Lightscribe Disc Labeling System - What is needed for burning Lightscribe

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All you need is a Lightscribe enabled burner (which is identical in almost every way), Lightscribe recordable media, and of course, software that is able to recognize the Lightscribe in the drive.

• A Lightscribe enabled drive
• Lightscribe recordable media
• Lightscribe printing software

In order to burn a Lightscribe disc you need a Lightscribe enabled drive, this drive has a special sensor, which is closer to the spindle motor, and this sensor controls the speed of the disc during the label burn process. Without this sensor, the Lightscribe system will not work.

Since Lightscribe relies on the special chemical coated discs, you have to buy Lightscribe discs. They also have a special tracking strip around the center. This indexing ring around the center of the disk allows the drive to track where it had begun printing, and where it is on the disc to ensure your images are printed in the proper location.

Here is what makes the label process work. The small lines on the disc are read by a small optical device external of the standard laser. This additional lens reads the lines on the disc, and allow the drive to control the speed of the disc, and accurately position the laser over the label where it needs to burn to create the image.

The small little lines around the center of the disc are used to track the disc where the label has been printed. Since the label is printed as the disc is rotating, it is important to be able to track exactly where it is so the burn process is at, unlike a standard CD burn, data is not constantly being added as it rotates.

Lightscribe discs are available in a variety of locations close to home; I’ve even found Lightscribe CD-R media at average around $0.70 per disc, and online stores average $0.50 per disc before shipping costs. The average non-Lightscribe printable media comes up to be around $0.25 per disc online. Lightscribe media is a little more expensive than CD media, but before shipping costs, online is much more affordable.

As for the label printing software, a lot of the major software players have Lightscribe compatible printing system. Cyberlink, Nero, Intervideo, Roxio, Sonic are just a few of the companies providing Lightscribe enabled software. For those who prefer using their own burning software, they can get a free version of Surething 4SE, which allows the user to burn the data in their standard burning program, but create and burn their label independently. Surething even comes with templates and free labels, others are also available at the Lightscribe website.

Using the Surething software, you get a very basic WYSIWYG disc-labeling program; you can copy in images, add text, retrieve files off of the CD itself and create a label with it. This program is available on Lightscribe.com.

Now that you have all the needed hardware to burn a Lightscribe disc, you’ve got the proper media, and now you’ve got some software that will work with it, let’s get into creating an image on our disc.

Next: Creating your own disc image >>
 

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