Okay, I have read ALOT of threads on this discussion for about 2 days now and I am still at a loss at what I should buy for myself. It seems lightscribe will soon be turning to color am I correct? if so, will this color look as good as a cd printer? also, how much will these, "Color" dvds cost?? Also, what is the best lightscribe external drive that is the most inexpensive out right now? Okay, so as far as the Cd Printers where u just plop in a cd, I hear many people say, the Dvds are less expensive than Lightscribe Dvd's but ink is still high... What is a good site to buy these printers off of? and also, where can I find inexpensive ink? Okay, and now new question, is there Dual layers lightsribed disc's available? If so, how much are they? Also, is there dual-layer Cd printer discs available? How much?? and my final question, what the hell are these Blu-ray discs? I guess they hold 30 gigs and thats amazing, but is the media expensive? and if so, do they also have lightscribe/blu-ray recordable drives available? And how much is a lightscribe/blu-ray disc if so? Or do they have blu-ray Cd printer compatable discs available? Okay, so, i guess i'm just at a loss, I don't know what to buy, if a cd printer is the way to go, if lightscribe is the way to go, or if I should get this new blu-ray technology everyone is talking about... I"M ALL CONFUSED PLEASE HELP ME!!! Thank you, -David Ps. if you don't wanna explain this again to me and you know where I can find this info please, at least reply and link me to this information... Sorry if this is a waste of your time and it's been dealt with over and over again.. But, i have done extensive research and still cannot come to a conclusion... Thank you, -David Skyler
I can only answer a few of your questions and I know nothing of Blu-Ray but I have a printer capable of printing to disc and a Lightscribe burner. While Lightscribe is pretty neat at first, I find myself printing to disc most of the time and I have had people think they were commercial discs. I have heard that Lightscribe is going to color in the future but bet they will be expensive at first. Verbatim does make a printable DL that is about 20% more than a regular Verbatim DL but I doubt Canadian prices would be of much use to you. Inks are very expensive if you get the manufacturers ink but very reasonable for OEM and they last as long and work fine. Here for the States:http://www.abacus24-7.com/home.aspx?affiliateid=10217 or Blankmedia in Canada. I have used both sites but that duty is a killer. Not knowing anything of Blu- Ray, I would recommend an Epson R220, (probably around $70.00 US).
Blu-ray: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc as blu-ray discs are the same physical size as normal CDs/DVDs you should be able to use current printers to print on printable blu-ray media (though i'm tot aware of any printable blu-ray media out yet). The media and drives for blu-ray are insanly expensive, so i'd stay away untill the prices drop to something reasonable. EDIT: I've got an Epson R300 and it's great. Anything in the Epson 'R' series prints to discs and prints excellent photo's to boot.
Cool!!! Thx you guys... Great Suggestions! I actually decided to go with the BenQ DW1655 w/lightsribe technology in a Plumax External Enclosure... Should be arriving on my doorstep tommorow.. Even though I know i'm gonna get bored with lightscribe it's still the best drive out there, and an added on benifit for right now i thought... And i am moving to europe and don't wanna actually be, "Carrying" an epson R220 on a plane with me... lol... seems kinda dumb... But, when I get over there I will eventually cough up the extra 70 and get this bad-ass printing media madman... I have been using label's on all my dvd's and have just found out they are REALLY REALLY REALLY bad... So, decided, i'd get this lightsribe for right now to keep burning..... thx again for the help!
The BenQ DW 1655 is what I have. I think you'll be impressed with it even apart from its LightScribe ability. Some people find the LightScribe to be be a bit faint for them. Here is a link to a correction for that. It will add some time but not a lot, a few minutes, I think. Also, a good site to just browse around: http://lightscribe.com/support/index.aspx?id=306
