Lightscribe Drives

[copyless]

I just came back from Sam's club and they don't have the other one any longer, just the one that MikeyBK refers to. It was the R220 and it cost $89.84. For some reason the -R media is cheaper than the +R, it was 36.44 vs 39.44. I thought they were both printable, but maybe not, that might have been the difference in price.

MikeyBK, you could have saved me a trip if you would have replied a little earlier. LOL I'm just kidding had to go there anyways, while I was there I figured I would look at comp. stuff.

[Chewy]

http://www.shop4tech.com/user.htm?go=view_item&id=2535&cata=&s_cata=

use code SS10 for 10% off thru tommorrow

everybody had on sale last month, it's running out and going thru the roof

[smkymntgrl]

So these printers are only for dvds? They are not a multi-use kind of printer? Does anyone know how much the ink costs and how many dvds you would get on average out of the ink cartridges? I know it would vary depending on the image but roughly speaking.

[copyless]

No it's a Epson R220 Photo printer with 5760x1440 resolution, 6 color ink.

I do a lot of photo printing and used to use Epson printers, then their quality for photos slacked off so I switched to Canon, but I can tell you that most all cartridges today are $8-12 each. Which is actually good for printers with 5 or 6 cartridges because you can replace one at a time, as needed. They do last a while. On one of my Canon's I have a few hundred pages printed and about 80 photos. My other one I use only for photos, nothing else.

You will be glad to know, I downloaded the ECLU and my first Lightscribe label is printing right now. Also to let you know HP will be releasing a color Lightscribe soon. I am not sure exactly how they work, as in if they will be compatible with the existing drives or if it is a new drive. It could be on the disc and changing the intensity of the laser, but I do not know, I just know they are releasing one.

[smkymntgrl]

@ copyless,

But the disc printers, are they only for discs?

Wow, you print alot of pictures! My printer is an old hp deskjet 3620, does o.k. but that's about all I can say about it. I have a Lexmark x2350 all in one printer, scanner, copier I bought last Nov. in a bundle with a pc and haven't even got it out of the box yet! Had lot's of ink left for the old HP and wanted to use it up. From what I could tell you only use one cartridge for ink, no black. Don't like the idea of using all that color to make black. May just sell it and get something different.

I am going to download the ECLU later. Anxious to see the difference in the old and new. The color lightscribe sounds interesting but it will be a while before I'm ready for a new one. The two I have now are both less then a few months old. It would be better if the change is in the disc.

[copyless]

That is the printer that prints to disc. It has a special pull out tray on the bottom that you stick the disc in and print to it. It probably uses 3 photo color ink cartridges, 2 regular color cartridges, and 1 black cartridge.

Some printers use 2 black cartridges, as one of my canon's does, one black for text and one for photos.

I finished my Lightscribe label, and I must say I am truly impressed. I scanned the original with my photo scanner and used the eclu to update my utility and then used sonic express to burn the image. I backed up Ultraviolet, that I bought while I was out today looking at the printer and media. Anyway you can actually read the writing around the edge and stuff, it is great. I will add that Ultraviolet is a cover that seems to be made for Lightscribe, in the way it is designed. I am not that happy with the burn quality of the actual media side as it is a CMC MAG disc and seems to be low quality, but I will make another back up later if needed and I am going to search for better Lightscribe media.

[smkymntgrl]

So about $90 bucks, that's not bad. If I sell the new printer I might be interested in that.

Ironically enough I just burnt the Ultraviolet image myself. Bought it myself today, hubby wanted it. I'm going to download the ECLU and burn it again and look for differences.

If your looking for better lightscribe material I just bought a pack of these. I've been happy with them so far and that was a pretty good deal. You might give them a whirl.

[copyless]

I was just looking at those and getting ready to order them. That is crazy.

Let me know if you see a difference, as I have never burned one before so I do not have a comparison to use. I do know that you can bring the utility up and reset the default settings back.

I think maybe my main player doesn't like shiny sided disc, as I have been using TY02 disc and they will freeze in my main player, always around the 4 or 5 chapter. But this disc, even though the burn is not good at all is still playing fine in it. I fortunately have several players, two in my living room, and the second one is a recorder, so it plays anything I stick in it no matter how good or bad, so far. So the only thing I can contribute it to is the difference in the label side. When I first scanned the disc, I thought for sure it would not play in my main player because of the failures on it, but again it is working fine in it.

Chewy, if you read this, can you give me your opinion of this, first look at the scan in your disc thread post #61. Well the movie has now played all the way through, without any problems, so I am thinking it has to be something to do with the label side of the disc and my player. Because so far the only disc that I have ever burned, that would not play in it, are the TY's and the Phillips, which first started giving me problems. Well after this one playing through, I went and dug out the Phillips disc and they too are shiny sided disc. Even though I am still going to use quality media, I think I am going to buy only white label sided disc, or some to that effect. Too bad for me, because I was getting ready to order 200 more of the TY's, while they are on sale for $29 a hundred, but I guess not now.

[techreactor]

Good find, I bookmarked the Lightscribe site to go back and give it a good read. That looks really interesting. I'll have to burn one after I download the ELCU and see how if it really improves the quality.



Color prints on the discs would be great too. The printer prints on the DVDs? What model of printer is it and how much do they run. I like the lightscribe but I would be interested in a new printer. Mines cheap and old!

The only limitimg factor as I see with lightscribe is that at this point they are costly (the media), you can end up paying upto 6 times more for a lightscribe CD-R and upto 10 times more for a lightscribe DVD-R media as compared to the standard (non-LS) media you use.

Probably once they become more popular, the media will also cost a reasonably low.

[copyless]

I don't know if I would that far, did you look at the link to the media we were discussing? 30 disc for $27 delivered, that's 90 cents a piece, yes more expensive than .26 to .35 cents a piece. But no where near 10 or even 6 times as expensive.

[smkymntgrl]

The only limitimg factor as I see with lightscribe is that at this point they are costly (the media), you can end up paying upto 6 times more for a lightscribe CD-R and upto 10 times more for a lightscribe DVD-R media as compared to the standard (non-LS) media you use.

Probably once they become more popular, the media will also cost a reasonably low.

They've already come down some in price since I bought the burner. I don't use them on all my discs because of the price. There are some discs that are "special" that I will use them and like I was talking about earlier in the thread I have made presents of dvd's of weddings and put the couples pictures on them and a 1st birthday disc of the baby's first year (all the pics I took of him over the year) and added a theme appropriate laser burn to the disc. It makes a nice touch on something like that.

I'm sure as time goes on they will decrease in price, especially if they come out with this colored laser. Always new technology and media to make yours seem obselete or outdated!

[MikeyBK]

Wow, that is a great price for lightscribe Verbatims!! Now, at that kind of price I would be more inclined to make lightscribe discs more often.

[Chewy]

copy, you probably have a player that doesn't like -R media, the shiny upside
would be irrelevant. The tyg-0x's have been the most playable disks I have ever had. I have had bitsett verbatims(dvd+r/rom) that wouldn't play in a computer or anything else, crap - or + r media that
would only play in the best players.

[lfcrule1972]

Sorry just playing catch up so here are my comments in relation to the previous pages !!

My printer is the Epson R220 and its the best one I have ever owned, here in the UK I can get compatible ink carts for just over £1 each so thats what $1.70ish - they last for a long time despite my printing the discs and the covers and the occasional photograph. To get it into perspective my previous printer was a Lexmark and the replacement carts were £50+ for the black and the colour combined carts.

Printing on the discs is a breeze cos of the Epson software - you can get the disc images from www.cdcovers.cc at the same time as the covers. As above these printers are able to print photos and any other colour print you might need.

I really can't recommend them highly enough !!

[smkymntgrl]

I really can't recommend them highly enough !!

Sounds like good reviews on the Epson R220. I might just have to consider one. The price doesn't sound bad and the ink price is cheaper then my old as dirt hp printer. I guesse I'll have to "break" the old one so I can justify buying one of those!!

Thanks for the opinon!

@ copyless
Burning that image now after downloading the ELCU. Burnt the same image last night before the download. I will compare them and let you know.