http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?ArticleId=13449

3 Drives, all using a Philips Nexperia chipset... even the HP, which I thought was reportedly made by Liteon (who have been using Mediatek for ages)

The facts, burning a label takes a whopping 28 minutes, to gaet a rather feeble result, improved if you go over it again.

The speculation - that it will somehow (we don't know how yet) be made to support colour.


I guess it's better than CD-Pen scrawling, safer and easier than paper labels.

BUT! - with several Epson model printers doing COLOUR CD-printing of excellent quality, and Inkjet printable media widely available at minimal price premium, it's a technology looking for a very small market.

The changes to the drive are more than just a trivial firmware update... additional hardware is needed for positional feedback.


Somehow, I don't believe we'll be seeing this as a de-facto standard in all drives - in fact, I can see it dying when the "oo! look how clever this is" market gets tired of waiting 28 minutes for a print - especially contrasting with the time it takes to actually write the CD!

I don't think this techonology will sell. The printing is taking so long and the quality in comparison with a printable disc is 100 times lower.

(in reply to Matthew)

I'll stick to my Epson R300 for now, and the quality is superb and in the colors I want, and inkjet printable CD's/DVD's are plentiful, I still have "Yet" to see any LiteScribe media anywhere in a retail store, but you can sure find the drives. If the technology was to advance to color, and the time it took was not so long, and the media was cheap and readily available, perhaps I could be interested, otherwise, not now.

(in reply to Iggy)

gadgets...won't sell, i'll second that Iggy...

(in reply to MP3Mogul)

The "pen" (Sharpie) is mightier than the "sword" (LightScribe Device)!

(in reply to fernandes)