I was very interested in this burner until I discovered that only blank CDs were available (no DVDs) and they were extortionately expensive. I've gone to Plan B and retained my CD marker pen!

Lightscribe is alright if you're just burning a tracklist to your audio CD's. people complain that it takes ages to do full shaded labels, but how many of your CD'S have full graphics anyway?

My HP DVD 640i LightScribe works well but a bit slow ie 30 minutes + and thats just for the CD Label

And the software requires very large Hard Drive space to opperate ie 12GB otherwise my PC locks UP.

The biggest problem is I can not find a stockest of blank CD-R or CD-RW

So what is the point of buying?
Does any one want a white Elephant.

My location is Worcesterhire.

Gerry

My HP DVD 640i LightScribe works well but a bit slow ie 30 minutes + and thats just for the CD Label

And the software requires very large Hard Drive space to opperate ie 12GB otherwise my PC locks UP.

The biggest problem is I can not find a stockest of blank CD-R or CD-RW

So what is the point of buying?
Does any one want a white Elephant.

My location is Worcesterhire.

Gerry

Where do i buy the blank discs? Ive just bought a compaq computer with LightScribe enabled burner and dont know the nearest stockest.

A search on Google will throw up online shops where you can buy blank Lightscribe discs. If you want to buy in a shop, PC World sell them.

See: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0534145347.1114866848@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceladdehjdikljcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&sku=204524&category_oid=-10084&fm=undefined&sm=undefined&tm=undefined

I feel that this lightscribe idea is still in its early stages. I think we may see more of it as the manufacturers iron out all of the niggly bits.
For now, the glossy CD labels are good quality and affordable!

you should be able to get media (CD and DVD) from bigpockets. See: http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/search.php?lang=&page=1&session=4cb8ce56172143d5e338a22ebd9e1729

Hello all,

I used Memorex adhesive labels to mark my CD's in the past. I had over 100 CD's go bad because of these labels. I don't know if it was my printer ink or the label glue or centering but these disks with the Memorex labels would not play on any player I tried. So I switched to a Sharpie pen to mark my disks and that technology just does not do it for me. I bought a HP/Compaq laptop that has the Light Scribe feature. It was only $50 dollars more when ordering a custom notebook from HP. I am amazed with the results. The special disks cost about 70 cents each and I have not had a problem finding them in the small town of Bellingham, Washington. I am just blown away by the results. While they are "burning" I can do other applications on the computer so time is not a factor for me. I like them and they allow me to express my creativity in my designs Thats all.

Thanks,

Bill

The great thing is, if you never use the lightscribe features, you can still burn DVDs and CDs very nicely with this product.

and if you ever have a need to burn some info onto the disc, you have that option.

You don't have to burn a label every time you burn a disc, just because it can.

Just bought a new HP PC and was delighted that it had lightscribe. However in use it is very slow (30 min even for the simplest of labels). I am very disapointed

LightScribe is agonizingly slow. This renders it useless other than as a curiosity. Once the speed is around 100 times quicker than it is today then it'll be a great and useful technology.

WELL....I think the lightscribe is great. Best buy has the disks and they are $2.99 for a 10 pack. (On sale) I bought 6 boxes and was happy as a lark. The price of these disks are not high. Usually where the HP notebook is sold, they have the disks as well...I love it.

I've just got a hp zd8000 laptop with lightscribe, I think it is excellent, so what if you have to wait, when I got my original pc, I had to wait for cd's to burn, I have found the discs very easy to obtain, in fact I can't wait till they bring out the colour variety later in the year, imagine the possibilities,
I have tried using other methods in the past, but ink wears off and the labels are mostly rubbish
I love it......

30 minutes plus to put a label on a CD. This is laughable.
We burn batches of twenty or more CD's for promo purposes.
Printable media and a good printer capable of CD printing gives me full colour prints, without harming the disc - in about 30-45 seconds.
I am yet to see these discs fade.
If it was 100x faster - then it might be a valid alternative.

For a mobile DJ, this is a gift from HP. Though it takes much longer than a permanent marker, the quality labels and artwork capabilities are very much worth the wait. Plus, Fry's and other retailers offer the discs for about $12 a 20pk. In my business, it can help close a contract signing.

just got a samsung writemaster dvd burner with lightscribe and think its great shame theres not full colour but it look profesional and only take 19 mins for a fully featured label and 1-2 mins with a basic one, so drives must be getting faster, and iam only using on a 1 ghz pc and 10 gig hdd, and i would say i doesnt take hardly any space at all, the drive was only £34.99 at pc world and i would reccoment this to anyone!

great product, cant go wrong, go buy one today!!

I'm burning a label as I type this. For me speed is not a problem. The professional finish is great for when I'm sending disks out to customers.

My main complaint is that the contrast is a bit poor, even at best quality. I thus do all my labels in black and white (no greys).

Also the HP disks seem to give much better results that the Verbatim ones.

All in all a lot less fiddly than printing labels and sticking them on.

Clive Thorne

PS:

I've just seen that version 1.2 disks are now available, with lighter backgrounds, and supposedly better contrast. Also DVD+Rs now available

Clive.

I am a professional photographer and the LightScribe burners now let me burn an image to the CD that i provide as part of my Wedding packages. This looks so much more professional than using a pen. So what if it takes 15-20 mins to burn, go and make a brew and come back and it's done.

For the average person that doesn't require a professional image, 30 minutes can seem like a long time, but when your company image relies on quality, you can't go wrong. Yes,it's slow, but the image of my company is worth it.
CD-R's are beginning to emarge now and a 25 pack of 700Mb's for £6 isn't too bad. Had a full demo of the product by Lite-On at this years Computer Trade Show. Very impressed with the results. All the DVD-RW's that I place into systems will be Lightscribe enabled ones now.

Looking for lightscribe hardware and media?

http://svp.co.uk/index.php

(UK & European users)

Lots of media and H/W available. Great prices too!

:)

What software do you recommend for burning images on Lightscribe discs?

LG drive works a dream. I love Lightscribe. Superb fun.

Useless. I bought a samsung DVD burner today with a pack of 5 lightscribe HP DVD+r and the result was rubbish. When burning with Nero you have the option of draft, normal and best. I went for best and the result was just a ghost of the design it was meant to be. I looked everywhere and eventually found something called ELCU_Update_1.4.124.1_.exe on the official lightscribe website. This utility was meant to make the printing darker. Tried it and after 30 mins the result was like 4% darker. Waste of time and money, will ask for a full refund tomorrow. I will post some photos of the results on my blog.

Im about to buy the lightscribe but i thought id check reviews first it seems that its slow but for the professional look its worth it. Thanks to all

I Love it!
It is slow but worth the wait. I am making copies of my wedding photo's on a photo DVD for family and friends. It makes for a memorable keepsake.
15 mins for a photo print and if it needs to be darker, then just repeat the process until you have the result you want.

I am thinking about investing in an enabled drive, but the reviews are totally conflicting!! Has anyone got any images of printed disks that might help me make my mind up?

I am hoping to print CDs for my band to sell at gigs, but the quality has to be top drawer. Is this the way that I am gong to save a fortune on having the CDs professionally printed?

Thoughts and comments hugely appreciated.

Medea International now produces and sell Lightscribe DVD and CD.

http://www.medea.co.uk/buy/pages-main/category-3412/lightscribe.html

my lightscribe runs quick 13 mins to put pics on disk i use surething cd labeler. i get disks of ebay

I use Lightscribe simple labelling software, downloaded for frree from Lightscribe, and it takes 2 minutes to make a simple label. It's brilliant.
I hope to get better at doing the fancy stuff when I've got more time, but for now, it does its job.