. Five repairs, and we never had more than 45 days error free. Jumped through a TON of hoops for them, including changing out every piece of hardware inside a desktop dedicated to ONLY running their software, and nothing. They charge you $10 just to TALK to them about their FUBARRED machines. Look into MicroBoards. The GX1 is a great piece of machine, costs the same as teh Bravo II, and has been running non-stop for over 6 months. Their tech support replies quickly, and the prints look fantastic. Good luck! Corey
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Joe Bravo
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 12:07:42
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Hey Sonic,
If you go to that url that Steve (scook) posted, it'll take you to a thread we had just a month or two ago about this, and you'll see samples from both LightScribe and the Epson. I've been real happy with the Epson. Although I don't understand Phrauge's remark about not licking your finger and running it across the CD after printing it. You certainly can, and it won't rub off at all. They use archive quality ink with these models. It won't smear. On the other hand, it's impossible to find cheap refills for them. You're stuck using Epson's own ink. So it ain't cheap, but at least it's good ink.
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lazarous
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 12:55:14
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ORIGINAL: Joe Bravo
Hey Sonic,
If you go to that url that Steve (scook) posted, it'll take you to a thread we had just a month or two ago about this, and you'll see samples from both LightScribe and the Epson. I've been real happy with the Epson. Although I don't understand Phrauge's remark about not licking your finger and running it across the CD after printing it. You certainly can, and it won't rub off at all. They use archive quality ink with these models. It won't smear. On the other hand, it's impossible to find cheap refills for them. You're stuck using Epson's own ink. So it ain't cheap, but at least it's good ink.
I have an Epson R200 that works great as well. Epson's ink isn't the cheapest, but it seems to last a long time and work really well. The printer itself cost me less than $80, so I'm not complaining! lol Corey
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Sonic the Hedgehog
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/15 19:00:48
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Hi Joe, yes, I did go to the link Scook provided, and oddly, the first thing that popped up was your poster-sized cd! Actually, I just discovered a new drawback: I only use Taiyo Yuden discs and to my knowledge they don't make Lighscribe discs. I should have realized that before posting. Sorry! 
''I work to live, but live to make music'' -Mahler
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marcos69
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/16 01:12:35
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ORIGINAL: Sonic the Hedgehog
Hi Joe,
yes, I did go to the link Scook provided, and oddly, the first thing that popped up was your poster-sized cd!
Actually, I just discovered a new drawback: I only use Taiyo Yuden discs and to my knowledge they don't make Lighscribe discs. I should have realized that before posting. Sorry!
I have a lightscribe and frankly once the novelty wore off I went back to printing labels.
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DonnyAir
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 10:44:28
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Lightscribe takes forever (25 mins for complex labels) but it looks okay if you do it right...certainly a step up from a sharpie. agreed. For short runs, it's pretty cool. No ink cartridges, no mess, no labels that run or fade; Lightscribe looks pretty good, but it does take some time to get the resolution that looks best. I use it, but only for one offs and the like. I would never consider it for large runs....unless you had time to kill and wanted to pre print a bunch of discs, but I would consider that a PITA. Have you considered checking with one of the bigger CD manufacturers, like Europa, ESP, Discmakers, etc, just to see what it might cost you to have discs printed only? It might not be cost effective, but if you had a template that you were going to use and that wasn't going to change... say "Sonic Demo CD 2007" or something like that... you might find it easier to have a large run made with multi color graphics done by a pro place instead of doing them yourself. I dunno...just a thought. But I would think that sitting in front of my PC and lightscribing 100 CD's would drive me nuts... LOL
post edited by DonnyAir - 2007/02/17 11:06:26
http://www.donnythompson.com
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RLD
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 11:15:21
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I have an Epson R320 and have printed over 500 direct to disc with very good results. I also have seen the smearing with a wet finger, and that's with Epson ink. I just don't handle them wet...  I've also used ink cartridges from here with just as good results as the OEM ink. RLD
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Joe Bravo
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 11:49:32
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Hey Roger, I wonder if that smear factor might have something to do with the printing surface? I use the Epson R220 and so far have really only printed one CD with it (albeit several coipes of the same CD) and it had a lot of green in it. All my CD's have thus far been printed on Maxell CDs. But really, you can run a wet finger over mine within 10 to 15 seconds after printing it and it won't smear. So, I wondering if there's a certain color of ink that's more likely to smear than others, or if the surface material on the Maxell CDs holds the ink better? (I'm guessing the latter). Have any of you guys tried Maxell? Edited to say that you can get Maxells really cheap at Walmart and I never get bad burns with their CDs or DVDs either one no matter what burner I've used.
post edited by Joe Bravo - 2007/02/17 12:12:32
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marcos69
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 12:29:41
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I wonder if you could spray a fixitive on after printing. Thats what you do to artwork if you don't want it to smear.
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RLD
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 15:17:34
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Hey Joe, I have not tried Maxwell, but I have tried a few brands, white and sliver finish, and they all seem to smear if you try hard enough... Under normal handling conditions I don't think it's going to happen very often. Marcos, When I first discovered they could smear I did try a clear Krylon acrylic spray and it does work, but its a lot of extra time when its really not a problem. RLD
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Joe Bravo
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 16:19:35
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I hope this isn't obvious, but you guys do realize that you have to use specially treated CD's with these printers, don't you? They'll say on the package "ink jet printable surface" or something like that. Maxell and Memorex are the only ones I've ever seen in stores. I'm sure there are probably other brands you can mail order though. The Maxells are solid white with no writing on them. I don't think I've tried anything else.
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RLD
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 18:16:56
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Yeah...
TDK also has a silver ink jet that give a cool sort of shimmer effect after printing.
I've used lots of different brands, mostly white, all ink jet printable.
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Joe Bravo
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 19:00:35
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Hmm ... I think this bears more research. I might mosey down to WalMart or Walgreens and see if I can buy single printable CDs by Memorex and TDK and test them to see if the ink runs more on them. And then I'll experiment with a few colors to see if certain colors run more than others. Really, mine doesn't run at all. There must be something going on. This gets curiouser and curiouser. 
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Phrauge
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 19:13:40
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I'm using Memorex Printable CD-R 52x 30pk. (silver wrapper)
post edited by Phrauge - 2007/02/17 19:34:53
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Jamz0r
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 19:16:38
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That is interesting, Joe.
I've thought about going the printable disk route, but worry about the smudging.
If there are brands that don't run, I may consider it.
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Joe Bravo
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 20:50:32
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Hey, I'm really sorry guys. I just got some Memorex CDs and they smeared like crazy after getting them wet. Then I printed one out on Maxell and it also smeared when wet. Neither would smear with a dry finger though. I don't know what happened. I would have sworn they didn't before. But I must confess, I just pulled out a CD I made several months ago and got it wet, and sure enough, it still will smear. Oh well.... There's gotta be a better way.
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Jamz0r
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/17 22:30:00
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Oh well, thanks for confirming that, Joe. Hey, this looks promising! 
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RLD
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/18 10:46:35
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ORIGINAL: Joe Bravo
Hey, I'm really sorry guys. I just got some Memorex CDs and they smeared like crazy after getting them wet. Then I printed one out on Maxell and it also smeared when wet. Neither would smear with a dry finger though. I don't know what happened. I would have sworn they didn't before. But I must confess, I just pulled out a CD I made several months ago and got it wet, and sure enough, it still will smear. Oh well.... There's gotta be a better way.
Hey Joe, that's too bad...I was kind of hoping you'd come up with something... I don't think its worth worrying about. Almost everybody handles a cd/dvd by the edge...and if they don't, their fingers aren't wet and they're not trying to smudge the surface. Keep looking though! RLD
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David
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/19 15:16:57
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RLD
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/19 15:35:05
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ORIGINAL: David
http://www.microboards.com/article.php/20060602171834206
this looks interesting.
yeah, but I wonder...I don't think it's the media, it's the ink. Waterproof media wont keep water soluble ink that is on it's top layer from smearing. the ink would have to be non-smearing or some clear coating over it... That's just a guess though...
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David
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RE: Lightscribe vs Thermal Printing?
2007/02/19 15:57:58
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yea, your most likely right , the ink would still smear. :)
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