Since I just got a Lightscribe drive I've been thinking about burning some of my games to backup DVDs with custom labels. A little browsing on custom label sites left me unimpressed with what I saw, though. I wonder if anyone here has done this or has any recommendations on software to use to design my labels?
Korea Beat -- my cool translation blog.
I've tried messing with lightscribe a couple years ago, but found I didn't like the software I found at all, so I kinda gave up after that.
Nero has a decent label designer with LightScribe support. Unfortunately, LightScribe is really best for text.
wrote:Nero has a decent label designer with LightScribe support. Unfortunately, LightScribe is really best for text.
Yeah, and it takes a pretty long time to do pictures if you even try it. It's got to beat the heck out of the drive.
Back in the late 90's when I got a CD burner, it was still a pretty big deal, so I spent a fair amount of time investigating how to label burned discs. I remember having good results with the printable labels you can buy for an inkjet printer (and presumably they work with laser and color laser as well). I also had one of those CD stomper things, which basically just helped you put the label on. Nowadays I don't bother, permanent marker is good enough.
If you want labels though, i highly recommend you go the printed label route. You can have whatever you want then.
Take a look at CdCoverCreator, it's also a decent program:
Printed labels are a bad idea, I'm told. It's important to apply them evenly, and even if you do, as the adhesive dries it may unbalance the CD and cause reading problems.
Apparently if you don't want to go with Lightscribe, the best alternative is inkjet-printable CDs, but that wouldn't be cheap.
The adhesive may even cause the cd/dvd to degrade faster. AFAIK use as little of anything to mark the Cd/dvd. Even permanent markers can be a danger to the coating.
Any burned CD/DVD has a pretty good chance of being unusable in a few years.
Generally speaking, when I purchase a new game or CD, I immediately rip it to a disk image of some sort and tuck it away on my file server. I also burn the disk image to a DVD and stick it away in a large CD holder in the basement.
Usually for this "archive" DVD I use lightscribe to label it.
For the disks I actually USE everyday I print out a color label on the inkjet and stick it right to that sucker.
wrote:The adhesive may even cause the cd/dvd to degrade faster. AFAIK use as little of anything to mark the Cd/dvd. Even permanent markers can be a danger to the coating.
In order to avoid this, I always try to mark burned optical media on the part of the disk that has no data written onto it (usually the edges).
And also I burn my media more slowly then max possible speed. I don't know if this actually is an issue anymore, but I noticed cd's I burned years ago tended to last a lot longer if burned at a slower speed.
Also I reckon the burner itself would have an impact on durability.
Thing is, it's best to not keep data on burned optical media in the first place.
Optical media is yesterday's floppy disk 😜
Honestly, I've had no issues with paper labels on a CD. Just so long as you are able to place it on evenly and never get the CD wet, you should be fine. I also have heard Sharpies are bad for burned discs but that's been my way of labeling for the past ten years and I'm yet to have any issues from that. Basically, so long as you're careful, you should be fine. Just don't count on CDs for any important data as, no matter how you treat the CD, they tend to degrade and be useless within the decade.
Thanks for the advice everyone. I wasn't planning on using burned discs for back-up purposes anyway, I just think it would be neat to make custom labels. Maybe in a few months I'll have some nice results to post.
Korea Beat -- my cool translation blog.
