I have created a special family DVD (home movies -- yay!!), and I
wanted to put a nice label on the DVD itself. I have read in a number
of places about the problems with using adhesive labels, but much of
the information is from a few years ago.
Does anyone know if this topic has changed much? I still see stores
selling the DVD labeling kits and labels, so I don't know if things
are any better or not.
I am mostly concerned about the longevity of the disc -- seeing as how
these are family movies, it's not something you will play all the
time, but you would certainly want to pull out in a few years time for
a giggle.
If you buy one of those reputable DVD labeling kits, and good labels,
is that okay, or is it still rather iffy?
If so, what about printing directly on the DVD? I have a printer that
can do it, but I have never tried. Is there any potential, or long-
term affects from printing (ink-jet) directly on the disc?
I figure that there are lots of people out there that must produce
customized DVDs for a variety of reasons, and they must want to do
something more than write in black ink?
Hugh wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> I have created a special family DVD (home movies -- yay!!), and I
> wanted to put a nice label on the DVD itself. I have read in a number
> of places about the problems with using adhesive labels, but much of
> the information is from a few years ago.
>
> Does anyone know if this topic has changed much? I still see stores
> selling the DVD labeling kits and labels, so I don't know if things
> are any better or not.
>
> I am mostly concerned about the longevity of the disc -- seeing as how
> these are family movies, it's not something you will play all the
> time, but you would certainly want to pull out in a few years time for
> a giggle.
>
> If you buy one of those reputable DVD labeling kits, and good labels,
> is that okay, or is it still rather iffy?
>
> If so, what about printing directly on the DVD? I have a printer that
> can do it, but I have never tried. Is there any potential, or long-
> term affects from printing (ink-jet) directly on the disc?
>
> I figure that there are lots of people out there that must produce
> customized DVDs for a variety of reasons, and they must want to do
> something more than write in black ink?
>
> Thanks so much.
>
> Hugh,
I had a couple of discs which someone sent me and which I tested that
had labels on them. next time I came to try them a few months later
they were corrupt. Personally I have used direct printing many many
times. If I record a movie onto dvd from tv I like to put a good
looking design on it, even the genuine disc image, which can often be
found on the net.
Your printer probably came with a program for printing to disc and it
may well be good enough to do the job, but there are third party ones
too, I use http://www.acoustica.com/cd-label-maker/
which I think has a demo version and doesn't cost much anyway.
of course you'll want to make sure you buy printable discs. :O)
BTW, as it is so important I would make one disc for anyone who wants
it with the graphics on, a disc with nothing printed on it which I'd
keep in a drawer or such and maybe even back the thing up onto my hard
drive. This may sound OTT but if they're treasured home movies at
least you have a comeback if there's a problem later on.
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 11:26:21 -0800 (PST), Hugh <hwcowan@hotmail.com>
wrote:
....
> I have read in a number
>of places about the problems with using adhesive labels, but much of
>the information is from a few years ago.
>
>Does anyone know if this topic has changed much? I still see stores
>selling the DVD labeling kits and labels, so I don't know if things
>are any better or not.
I did not try again ...
>I am mostly concerned about the longevity of the disc -- seeing as how
>these are family movies, it's not something you will play all the
>time, but you would certainly want to pull out in a few years time for
>a giggle.
>If you buy one of those reputable DVD labeling kits, and good labels,
>is that okay, or is it still rather iffy?
High probability for an unplayable disc in a few months time.
>If so, what about printing directly on the DVD? I have a printer that
>can do it, but I have never tried. Is there any potential, or long-
>term affects from printing (ink-jet) directly on the disc?
That works for me.
(Of course you need the special DVD:s with printable surface.)
The print varies a bit in quality between DVD manufacturers.
I noticed that some give a brown tone to black instead of black.
It migth be in combination with my Canon printer ...
Printable discs are available with different diameter of the
unprintable centre, and some has manufacturer markings in relief that
stays visible through the print.
Anyway, don't store your valuable video projects to a DVD'R, at least
not a single copy.
> The print varies a bit in quality between DVD manufacturers.
> I noticed that some give a brown tone to black instead of black.
> It migth be in combination with my Canon printer ...
>
yeah, same here, odd times got certain makes which didn't print so
well. I also got some which remained tacky for a few hours.
> Printable discs are available with different diameter of the
> unprintable centre, and some has manufacturer markings in relief that
> stays visible through the print.
I prefer the discs with full face printing, gives much more space to
use for details.
> Hello,
>
> I have created a special family DVD (home movies -- yay!!), and I
> wanted to put a nice label on the DVD itself. I have read in a number
> of places about the problems with using adhesive labels, but much of
> the information is from a few years ago.
>
Hi,
My own personal opinion is never, ever to stick labels on DVDs or CDs.
Every time I did, I had problems. Sometime a few months down the line,
sometimes immediately.
On the few occasions when I was able to remove the label, the problems
disappeared! Usually however, the labels will not peel off cleanly.
They're just not worth the hassle.
If you have a CD/DVD capable printer (and I see you have) then just buy some
printable Discs and use those instead.
I personally always use either Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden discs. These are
widely acknowledged to be the best in the business.
<snip>
> If so, what about printing directly on the DVD? I have a printer that
> can do it, but I have never tried. Is there any potential, or long-
> term affects from printing (ink-jet) directly on the disc?
If you already have the printer can print directly on CD/DVD, then all you
need to do is to give it a try. I have printed thousands with Epson
printers, I just retired the older Epson 900 with newer RX680
> I figure that there are lots of people out there that must produce
> customized DVDs for a variety of reasons, and they must want to do
> something more than write in black ink?
- Get a printer with option to print direct on CD/DVD
- Buy Inkjet Printable CD/DVD and enjoy it.
- Using CD/DVD Labler like SureThing. There are around dozen CD/DVD Lablers
available, but to me SureThing is a good choice if not the best choice.
One of the problems with using labels is that long term the glue tends to dry out especially when you are using the disc in a player where it can tend to get quite warm. This will make the label peel of at some time down the track and when its spinning at 10k or whatever in the machine will not help it a great deal. Also buying labels from shops now is a worry as you dont know how old they are as most people have gone to printing direct or use lightscibe discs, so the stock could be years old as I have found out.
> One of the problems with using labels is that long term the glue tends
> to dry out especially when you are using the disc in a player where it
> can tend to get quite warm. This will make the label peel of at some
> time down the track and when its spinning at 10k or whatever in the
> machine will not help it a great deal. Also buying labels from shops now
> is a worry as you dont know how old they are as most people have gone to
> printing direct or use lightscibe discs, so the stock could be years old
> as I have found out.
Unless you unaware that printable CD/DVD have been available for years
now. I don't use LightScribe but if I am not mistaken it's gray scale, so
if you want colorful then you can go with Printable InkJet or Thermal CD/DVD
Joe wrote:
>
> Inky <Inky.3m07lm@no.email.invalid> wrote:
>
> > One of the problems with using labels is that long term the glue tends
> > to dry out especially when you are using the disc in a player where it
> > can tend to get quite warm. This will make the label peel of at some
> > time down the track and when its spinning at 10k or whatever in the
> > machine will not help it a great deal. Also buying labels from shops now
> > is a worry as you dont know how old they are as most people have gone to
> > printing direct or use lightscibe discs, so the stock could be years old
> > as I have found out.
>
> Unless you unaware that printable CD/DVD have been available for years
> now. I don't use LightScribe but if I am not mistaken it's gray scale, so
> if you want colorful then you can go with Printable InkJet or Thermal CD/DVD
>
> I use printable inkjet and it serves me well.
yeah, I haven't actually tried it on mine but it looks like a monotone
etching... http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...htscribe&gbv=2
it does look like some semblance of colour is on some discs but I
think that's the colour of the plastic.
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:03:37 GMT, Paul Heslop wrote:
> Joe wrote:
>>
>> Inky <Inky.3m07lm@no.email.invalid> wrote:
>>
>>> One of the problems with using labels is that long term the glue tends
>>> to dry out especially when you are using the disc in a player where it
>>> can tend to get quite warm. This will make the label peel of at some
>>> time down the track and when its spinning at 10k or whatever in the
>>> machine will not help it a great deal. Also buying labels from shops now
>>> is a worry as you dont know how old they are as most people have gone to
>>> printing direct or use lightscibe discs, so the stock could be years old
>>> as I have found out.
>>
>> Unless you unaware that printable CD/DVD have been available for years
>> now. I don't use LightScribe but if I am not mistaken it's gray scale, so
>> if you want colorful then you can go with Printable InkJet or Thermal CD/DVD
>>
>> I use printable inkjet and it serves me well.
>
> yeah, I haven't actually tried it on mine but it looks like a monotone
> etching...
> http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...htscribe&gbv=2
> it does look like some semblance of colour is on some discs but I
> think that's the colour of the plastic.
Yes - you can buy different colored blanks for (I quote an ad) a
"professional look" :-)
The standard blanks are a dark gold color. Even though they are monochrome,
the results look a lot better than magic marker hand-written labels - not
surprisingly.
Labeling DVDs 
Linear Mode
