CD Freaks takes a look at Philips DVDR16LSK/00 LightScribe

One of the first things that came to mind is what would happen if we finished writing our data, then we decided to label the disc with LightScribe, but we were in a hurry and didn’t turn the disc over. Obviously the laser has to have access to the special light sensitive coating in order to create the graphic, we know that, but what would it do to the data side? Inquiring minds want to know. So for the third time, our LS disc would feel the investigative probing of a red laser.

Hmmm, looks like the engineers anticipated for the all to common “human error” factor that they must provide code for. Not only did they tell the user to grab a LS disc, they figured that the user doesn’t realize that they need to turn the disc the right way and gave us some guidance in the error message.

Seán, being involved in the IT trade, wondered how many people would be calling tech support with problems resulting from the misguided attempt at placing an Inkjet printable disc in the drive. After all, to the casual user like the person in the next cubicle, or to a five year old, what’s the difference? Before we could even ponder such a likely event, Jan was in the testing lab in Germany, watching the Philips drive tray silently gliding closed with an unsuspecting Inkjet disc in tow.

Drat! I mean good, nothing happened and the disc is not damaged. We can forget about submitting any “bugs” with the mishandling of media. At this point, Jan surmised by looking closely at the disc that if we inspect the index area of the media, there are some barcode like markings, similar to what we see in the supermarket. Possibly, before the laser can be used for a label this is checked.

After using the Philips drive today and along with it the Nero LS capable software, we have to say this is very nice technology. We can see that such a process that is integral to the drive gives us new functionality for an already awesome tech, optical drive storage. It actually takes it full circle and makes the process a self contained data storage system! In addition, it looks like we could really have some fun using this setup to decorate our discs with a very professional end result.

The only thing that even the engineers have not tackled yet, is that since this media uses a coating that’s light sensitive, it’s not a good idea to leave your disc exposed to direct sunlight. Over time, the labeling will fade under these conditions, but of course who would ever do such a thing? We hope you enjoyed this mini review of LightScribe and if you wish to comment on it, or have any questions for Jan, please feel free to ask them here.