I have the BenQ 162I, 1640 (i believe that is the model as it is still in the box, it came out after the 162I) and i also have the sony 810UL. I used the 162I the most and am very happy with the backups that I do. After seeing some of my friends dvd's that use "light scribe"; 1. LG 16X Lightscribe External Dvd Rewriter (GSA- E 10L); I was impressed with the exterior of the DVD artwork put on the outside of the dvd, title, small pic etc. st the Future Shop for $109.99 2.HP DVD 940 e which uses Light Scribe as well and sells at the Future Shop for $159.99 here in Canada 3. HP DVD 840 e which uses Light Scribe as well and sells at the Future Shop for $139.99 I wondered if any of these have book management capabilities as with my BenQ 162I and my Sony 810 UL I always burn in DVD ROM. Are any of these able to be set to that? Also when I spoke to the sales Rep re the LG Model GSA-E10L, he simply recommended Phillips DVD R- or R+ media. I am a little confused as I thought that there were special media that one had to use and I already have a considerable supply of media for my BenQ and Sony that do excellent jobs but was wanting to try to burn an image into the other side of the dvd to give it a better look instead of merely writng on it. I know that I had an earlier LG about a year and a half ago and it was problematic in that the dvd's that I burned did not always work in different dvd players of various vintages. And one last question, maybe there is a software that will allow me to burn an image onto the dvd?? I don't want to use a label on the dvd. I was told by one person that I talked to in the store that this process of Lightscribe is very time consuming, is this true?? I have a couple of notebooks setup to do my backups, all have Any DvD and one has Nero, the other 1 Click DVD Copy, the other has Sly softs Clone Dvd. I really would appreciate experienced comments as to which of the above would be a decent burner with DVD ROM settings on it and also whether or not there is a software out there that could do the same thing on all of my 3 burners that I already am content with except that i would like to print on the external of the dvd??? I look forward to experienced comments. Thankyou. I should say that all of the above burn to dual layer as well.
1)Lightscribe drives: Beware of HP. I have the 640C. The backups from it,if it doesn't coaster out first,very low stand alone compatability rate. The successful backups,too many crc errors. Utter crap and I don't hear a lot of recommendations for their drives.. I've been waiting for a firmware update since I had this drive for over a year and a half. Booktyping Another reason to avoid HP,very few firmware updates,let alone very little booktyping capability,unless they use a rebadged benq like the HP 640i . I'll booktype the backups with my awesome Benqs and plextor,and lightscribe them with the HP 640c. Internal booktyping Lightscribes: Get the Benq 1655 or a Lite-on. I believe Plextor has a LS drive that's a rebadged Benq 1655.LG drives should also booktype. External: You can get a good internal LS burner and insert it into an external enclosure-case,hooking it up via USB or firewire. These enclosures run around $30 2) You have to use special Lightscribe media.Avoid HP lightscribe dvd media. Verbatim is tops for LS media. Burn the backup first,then turn them over to scribe them. Phillips? One of the brands of media and avoid them like the plague. Dell customer serv doesn't know squat. I can't believe you actually got to talk to a live dell rep. 3)Software: Some of those drives come with software. I've used nero labeler,sonic,and surething labeler. All very similar results.I still use my HP 640C for reading-hell of a reader,and for lightscribing. My LS covers turned out blurry,so I had to download a utility to enhance the cover quality,called Lightscribe ELCU. That cleared up my covers. 4) Time Consuming: Approx 30 mins to scribe the cover,with ELCU-it'll had 5 more mins. Before ELCU,I had to run them through the scribing process twice-which can be easily done. There's marks on the LS media that tells the drive where to start and stop. I do all possible labeling options except for thermals.I have the Epson R-200 which prints directly onto inkjet printable media and takes well under 5 mins. By far, shiny inkjet give me the best results. It looks similar to LS,but full color. Both shiny and LS media are reg hubs,so there's quite a bit of surface that isn't labeled. Full hub shiny inkjet printable should look even better and are now available. White full hub inkjet printable: Prints almost the entire disc,so a pretty good cover. All of mine are matte finish. They now have glossy discs out that should look phenomenal. If it's nice looking covers that you desire,there's other safe alternatives. The lightscribing will shorten the life of a drive considerably and I haven't seen any full hub LS media.The colored LS discs are hitting the market,I can't wait to test them out. Here's my setup and approx the cost for US currency: Inkjet printable media- 30 cents to a buck for verbatim/hitachi/ty Epson R-220/240/300/320/ or R-340: $80-$130 depending on model Ink cartridges: All 6 carts of generic ink $15 a set on the web,so I save major $$$ from the $80 a set that I'd pay at any local store. I have quite a few sites where I download my covers from-and looks pretty close to the original dvd of those movies.
Unless you just want to place an index number of name on the disc stay away from LiteScribe for now. It takes 30 min or so to burn the image and good media is high. My daughter is 10 and has a portable DVD player. I'll never give her an original again. I back up her movies and use white inkjet printable media with an Epson R200. I use Ritek G05 media and have had great results. If you look you can get white printable GO5 media for .25-.28 a disc shipped from places like Supermediastore.com and Meritline.com. Good luck.
Thx for the reply, out here in the Pacific northwest of Canada we are like in the boonies when I ask about these printers. I have managed to find a store that has a Epson R 260 that they want $129 for and also a Canon ip 4300 that they want $149 for. I pretty much have been a Canon user, I have 2 of their scanners and 2 Pixma 5000 printers as well as a notebook printer the 80 which I use in a pinch for meetings. I also have my ancient Canon workhorse the 2400, I think the model is. I can't really recall as it is locked up in the computer storage room. I still keep it b/c you never know when the other printers could go. The main reason that I use Canon has always been their reliability and their after market service. It is simply great. So right now I am in the holding mode on this issue of printers. Canon said to look at the Avery Thumper Pro, the tech I talked to said that is what he uses for labels with his Pixma 5000 which is what I have; however I have heard some bad stories on these labels causing playback problems. Media out here has to be special ordered, or I can get 10 Maxell from this one store for $13.95 so they said this morning in their phone call to me. It seems that eastern Canada is way ahead in printing onto their cd/dvd than us out in the west here according to the Canon tech I spoke with. There are few printers available to even look at, rather surprising to me. Just thought that I would post this, thankyou.
