LightScribe Availability - Internal & External

bobandtom · Newbie Joined: 21 Mar 2005 Posts: 3

Sorry to repost, but I thought it might be a good idea. The cheapest I've seen an internal LightScribe disk has been $100 at Wal-Mart. I really wanted an external LightScribe burner. I have noticed that the LaCie model External Lightscribe Burner won't be available until 'sometime in April' according to their website. Other vendors seem to be 'Accepting Orders', code for I'll keep your money a while for you while I don't deliver you product. I did a search, and someone on eBay (USA) was selling an external Lightscribe burner with FireWire and USB. I searched using "External Lightscribe". Some nice images there. I hooked the one I bought up to my laptop, and it seems to work great. It's got USB and FireWire.

SirQUK · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 12:52 am Post subject:

Hi bobandtom and welcome to our forums Thank you very much for the information. A review of the HP640c Lightscribe burner is under way here at Zone but due to the amount of media we are chucking at it , it may be a week in doing. So far the lightscribe looks a good enhancement but I await some dvdr lightscribe to make my final judgement. its encouraging though. We have foudnd the writer itself, so far to offer no speed ups on our media even though it is benq based. Are you finding the same results?

rubicat · Moderator Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 816

I noticed that there is a $30 mail-in rebate for the BenQ DW1625. Newegg also has the HP DVD640I for $99. I'm thinking about picking one up. Even though my wife is looking over my shoulder right now, rolling her eyes Rolling Eyes

, and saying "Just what you need, another burner!" Shocked

bobandtom · Newbie Joined: 21 Mar 2005 Posts: 3

I have done some research into understanding why the media has to be LightScribe media. If you look at the disk, the hub is implanted with a few hundred shiny indexing lines and some other special encoding outside of that. Those lines allow the reflective optical encoder (Agilent's AEDR-8300) to line everything up properly and determine if the disk is facing the correct way. I suppose it also means that it's more difficult to make the disk, so fewer sources...? The optical encoder resides inside the DVD burner. The optical encoding allows you to burn something onto the disk and then later on go back and accurately add more to the burn. Agilent apparently has sold over a million encoders so far specifically to LightScribe burner manufacturers since December 2004. That tells me that soon this will be commonplace as anything else. If it weren't for the fact that the media needs the reflecting strips in them, I'd be tempted to buy some regular DVDs and just coat them with whatever chemical reacts to the laser. Brett

rubicat · Moderator Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 816

You mean you can't use non-Lightscribe media in these, even if you don't want to burn a label? Surprised

I must have missed that part.

bobandtom · Newbie Joined: 21 Mar 2005 Posts: 3

The media has to be Lightscribe media to use the Lightscribe feature. It won't even try and burn a Lightscribe image unless it detects the Lightscribe media. Regular media works just fine. I haven't tried a DV-9 yet, but 5 or 6 dollars a pop for those are too pricey. Sorry for confusion.

rubicat · Moderator Joined: 30 Sep 2004 Posts: 816

OK, I misunderstood you. I didn't think it sounded right that you couldn't use regular media if you didn't need the lightscribe feature. I was about to cancel my order that I just placed with newegg, if that were the case.

SirQUK · Posted: Tue Mar 22, 2005 3:09 am Post subject:

I can give you an early impression on the HP 640c recording wise. I can't find a media that will overspeed It records 8x+R media very welll as long as its Taiyo Yuden or Verbatim. Its 16x recording is need of improvement its 8x-R recording is again good on Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim but horrid with Ritek. It wont write CMC MAG M01 based media. Of course it is very early days and I will let you know more soon. I remember the BenQ 1600 being similar quality wise on its first f/w and since then it has become of the comunitys favourite burners so as the HP is BenQ based I would expect quick and good improvemnet in future f/ws. The Discs do look cool and you can go over them twice to enhance them so they are very accurate. Verbatim have CDR out very shortly and Imation already have the DVD version out. verbatim will have DVDR very soon. You can expect the rest of the Media market to catch up within a couple of months.

SirQUK · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:25 am Post subject:

Well CS30 can record Taiyo Yuden 8x-R very well at 8x.! Im impressd with this. We have a new f/w to try so Ill post some more soon on new firmware

SirQUK · Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2005 3:30 am Post subject:

And heres one on CS30 that doesnt work quite so well. I'm hoping the upgrade fixes this one as its Quality media on the NEC 3500 with LD f/w. Reported errors exceed the set limits for a liteopn scan ( PIE under 280, PIF under 4 ). We could ignore the spike at the end outside of 4 if it hadnt been at the same place the transfer slowed down,

PeterRussell53

Hi, greetings from the UK. I've just received my long awaited LaCie d2 DVD-RW Firewire dual layer LightScribe unit and the results are terrific. The installation of the LightScribe labelling software and the DVD enabling software is easy and the LightScribe labelling software is also intuitive and easy to use. However there is one BIG problem which nobody seems to have pointed out yet, certainly not LaCie - the enormous length of time it takes to burn the image on the front! I'm using a PowerMac G5/1.8DP with 4Gb of RAM and it takes about 5-6 mins to burn a full 4.5Gb DVD-R or a couple of minutes for a CD. Using a relatively simple design for the label - a small logo and a mono image taking up around 15% of the label area - the LightScribe takes 26 MINUTES to burn the label. By any standards this is ridiculously slow. The results are impressive; hell, they need to be to justify the wait, but fast it ain't! So be warned, if you have a lot of CDs to put sexy labels on, you need a pot of coffee and a good book - War & Peace springs to mind!

SirQUK · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 8:41 am Post subject:

Hi PeterRussell53 and welcome to our forums. I managed to do a full picture in 27 minutes using the update to 2x lightscribe. It is still very slow but can only get faster. It sounds like your drive still has the 1x Lightscribe ability and not the 2x.

PeterRussell53 · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:12 am Post subject: LightScribe 1/2 ability?

Thanks for the welcome and the rapid reply. What is LightScribe 2 ability and where can I get some of it? Is it "LaCie" sourced code/software or firmware from the maker of the drive mechanism? Surely, being a brand new, "had-to-wait-forever" order, which kept being delayed since I ordered it in January from LaCie UK, you'd think it came with the latest, all-singing all-dancing goodies. Does anyone know?

SirQUK · Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2005 10:32 am Post subject:

HP have released an update to their version of this software end of last month. I suggest you contact your manufacturer to see if this has been upgraded on their version too:)

Mgs4snake · Newbie Joined: 03 Apr 2007 Posts: 2

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