Laser burning the flip side of a dvd

[LARRYB]

Went shopping for a second DVD burner and came across a DVD burner that will Laser burn the flip side of a DVD (the label side) with a imiage or anything you want on it. I know that it will be shades of gray (not color).

Do you need special DVD's with a special coating or will any DVD work?

Does the DVD come with the softwware to do this (like a label printing program)?

Havent purchased one yet, waiting for some input from you users.

Larry

[mitsubishi]

You need either labelflash or lightscribe media, depending on which technology you have., unless there's another one I've not heard of.
I have a Lightscribe drive, but I've never used the feature. One of them can burn patterns on the write side aswell, cool if you have any space left after burning data.

PS. It will be lightscribe if it is greyscale, labelflash is blue. Comparrison here: http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/02/14/labelflash_vs_lightscribe_dvd_uk/index.html

[LARRYB]

Thanks for the reply.

The drive I looking at was made by LG (I think). Reading the box really didnt help much on the requirements of the DVD's or software.

There were 3 drives that offered this feature price ranges from $70.00 - $120.00 US$

Larry

[mitsubishi]

Yeah mines an LG, decent all round drive, bit weak with CDs, but who uses CDs anymore. I'd make sure its an up to date model, LG seem pretty weak at updating older firmware. There's more info and some free software at http://www.lightscribe.com/gettingstarted/index.aspx?id=87 although I'd have thought it will come with some (nero).

$70 sounds a bit pricey, unless its an external.

[jshumate]

I have an LG drive that can do Lightscribe. It sounds to me, LarryB, that this is what you are looking at. I like Lightscribe. I am HIGHLY skeptical that what Mitsubishi says about burning images to the data side is correct. I've never heard that and I don't think that will work at all.

You MUST have special DVDs/CDs to use this feature. BestBuy sells them, but the last time I looked they were running out, so I usually mail order them from newegg.com. The drive comes with a version of Nero that can burn Lightscribe images to disc, but you can also download a very nice generic program at http://www.lightscribe.com that does the same thing. NOTE - You have to use Nero in Nero Express mode to burn Lightscribe. If there's another way to do it in Nero, I haven't figured it out.

[mitsubishi]

I am HIGHLY skeptical that what Mitsubishi says about burning images to the data side is correct. I've never heard that and I don't think that will work at all.

You can with Labelflash, you can't with Lightscribe. :p

[Video Dude]

CDFreaks has pictures of labels on the data side.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/First-Look-Labelflash/Burning-on-Data-Surface.html

[writersblock29]

@jshumate

[Re: Getting to the lightscribe feature in Nero]

Hi! Whenever I use the lightscribe feature, I just go to Nero Cover Designer through the Nero StartSmart icon. If that option's not availible to you from there, you might have to re-install the latest update (I'm not sure if it'll detect a lightscribe drive if Nero is installed first, before the drive).

[LARRYB]

CDFreaks has pictures of labels on the data side.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/First-Look-Labelflash/Burning-on-Data-Surface.html

Thanks for the website link. After reading there review it seems that they were burning the label on the DATA side of the disk and the label side. Interesting info.

Thanks
Larry