good cd labeling kits?

[bhome83]

hi boyz and girlz, i was just wondering what is the best software or whatever i need to buy to make copies of the images on DVD/cds that are bought in the store. do i get a cd labler kit? are these things easy to use? do they turn out nicely? i just wanna copy the exact image of the cd or dvd artwork and put it on a burned cd. is there a good type of kit that does this well? i have best buy giftcards so that would be a nice place to get it. thanks!

[RJ]

Hi,

best would be to stay away from labeling kits, as they are known to cause trouble.

If you want good looking CDs and DVDs, get a printer that can print directly on CDs/DVDs, use photo printable discs, and after printing them, spray the surface with fixer spray so that the ink can't be rubbed or washed off.

Thay way you'll get CDs that look really nice, better than with any labeler kit and they won't cause problems.

RJ

[Kov-Ice]

Is Lightscribe good for that, or would it be better to get a more job-specific type of disc printer?

[RJ]

You can also use Lightscribe (you'd need Lightscribe CDs/DVDs and a Lightscribe DVD burner for that), but you can only write something simple to the surface. . . like text or simple images (basically whatever you could also draw with a CD marker).

For printing self-created colored images on the surface you need a printer that is capable of doing so. You can't do that with Lightscribe.

RJ

[bhome83]

what specific problems do labeling kits cause though? i had one cd labled before and it looked nice. do they just rub off easily or something? do they corrupt the disc? thanks guys for the help.

[RJ]

The labels don't expand to the same degree as the disc itself when getting warm. That will cause the disc to slightly bend, then the laser won't be able to focus the disc that accurately anymore, thus read errors will occur towards the outer edge of the disc, which will manifest as stuttering and even complete freezing during playback.
You'd have to eject the disc and let it cool down.
If done often enough, you can render the disc unreadable within a short time, like for example a year. Especially CDs, as the label is directly connected to the data layer. The asymetrical expansion of label and disc will eventually destroy the data layer.
With DVDs it's not that critical, but even their data layer can be corrupted over time. The data layer of the DVD is in between the two plastic layers that are glued together. When the glue dissolves, you can say adios data layer, and especially cheap DVDs are not glued that well (that's why there are so many problems especially on the outer edge of cheap DVDs).

There might be labels that don't cause that problem, but most of them do.

Also, when not perfectly centered, you get an unbalance which can be harmful for the player. If you are careful, though, this won't be a problem, but you will have to live with the other one.

RJ

[tomster2300]

Could you guys go into more detail about the litescribe and how it works? My laptop's dvd burner is a litescribe burner and it came with software that allows me to use it - though I'm not really sure what all it entails.

[Strider]

I use to label CD/DVD discs, but after reading the problems that can arise by doing this I just use a sharpie to mark my disks.

[RJ]

Could you guys go into more detail about the litescribe and how it works? My laptop's dvd burner is a litescribe burner and it came with software that allows me to use it - though I'm not really sure what all it entails.

All you need are lightscribe compatible blanks, then you can use them. After burning data to the disc, you have to flip it around, then you can burn the label on it using the lightscribe software.

http://www.lightscribe.com/

RJ