New HP Drive Lets You Burn Your Own Label

way2trivial writes "Wow -- remember Yamaha's DiscT@2? now HP has a invention to use the DVD laser to etch the flip side of CDs and DVDs. I own a nice Epson to print on CD-R/DVD-Rs, it does full color -- but this looks impressive as hell, even if it is in monochrome"

Cool !!

[varunrebel]

Cool idea...

Only downside it seems is that you cannot use normal CDs. You have to use CDs which can actually are designed to allow this 'burning' on the flipside...

Use a computer? No thanks

[ObviousGuy]

The real leap forward will occur when this is built into camcorders and other media recording devices. The whole idea behind connecting the camera to a computer just so you can save the data on a disc that won't be played on a computer anyway, not to mention printing labels for the disc, is crazy and redundant. Though it is a necessary stopgap until we get these technologies into the cameras, the computer is just another barrier to the development of user-created media.

Re:Cool !!

[Kent Simon]

I pretty much figured that would be the case. The data on a CD is stored very close to the label. If you have a CDR you don't mind wasting you could scratch part of the label and see that it goes straight to the plastic protective layer. I imagine the special CD's have an extra layer between the top and the data layer that does not exist on a normal CDR.

This is old stuff

[pieterh]

It's just thermal printing with another twist. The good news is that there are no ink cartridges to replace. The bad news is that the paper is _really_ expensive.

Tell you the truth

[SyKOStarchild]

As potentially useful as it would be to use one of these things for CD/DVD Labeling, I am awful fond of saving money and will continue just using a sharpie or an adhesive.

I don't need new tech and new burnable media to keep doing that.

Re:Use a computer? No thanks

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, because we all know video editing on a tiny little camcorder would be so easy and user friend. I can't wait to put a custom title on my movie, that'll be fun to type it.

burning images onto normal cdrs

[slart42]

if you look closely at a burned CDR, you will notice that there's a visible difference between written an non-written parts of the surface. In other words 0's look different then 1's. I always planned to write an app to take advantage of this in order to burn images to a disc surface (just normal CDRs, without burning any useful data to it, of course), but never got around to really investigate this thoroughly.

its brilliant

[katalyst]

because they are giving a new lease of life to an already saturated market; i'm happy with my 32x burner and would not have thought of investing in another cd-burner... and would have upgraded to a dvd-burner whenever i could afford one... but now.. I'll HAVE to consider this...
we'll have happy cd-writer manufacturers, happy cd-manufacturers, happy geeks and very happy software pirates :D
I missed this detail, but what speed does it burn the label at? :p how long would it take to burn a full gfx rich label?

HP invent

[turgid]

HP sure may have given up true innovation years ago, such as servers, processors and operating systems, but it's reassuring to know that they can churn out cheap marketing tricks like this to please the Great Unwashed. Well done HP.

not glued on

[KalvinB]

the problem with regular CDRs is that if you bang them around enough the silver stuff (what the data is burned to) flakes off because it's not encased in the plastic. Those glue on labels help to weaken it. If you try to take a label off, chances are the data goes with it.

Presumably this new method has the label part manufactured on and not attached to the part of the CD the data is written to. Or it's a second layer that more painted on than glued on. However it's done, it's probably much more sound manufacturing than putting a sticker on a CD.

Ben

Re:Cool !!

[superhoe]

And this makes me wonder:

If the burners with this new technology are just $10 more expensive - and the media required to burn to the flipside is just a 'dime more expensive'.. Where's the added value to the sales?

My guess is that we end users are going to pay much more than just a dime xtra for those CD medias.. :(

Seems brilliant...

[odano]

I can't imagine any better way to produce a professional looking CD than with technology like this. Sure it is no better than a sharpie for home users, but for people who burn demo CDs or sell software online and want to make it look professional, this is about as good as it gets.

Re:Is it more than cosmetic?

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, this is basically the same as what we have now on the data side.

All they need to do is use a different dye that turns darker than the one on the bottom.

Chicken or Egg situation

[varunrebel]

An with a number of things in the real world CR-Writers with LightScribe technology and the special CDs are obviously prone to the chicken or egg syndrome [wikipedia.org]

The special CDs won't become popular until the special CD Writers become common and the CD Writers won't become common until the special CDs become common enough...

Re:Cool !!

[-Speade-]

Yep, really cool, I hope this will get popular and other drive manufacturers will not be stop by patents / legal stuff... or it might end up like that sony double-density (1.3GB) disk which doesnt seem to be too much used.. I own one for really long time and still I cannot lend any of these cds to any of my friends. (felt like we're heading to a world where cd burned with XXbrand-burner can be read only by XXbrand-drives) I really like that idea anyway.. Maybe we'll see soon some technology to cut shapes into cds... very interesting for cheese company advertising ;)

Re:Tell you the truth

[ajs318]

Absolutely. CDs are for listening to {or at any rate, perceiving stored content through some kind of electronic reading device with sensory stimulators}, not looking at. I'll stick with an indelible marker pen. As for DVDs, I don't ever write anything on them anyway; I just write on the card in the box, because -- at four quid a pop for DVD+RW media -- sooner rather than later, they're going to get recorded over.

Re:Excellent for musicians

[Hungus]

You can of course buy printable CDs and DVDs and use a printer like the one I use which is an ezcd4200 [allmediaoutlet.com] it costs me about 12 extra per cd or dvd but I do get full colour with it. Oh and if you are going to do any volume remeber to buy a continuous flow system for your pritner. In fact here is a tutorial I found on hacking your own CFS System [colorbat.com]

Cool

[Underholdning]

This is a great little feature. Not that I plan to burn great images on the disk. Rather, I plan to burn the contents of the disk - maybe just do an ls -lR | burnlabel. I don't use jewelcases for my CD's or DVD's. They take up too much space. I just keep them in sheets in a binder. The downside is, that the small slip of paper telling me what's on the disk has a limited life span (i.e. I lose it somewhere). This little gimmick will rid me of that problem by fixing the contents to the disk.

Re:Cool !!

[mirko]

I don't, I own a laptop and I plan to keep using a cheap pair of markers to obtain the bichromy this will not get me.

Bonus for software producers...

[16K Ram Pack]

I've thought about producing some Open Office CDs to share around, but the production costs of getting a proper CD done would require me to shell out real cash.

With one of these, I could put OOo artwork on it and give it to people, making it look more professional.

Re:Cool !!

[GORby_]

Let's see:
1. it would probably be more expensive, since it would need a layer of plastic and glue in addition to the special etchable layer
2. it's easier when the layer is already on the disc
3. no problems with balance... labels that aren't positioned exactly in the middle will cause unbalance and lots vibration.

Good enough?

Re:Cool !!

[Junior J. Junior III]

While it is cool that CD writers can do this, it's a feature I don't think anyone asked for or needs. It's really just a gimmick.

It's a fairly cool gimmick, but it's like painting useless stripes or graphics on the side of a car and calling it a "Special Edition" and charging $3000 more for it -- it doesn't really make the product any more useful at accomplishing its intended purpose (storing data in the case of the CD drive, getting you from point A to point B in the case of the car.

It's as though suddenly storing data is insufficient, and now you have to do it while "looking good", which is just silly. Really, it just serves to mask that they haven't managed to innovate beyond 54x write speeds. The car looks faster, but the speed limit on the roads is still the same as if you bought a standard edition car.

Re:Good idea!

[AndroidCat]

This would be good for family parties. In my family, extended to aunts, uncles, cousins, cousins' kids, (coming soon) cousins' kids' kids is a scary number, and there are already video tapes copied and circulating of events. (The techoscenti exchange digital photos via email. We need a web site.) A labeled CD/DVD of each event's pictures and videos would be cool.

Hmm... How about xmas cards with a personalized CD rather than a "our news for the year" paper blog letter?

I could see something as simple as good looking labeling acting as a trigger for a lot of home production work, with spin-offs into do-it-yourself audio/video production software. (And small gigs for people who do do-it-for-them work.) Most of it will be junk, but at least labelled nicely! :^)

Re:Cool !!

[Chalybeous]

My guess is that we end users are going to pay much more than just a dime xtra for those CD medias.. :(

My guess is that the only people who'll pay are the ones who the RIAA decides to get mean with. For example, when I buy an album, I burn a copy to use in the car (basically so my expensive CD doesn't get damaged, and it's no great loss if the car is stolen - it's fair use IMHO, since it's not passed to anyone and I'm not ripping the manufacturers off), and scan the cover and track list to make an insert. With this technology I'd be tempted to either pop the track listing *on* the face of the CD (my handwriting is near illegible, worse if I'm using a marker), or to replicate the on-disc logo or art.
CD pirates will have a field day making use of this device. And so will the lawyers...

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Use a computer? No thanks

[Lord Kano]

The real leap forward will occur when this is built into camcorders and other media recording devices.

Have you ever tried to edit video using a camcorder?

Trust me, you don't want to.

The whole idea behind connecting the camera to a computer just so you can save the data on a disc that won't be played on a computer anyway, not to mention printing labels for the disc, is crazy and redundant.

I guess that if you shoot the video just like you want it,down to the frame, you'll never have to edit it.

Though it is a necessary stopgap until we get these technologies into the cameras, the computer is just another barrier to the development of user-created media.

Until we have huge stores of flash memory and a psychokinetic UI, the computer is the best way to manage and prepare "user-created" content.

LK

You must buy the cheapest discs on the market!

[Anonymous Coward]

Any good (expensive) discs would have the reflective layer covered with plastic. TDK, Mitsui and what have you are some of the brands that make "regular CDRs" and believe me, the silver stuff doesn't flake off.

Nice Idea but Wrong Company

[f0rt0r]

Remember who we are talking about-HP. Aka offshore outsourcing, firing Bruce Perens, selling half-full inkjet cartridges...I wouldn't buy anything from them in a million years.

Re:Cool !!

[Zeinfeld]

This is a feature differentiation. With CDRW and DVDRW drive getting very cheap, Hp wants to make itself stand out more. If you have a basic drive for $35 and an HP with this Scribe tech for say $50 it becomes a tougher choice than before where the only apparent difference was name brand.

No, I think this is a patent license play. The DVD and CD world is full of patents. The main Philips/Sony patentson CD expired some time ago but there are still lots of patents on CD-ROM and DVD. HP want to make a small amount off each drive and each disk no matter whose name is on it. Think about it, neither HP or Sony have manufacturing plants for the drives, it is all outsourced.

Big question is whether this feature is big enough to change the supply chain. I think so, the media manufacturers have a big interest stopping HP becomming a media supply brand (they already are in print cartridges).

Most important of all is the fact that DVD-RW is still in a limited deployment stage. I have not seen the same low cost spindles of DVD-RW disks yet.

Re:Your CDRs are not cheap enough!

[gantrep]

Somehow your joke was quite unfunny.

Chicken / Egg doesn't apply

[zipwow]

I don't think that problem applies here, because the CDs aren't so special that they're the *only* thing that works with this burner, or that they don't work in the 2 zillion CD players already out there.

The people considering buying this burner with its 'etching' ability aren't constrained by the decisions that other people make. This makes their decision all about value, and not about speculation.

-Zipwow