White paper CD labels....to be or not to be?

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Alida

White paper CD labels....to be or not to be?

Postby Alida » Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:25 pm

Hello good fellow enthusiasts. My daughter Rachel and I are going to take the plunge and try out our mutual passion, namely Pro Show and go into business together. I have been lurking and seemed to remember someone posting that white paper labels were 'bad..very bad'. I have a personal preference that the finished product looks more professional and unique with a label. Can someone please comment on this topic....and as inquiring minds want to know...if the answer is no....then why?
Thanks, Alida

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Postby briancbb » Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:19 am

Alida

DVD's spin at a high speed in a player and the off balance of a stuck on label becomes significant. It can put strain on the disc drive bearings and lead to read errors. They are also prone to becoming unattached in warm enviroments, which can become worse in a player and the disc may become stuck in the player.

Now this seems to be all doom and gloom, however I used stuck on labels for two or three years, still have discs with them, and have never had a problem.

The way to go is with 'lightscribe', just do a search on the forum and you will find many threads. Drawback here is the discs are more expensive, you may need to change your DVD writer and thay take along time to burn (maybe 25 mins).

An alternative is 'Printable Discs'. You will need a printer that is capable of printing on discs. Advantages, discs are no more expensive, can be printed in under 5 mins, are a multicolour print (lightscribe is mono). This is the way I have gone.

Brian

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Postby Brenda » Sat Jan 12, 2008 2:31 am

Alida,

Like Brian I have a printer that is capable of printing on discs with nice results. I did at one time
use labels (never again) and many cds became unplayable.

Brenda

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Postby BarbaraC » Sat Jan 12, 2008 5:53 am

I've heard good things about the vinyl labels. Anyone here have experience with them either good or bad?

Barbara

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Postby rkligman » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:11 am

Burning CD's is our business and we've been using paper labels, EXCLUSIVELY NEATO, for oh, about 10 years. We've burned 10's of thousands if more likely hundreds of thousands. Not a single one has ever reported a problem. Does that speak volumes?
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Postby BarbaraC » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:25 am

Rick, I've had CD's go bad, and I always assumed it was the labels, but I've also had unlabeled CD's go bad. Maybe that speaks additional volumes.

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Postby debngar » Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:53 am

Two years ago, when I started producing slideshows, I used paper labels, then went to the vinyl stick-on labels made especially for DVDs which were ok I suppose. But as other's have posted, they can be troublesome later.

When that printer died, I purchased an Epson R260 printer which prints directly on the printable DVDs.

I would not go back to using labels that stick on the disks, EVER.

The label image is detailed, crisp, and more professional than any stick on IMHO.

Debbie
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Burning CD's is our business

Postby bob walden » Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:06 am

Rick, are you referring to cd's and dvd's or just cd's? I have used labels on cd's without problems but have heard it is a bad idea with dvd's. I do use LightScribe and kind of like it. I bought a new burner because my Sony didn't have LS. SO now I have two burners but the new Samsung is much faster so I've been using it exclusively. I do find I need to burn LS at least twice to get a good image. I am looking into using a printer for labels though.

Bob W.

Geo

Postby Geo » Sat Jan 12, 2008 9:16 am

Recently, we've experienced the DVD's getting stuck in the slot loading player of our Saturn Outlook. Takes a little to get them out with something thin, but a major pain. We've stopped using paper labels and are probably going to print directly to printable disks.

Wonder if anyone else is having stuck disk problems with the slot loading players.

geo

Mike S.

Re: White paper CD labels....to be or not to be?

Postby Mike S. » Sat Jan 12, 2008 12:53 pm

Alida wrote:Hello good fellow enthusiasts. My daughter Rachel and I are going to take the plunge and try out our mutual passion, namely Pro Show and go into business together. I have been lurking and seemed to remember someone posting that white paper labels were 'bad..very bad'. I have a personal preference that the finished product looks more professional and unique with a label. Can someone please comment on this topic....and as inquiring minds want to know...if the answer is no....then why?
Thanks, Alida[/color]

For personal use, using stick on labels is a matter of personal choice. For business purposes whether stick on labels are good or bad is not the point. There are a percentage of folks who are against stick on labels. Why take the chance of offending them when they receive their DVD copies? The anti stick on label clients will not recommend you to their friends. I know if I were the client I would not recommend any company that used stick on labels on their DVDs. In business, referals are the key!

Suggest buying a disc printer and including the cost of printing directly on the DVDs in your charge. The additional cost per disc prorated over many copies will be too small to be a consideration. Include all of your costs in your charge for the show and let your clients pay for them. If those costs become a consideration, then you are not charging enough.

There are two basic types of disc printers. One is the inkjet type that can print on the entire surface of the disc. The other is the thermal type that prints on certain areas of the disc.

The thermal type has the advantage of being extremely fast and easy to label since only text is used, is dry instantly, is 100% water proof and it is difficult to even scrape the printing off the surface. The disadvantage is that only discs with mirror smooth label side surfaces can be used. Using this type of labeling, all of the artistic effort should be put into the case cover. This is the method I use. My printer is the Casio CW50. There is a later model that can automatically rotate the disc for easier printing.

There are some inkjet type disc printers now that I believe print discs that are water resistant though I've never tried them. I think being immune to smudging due to sweaty hands, an accidental liquid spill, or cleaning the disc later on is a must for any business disc.

EDIT: One more thing. If you get a lot of orders from a school, organization, sports team, etc. that are not quite enough to make it worthwile to have duplicated by a duplication company, then you will have to carefully place paper labels on every disk which takes extra time. Printing directly on the disc, when the disc comes out you are done.

Best of luck in your new business,
Mike S.

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Re: Burning CD's is our business

Postby rkligman » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:06 pm

bob walden wrote:Rick, are you referring to cd's and dvd's or just cd's? I have used labels on cd's without problems but have heard it is a bad idea with dvd's. I do use LightScribe and kind of like it. I bought a new burner because my Sony didn't have LS. SO now I have two burners but the new Samsung is much faster so I've been using it exclusively. I do find I need to burn LS at least twice to get a good image. I am looking into using a printer for labels though.

Bob W.


CD's mostly but I don't hesitate to put them on DVD's either. We deal in volume. Client's come to us and say we need 100 in a few hours. Lightscribe and everything else is WAY WAY too slow. We can burn, print and label a 100 in an hour or two. Lightscribe takes about 5 minutes a disk. Unacceptable for our business.
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Postby rkligman » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:07 pm

Geo wrote:Recently, we've experienced the DVD's getting stuck in the slot loading player of our Saturn Outlook. Takes a little to get them out with something thin, but a major pain. We've stopped using paper labels and are probably going to print directly to printable disks.

Wonder if anyone else is having stuck disk problems with the slot loading players.

geo


They do get tight and it is a concern if that is where your target audience is going to put them. I've had one almost stick in my car too.
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Postby rkligman » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:10 pm

In reply to Mike, that's all well and good when your making a single copy or 5 copies. There is nothing short of multi thousand dollar machines that will crank out 100's of printed disks in hours. THAT is our clientele. The people who needed it shipped to Hong Kong yesterday. So it's all relative.
Rick Insane Diego...

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Cheap Labels bend the Media

Postby VernonRobinson » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:46 pm

I would have to agree with Rick, that LightScribe is slow, expensive, and monochromatic. The stuff we do is visual. I would recommend a direct printer. If you do not use a good grade of label, like Neato, then you will have the label peeling type of problems. I just recently worked with a guy whose labels dried and shrank over time. It was causing the disks to not be flat and wobble in the player. When you placed the disk on a flat surface you could see the curvature. By damp wetting the label he was able to copy his material off the failing disks and onto better media. This time he used a direct print.

I have used Neato since 1994 and have never had a label separate. But I too purchased a direct CD printer over a year ago. I bought a lowly Epson R220. With rebates it came out to be essentially free. The speed is not bad, but it wouldn't work in a high volume operation where you would need 100 an hour. But it could easily do 20 or more in an hour and the newer ones are even faster. Hope that helps.

Regards,
-Vernon

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Postby jeanc » Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:21 pm

I also use the Epson R260 and it does a remarkable job. Prints directly on disk, sharp and clear and has been a workhorse for me. I printed 100 over a couple of days for an end of year school show last year, but if I had several of these large quantity orders due within days of each other I would have to outsource or something. The same week I did these I also had to finish 2 other shows and get them out to other customers. Didn't know if I could do it but I did. Not 100, but 2 for one and 8 for the other customer. As far as the ink goes I can seemingly print forever when the printer is telling me I am low on ink. I always keep the ink monitor on so I have an idea where I am in that regard. My customers have loved my printed DVDs and cases from this little giant. You can buy one now and it is actually like getting it "free" when you consider cost of ink.

Smiles,
Jean

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