New HP Drive Lets You Burn Your Own Label 257
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"
Is it more than cosmetic? (Score:5, Interesting)
Good idea! (Score:5, Interesting)
Although I like colour inkjet printable CDs/DVDs that the new epsons can produce at low cost, this is a great way to label something that doesn't need to be in colour with the associated ink costs, etc.
Wonder what the resolution of the printing is, and how long it takes...
Maybe the top side could be used for additional data storage as well if you don't need a label?
N.
10$ = Rs 500 approx (Score:5, Interesting)
An increase of 10$ (=Rs. 500 approx) is a bit too steep. Obviously the good old felt-tip pen is much cheaper !!
But the basic idea/concept is very user friendly and cool. Wish they can make it a bit cheaper...
Small business use.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Small business use.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Excellent for musicians (Score:5, Interesting)
The most impressive result I have gotten so far is by laying the cd's on the ground and spray painting them all white. Then when that layer dries, lay a stencil of an image over each disk and spray black. Leaves a cool ghosty image that looks like it was pressed. The disks play fine, and it doesn't look like your music is sponsored by TDK.
Re:Good idea! (Score:2, Interesting)
Brilliant idea (Score:3, Interesting)
You must buy one (these drives are $10 more than normal)
You must buy ink for one (at $970 a cart, lasts for 1 week)
You have to use it often enough that the Ink doesn't dry out.
At the moment I label my CDs with a permanent ink pen, but this would save the rest of the world from my handwriting. I'm sure the Linux driver will also ship with a perl script to dump a directory listing onto the front of the CD as well.
What I'm curious about (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder... (Score:5, Interesting)
... what the reality of pricing is going to be on these things as opposed to the probable $10 premium quoted in the article. If they really stick to that, these things are going to take off liek crazy. The one big problem with the Yamaha was the price (at least here in NZ). If this thing truly has a negligible (???) price increase, I can see them selling like mad and being put into every branded system and whitebox known to man. Can you think of an easier way of labeling small DVD backups of your data than to write it directly to the DVD through a script. No more forgetting labeling of important data.
The flipside of this is, how long will the drive actually last with the extra etching duties of the laser? Will these have a shorter warranty period than their non-ethcing counterparts? Through the first run, will we see unusually high failure rates? I haven't heard of anything like that with the Yamaha's but, then again, I haven't looked. I haven't had to. I haven't sold one yet and I think that's mainly because I haven't bought one (if you don't know the product or the brand intimately, or are unwilling to learn it, don't sell it).
Anyways, I'm done with my rant now. You can get back to reading truly thoughtful comments. :)
CliffH
Resolution (Score:5, Interesting)
What sort of resolution can we expect from this?
Have many pits per inch are burned into the data side of a disk at the moment?
Can we expect the same?
What will the output product look like? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Cool !! (Score:4, Interesting)
> which can actually are designed to allow this 'burning' on the flipside...
Why don't they sell blank labels you can stick onto normal CDs and then etch them with a laser? Or is that too obvious?
Holograms (Score:4, Interesting)
What about rewritables? (Score:1, Interesting)
here ya go. (Score:5, Interesting)
Closeups of different labels using this thing.
Re:Excellent for musicians (Score:3, Interesting)
It's only a matter of time (Score:4, Interesting)
I want one! (Score:3, Interesting)
ink and burn = cd tatoos. (Score:5, Interesting)
This is very similar to etching print plates.
After you burn the CDROm and etch the flip side, guess what?!
You take various colored inks, fill in the etching and then wipe off the excess.
I bet you could make some realy neat looking designes with it.
Your CDRs are not cheap enough! (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder... (Score:2, Interesting)
Though I don't think this will ever become mainstream, it still is a cool technology for a consumer level device. Then what came up to my mind is Kodak, whose business has been in decline since digital camera began taking over regular 35mm in low-mid priced market, but who possesses vast knowledge in science of photography. If I were working for Kodak, I would propose development of color disk label technology, for which they can exploit their expertise.
just my thoughts.
steganography... (Score:3, Interesting)
I would think it would be easy to hide data in a picture made of 1s and 0s.
Why did it take them so long..... (Score:3, Interesting)
I expect that a few thousand (million?) others had also had that same thought at some time.
The sad fact is that millions of people have good ideas and are far too busy trying to survive to be able to get embroiled in serious product development. In any case, only a large corporation could afford to do this, the prototype would likely have cost millions.
It is unfortunate that the principles of open source can't work in hardware development, where mechanisms, mouldings and precise little bits are concerned. Otherwise, we could have lots of things sooner.
It is only going to get worse as technology advances. What gets developed depends entirely on the whims of the marketing men, an area where people of the greatest imagination are rarely to be found.
It is worth remembering that a boy called Humphrey Potter created the first self-acting steam engine, and therefore laid the foundation for the Industrial Revolution, because he had better things to do than open and shut valves sequentially all day. Humphrey Potter actually achieved what the Convicted Monopolist has never achieved, and never will, he really invented something useful and innovative. It is sad that such real grass-roots innovation is scarcely possible nowadays, even the simplest thing involves far too much expense. Humphrey Potter's requirements were simple, and within reach of most people: string and pulleys for example.
Now this latest "invention" will not have the effect of Humphrey Potter's work (he caused massive unemployment of engine boys, including himself!), but the fact remains that it is late, and was not spotted by any of the large corporations who make CD and DVD writers, until recently.
Manufacturing industry needs to find a way of listening to the modern-day Humphrey Potters, not the ever so slow marketing men.
a dime more (Score:2, Interesting)
In other words, twice as much.
Copying DVD, Label and All? (Score:2, Interesting)