External Lightscribe drives...

jill_valentine

Right, I've found myself in hasty need of a lightscribe drive, and need a bit of advice.

I can find internal ones handy enough, but I need an external one and I can't buy online. Can't find 'em in any shops in Dublin I've checked so far, and I've heard reports that the LG ones can make for some dud discs. Help, anybody?

Khannie

If you can get internal ones and are in a hurry, just get an external enclosure for it. Something like this.

jill_valentine

Not a bad plan. Still prefer a single external one, but enclosures never even occurred to me. Man, I'm having a stupid week...

jill_valentine

Actually, while I'm at it... how long does it take to zap a disc with lightscribe? Any place in town I could get the discs?

8T8

Takes about 25-30 mins for a 2 pass which is really what you need for decent quality. I think they have shortened the time since I last used it but the tech never really went anyware and is generally inferior to a well printed DVD even with a home inkjet.

No idea where you could find LS discs as they are such a niche item that only online stores were the places I could ever find them.

jill_valentine

Okay.

I had been recommended lightscribe as the best option for my purposes, but if you wanna recommend an alternative, I'm all ears.

I don't need to produce hundreds and the design is fairly simple, but I do need to keep costs down as low as they can go, because it's a non-profit project. I'm reluctant to use something like CD Stomper, because I haven't heard good word about manually applied labels at all and I don't know if springing for a disc printer would be cost effective. Any advice would be welcome, folks, by all means.

hshortt

PC World will have the discs available, I got some from the UK. My drive takes 30 minutes per pass. Quality is good, but only available in Black and White, which is like taking a large step backwards.

Text labels work best or pictures with a very bright/light background will be good. I use two passes on the disc for quality.

Cheerio
Howard

8T8

Well I suppose it depends on what your doing if it's just text only then the lightscribe will be fine but any sort of graphics and it's pretty lame for that kind of thing. (edit:hshortt already pointed that out)

To print directly onto the disc requires a printer capable of that & printable discs of course so go with whatever you think is best for you.

TontoMurphy

Hi there, here's what you do.. Not sure if you printing DVD's or CD's but get your hands on some printable discs.. Pertty cheap here www.svp.co.uk. Check out the Ricoh or Verbatim ones, really good for reliability. Then get your hands on one of these yokes (http://www.canon.ie/For_Home/Product_Finder/Printers/Bubble_Jet/PIXMA_iP6700D/index.asp)

Guarantee you, its SUPERB. Have on myself and when my friends saw it, i had to buy 2 more of them. The quality is fantastic, disc gets printed in about 25-30 seconds and is touch dry when it comes out... Really really professional looking...
Let me know how you get on...

jill_valentine

Hmm... printer sounds good, but again, not sure if it would be cost effective. The design (CDs, btw) is simple enough, and disc printers start at 200, by the looks of 'em...