WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.460 Do you remember this little marketing slogan? 00:00:05.220 --> 00:00:06.800 No? 00:00:06.800 --> 00:00:08.960 Well, I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:10.840 But I’m also a little sad. 00:00:10.840 --> 00:00:15.500 That was one of the taglines of LightScribe, a direct-disc labeling technology developed 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:20.120 by Hewlett Packard and first released commercially in 2004. 00:00:20.120 --> 00:00:21.120 What is it? 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:24.820 Well, it’s a really clever twist on an already common technology. 00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:30.580 LightScribe used existing optical drive technology to burn monochrome images onto the label side 00:00:30.580 --> 00:00:34.160 of optical media, either CDs or DVDs. 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:38.040 That’s right, it’s optical media time again here at Technology Connections, where 00:00:38.040 --> 00:00:40.360 our mission is to stay timely and relevant. 00:00:40.360 --> 00:00:42.560 *beeper noise* 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:43.819 Oh, excuse me I need to take this. 00:00:43.820 --> 00:00:46.320 [to non-existent assistant offscreen] Uh, can I borrow your phone? 00:00:47.140 --> 00:00:51.580 Jokes aside, I actually really, really like the idea of LightScribe, and I think it’s 00:00:51.580 --> 00:00:54.480 an absolute shame that it didn’t take off. 00:00:54.480 --> 00:00:58.440 We’ll soon see that it’s not too surprising it didn’t, but let me explain why I like 00:00:58.440 --> 00:00:59.600 it so much. 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:03.459 LightScribe is a perfect example of my favorite kind of innovation. 00:01:03.459 --> 00:01:08.430 Take a thing that currently does a thing, and make it do more things or different things! 00:01:08.430 --> 00:01:13.170 At their core, LightScribe enabled optical drives are pretty much identical to any ordinary 00:01:13.170 --> 00:01:14.960 CD or DVD burner. 00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:19.820 See, you already have a high-powered laser that’s able to write readable data on a 00:01:19.820 --> 00:01:25.270 little plastic frisbee, so why not use that same laser to burn images onto the other side 00:01:25.270 --> 00:01:26.830 of that plastic frisbee? 00:01:26.830 --> 00:01:31.420 And that’s roughly the exact question that Daryl Anderson, lead engineer of the LightScribe project, 00:01:31.420 --> 00:01:34.180 probably asked when he first thought up the product maybe. 00:01:34.580 --> 00:01:39.340 The bottom side of any writable optical disc is already a marvel of engineering, with heat-sensitive 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:43.880 dyes or even advanced polycrystalline alloys that darken when exposed to the heat created 00:01:43.880 --> 00:01:49.109 by the laser light, therefore allowing tiny little marks to be burned into the surface. 00:01:49.109 --> 00:01:52.430 These translate into the data that is actually on the disc. 00:01:52.430 --> 00:01:56.979 If we’ve made materials that will get darker when exposed to intense laser light, what’s 00:01:56.980 --> 00:02:01.880 to stop us from doing the same thing on the top side of the disc, for making an actual label? 00:02:01.880 --> 00:02:03.200 Well, not much. 00:02:03.200 --> 00:02:09.560 In fact, only a small modification was needed to turn an ordinary optical drive into a Lightscribe drive. 00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:11.800 And you can see it just here. 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:15.610 This little doo-dad allows the drive to see the rotational position of the disc. 00:02:15.610 --> 00:02:20.940 See, for writing data to a disc, its geometric position is pretty much irrelevant. 00:02:20.940 --> 00:02:25.440 Molded into the plastic of the disc is a spiral pregroove containing the ATIP, which stands 00:02:25.440 --> 00:02:27.940 for Absolute Time In Pregrrove. 00:02:27.940 --> 00:02:32.460 This not only guides the laser as it writes data to a blank disc, but it also keeps the 00:02:32.460 --> 00:02:37.680 disc spinning at the correct speed relative to the data being blasted onto it by the writing laser. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:41.280 And staying at the correct speed is all that matters, really. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:46.130 The data can be placed arbitrarily along the disc as far as its physical location goes, 00:02:46.130 --> 00:02:51.700 and so long as it reproduces the correct sequence of zeros and ones, the correct data will be read. 00:02:51.700 --> 00:02:57.520 However, to make an image using a single light source on a rotating disc, the disc’s exact 00:02:57.520 --> 00:02:59.780 position needs to be determined. 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:03.370 This little guy works with the LightScribe media to do just that. 00:03:03.370 --> 00:03:08.150 A LightScribe disc looks just like a regular disc, except the top is almost entirely devoid 00:03:08.150 --> 00:03:12.820 of writing, save for a little bit of brand and format identification in the center ring. 00:03:12.820 --> 00:03:16.860 But you’ll also see this little barcode looking thing between the spindle hole and 00:03:16.870 --> 00:03:19.000 the writable portion of the disc. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:23.880 When the disc is placed upside down in a LightScribe enabled drive, the barcode will line up with 00:03:23.880 --> 00:03:25.730 that scanner thing. 00:03:25.730 --> 00:03:30.150 Now the drive can know the disc’s absolute rotational position so it creates a proper image, 00:03:30.150 --> 00:03:33.130 and not a spirally mess. 00:03:33.130 --> 00:03:37.340 That barcode also encodes information about the label surface, which is pretty important 00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:40.820 particularly because of the difference between CDs and DVDs. 00:03:40.820 --> 00:03:43.920 Ah, let’s talk a little bit more about the disc itself. 00:03:43.920 --> 00:03:48.350 The top surface of most lightscribe discs is this light tan color. 00:03:48.350 --> 00:03:53.600 The color comes from the material used in the top coating, developed by Dr. Makarand Gore. 00:03:53.600 --> 00:03:58.000 Just like the dye coating on the underside, this coating will get darker when it is heated 00:03:58.010 --> 00:03:59.210 up by the laser. 00:03:59.210 --> 00:04:03.940 But, it differs from the dye layer down below in that it gets much, much darker, 00:04:03.940 --> 00:04:05.620 almost black. 00:04:05.620 --> 00:04:10.160 Through a simple labeling utility, you can create simple text listings, or even beautiful 00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:12.800 monochrome pictures like this one. 00:04:12.980 --> 00:04:13.480 [pregnant pause] 00:04:13.760 --> 00:04:18.100 Well now, this is beginning to highlight the problems of lightscribe, but before we get 00:04:18.100 --> 00:04:22.170 too far down that particular rabbit hole, let’s take a look at how this works. 00:04:22.170 --> 00:04:26.120 I’ve taken the cover off of this slim drive so we can see it in action. 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:29.220 I’m having it make a simple label with the word “Test”. 00:04:29.220 --> 00:04:34.210 First, you can see the scanner activating to read the barcode on the inner ring. 00:04:34.210 --> 00:04:39.240 Once I started the printing process, I was extremely surprised at how slowly the disc 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:40.840 spins when it’s being labeled. 00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:42.380 Look at this! 00:04:42.380 --> 00:04:43.380 This is nuts. 00:04:43.550 --> 00:04:46.520 Luckily, we can see the laser shining through. 00:04:46.530 --> 00:04:49.440 Notice how it flashes briefly at a higher intensity. 00:04:49.440 --> 00:04:51.720 This is it burning the letters onto the disc. 00:04:51.720 --> 00:04:55.510 What’s interesting here is that the laser is switched on at all times. 00:04:55.510 --> 00:05:00.880 I’m not sure if any LightScribe drives were made that could only burn CDs, so I’m wondering 00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:05.820 if we’re seeing the red laser diode for DVDs burn with a steady glow, and the flashing 00:05:05.820 --> 00:05:09.920 is the high intensity infrared laser diode blasting the disc with energy. 00:05:10.780 --> 00:05:13.000 ♫ low fidelity guitar music ♫ 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:29.380 Perhaps we’re only seeing one or the other, 00:05:29.380 --> 00:05:30.940 ♫ the music returns briefly ♫ 00:05:30.940 --> 00:05:35.910 but in either case, this suggests that the drive is actually looking at the surface of the disc, perhaps 00:05:35.910 --> 00:05:40.200 simply for focus, or maybe it actually checks what it’s laid down. 00:05:40.200 --> 00:05:44.600 Whatever it’s doing, I still can’t get over how slowly the disc is spinning! 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:46.660 That’s a surprise. 00:05:46.660 --> 00:05:47.890 But maybe not. 00:05:47.890 --> 00:05:49.780 I’ll explain in a bit. 00:05:49.780 --> 00:05:54.600 With the disc completed, we can now take it out and sure enough, there’s the word “Test” 00:05:54.600 --> 00:05:56.880 just like we expected. 00:05:58.380 --> 00:06:01.250 But there’s more weirdness in the LightScribe universe. 00:06:01.250 --> 00:06:04.360 Like the stark difference between CDs and DVDs. 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:09.890 I’ve created a basic label and I’ve burned the same thing onto a CD-R and a DVD-R. You 00:06:09.890 --> 00:06:14.000 might notice that they look mostly similar, but the DVD label is almost... 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:15.670 blurry looking. 00:06:15.670 --> 00:06:20.810 This is an odd quirk in the Lightscribe universe, as DVDs and CDs were made very differently. 00:06:20.810 --> 00:06:23.910 Well, OK, all DVDs and CDs are made differently. 00:06:23.910 --> 00:06:28.590 In a CD, the data layer is actually barely below the label side of the disc. 00:06:28.590 --> 00:06:33.050 The laser in a CD player is shining through almost the entire thickness of the disc before 00:06:33.050 --> 00:06:35.330 the reflective surface bounces it back. 00:06:35.330 --> 00:06:38.880 But in a DVD, the data layer is actually in the middle of the disc. 00:06:38.880 --> 00:06:43.889 You can see this even with standard DVD movies--the disc has a seam down the middle, as it’s 00:06:43.889 --> 00:06:45.170 made in two halves. 00:06:45.170 --> 00:06:49.650 CD’s don’t have this seam, as they are a single sheet of polycarbonate. 00:06:49.650 --> 00:06:53.760 Now for some reason, in LightScribe DVDs, the label coating isn’t simply placed on 00:06:53.760 --> 00:06:55.160 the top of the disc. 00:06:55.160 --> 00:06:59.940 Instead, it’s sandwiched between a top clear layer and the data layer beneath it. 00:06:59.940 --> 00:07:04.751 And this is why a LightScribe drive needs to know if this is a DVD or a CD--the drive 00:07:04.751 --> 00:07:08.980 will focus at different depths depending on which type of media is used. 00:07:08.980 --> 00:07:13.360 This always struck me as kinda odd, as what’s to stop them from putting the same CD-style 00:07:13.360 --> 00:07:17.760 label coating on the actual top of a standard DVD-R? 00:07:17.760 --> 00:07:21.340 Putting it in the middle like this meant that all LightScribe DVD labels looked a little 00:07:21.340 --> 00:07:26.500 soft compared to those of CDs, however it does appear to increase contrast slightly 00:07:26.500 --> 00:07:31.560 between light and dark, but that could simply be down to the particular discs I’ve got here. 00:07:31.620 --> 00:07:33.840 That said, there was an advantage to this. 00:07:33.850 --> 00:07:38.960 Firstly, the label surface is more protected in a LightScribe DVD because it’s not exposed. 00:07:38.960 --> 00:07:43.140 And secondly, a fairly common occurrence with LightScribe media is for a white powder to 00:07:43.140 --> 00:07:46.320 form on top of the black portions of the label. 00:07:46.320 --> 00:07:50.260 This was simply a side-effect of the burning process and it was purported to be a harmless 00:07:50.260 --> 00:07:54.870 crystallization of the label layer, however it would get on your fingers if you touched 00:07:54.870 --> 00:07:58.419 it and wasn’t really pleasant looking on the disc. 00:07:58.419 --> 00:08:02.290 With a DVD, that happened much less frequently due to the protected and sealed nature of 00:08:02.290 --> 00:08:06.790 the label, and even if it did, at least the powder wouldn’t get all over your fingers. 00:08:06.790 --> 00:08:09.940 So, how do you actually create a LightScribe label? 00:08:09.940 --> 00:08:14.151 Well first, you need to make sure that you have both LightScribe media and a LightScribe 00:08:14.151 --> 00:08:18.470 enabled optical drive, plus the necessary LightScribe system utilities and some sort 00:08:18.470 --> 00:08:22.620 of program for creating labels like this Nero Smart Essentials thing. 00:08:22.620 --> 00:08:24.229 You know, easy. 00:08:24.229 --> 00:08:27.410 But assuming you have all of that ready to go, it’s pretty simple. 00:08:27.410 --> 00:08:32.860 The Nero software is about as user-friendly as can be for 2004-ish, and it does something 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:37.500 that at first seems really really weird, but you will quickly learn is totally understandable. 00:08:37.500 --> 00:08:42.160 I’ll add a text box and as soon as I do so, that box becomes a… 00:08:42.160 --> 00:08:43.120 crescent? 00:08:43.620 --> 00:08:44.860 Erm, OK. 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:48.280 Well, from here, I have a pretty good degree of customization. 00:08:48.290 --> 00:08:53.110 I can choose my typeface, its font size, bold and italics, its justification and all that, 00:08:53.110 --> 00:08:55.410 just like a basic word processor. 00:08:55.410 --> 00:08:59.459 And then I hit OK, and it gets wrapped around that crescent thing. 00:08:59.459 --> 00:09:04.000 Well, I can turn that off by unselecting the “Bend” checkbox, and now things look a 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:05.360 little more normal. 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:10.100 Let’s just do some quick customization here, maybe add a little something extra, and now 00:09:10.100 --> 00:09:14.680 I think that’s a delightful design, worthy of a LightScribe label. 00:09:14.680 --> 00:09:19.640 So now, I’ll grab my CD which already has my Awesome Mix 2006 on it, and I’ll pop 00:09:19.640 --> 00:09:21.889 it upside-down into the drive. 00:09:21.889 --> 00:09:23.439 I can now burn the label. 00:09:23.439 --> 00:09:27.920 So, I hit the little button, and now I can select between “Draft, Normal, and Best”. 00:09:27.920 --> 00:09:32.990 I can even get a preview of what this will look like on the finished disc, a handy little feature. 00:09:32.990 --> 00:09:37.309 Of course, I don’t settle for less than the best, so I’ll hit Best, and now here’s 00:09:37.309 --> 00:09:40.759 where LightScribe’s weaknesses really come into play. 00:09:40.760 --> 00:09:43.240 It tells me this will take about 15 minutes. 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:45.500 Well, that’s a lie right there. 00:09:45.510 --> 00:09:49.060 This is gonna take more like 23 to 25 minutes. 00:09:49.060 --> 00:09:51.850 Yeah, LightScribe is anything but fast. 00:09:51.850 --> 00:09:53.350 But that’s not unexpected. 00:09:53.350 --> 00:09:57.810 Remember one of its design goals was to avoid reinventing the wheel and use existing optical 00:09:57.810 --> 00:09:59.430 drive technology. 00:09:59.430 --> 00:10:00.819 And for the most part it did. 00:10:00.819 --> 00:10:04.060 But, let’s think for a moment how limiting that was. 00:10:04.060 --> 00:10:09.290 The laser in a CD burner is normally focusing its power onto a microscopic spot, so all 00:10:09.290 --> 00:10:14.640 of its power becomes concentrated and realistically the laser doesn’t need to be all that powerful. 00:10:14.640 --> 00:10:19.220 But if we’re trying to draw with it, we don’t want it to be focused onto a microscopic 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:21.370 point that we can’t see. 00:10:21.370 --> 00:10:25.920 When burning a label, a LightScribe drive actually defocuses the laser so that the point 00:10:25.920 --> 00:10:29.249 it’s burning is larger (and actually visible). 00:10:29.249 --> 00:10:31.880 But that means that the disc has to travel more slowly, 00:10:31.880 --> 00:10:35.660 as we now know, WAY MORE SLOWLY, 00:10:35.660 --> 00:10:40.180 because with a less concentrated spot, the energy is more spread out, and the laser can’t 00:10:40.180 --> 00:10:42.279 heat the label as quickly. 00:10:42.279 --> 00:10:43.279 Bummer. 00:10:43.279 --> 00:10:47.920 And, because the drives were only lightly modified from standard optical drives, the 00:10:47.920 --> 00:10:50.680 discs could only spin in one direction. 00:10:50.680 --> 00:10:54.949 That might not seem like a limitation, but that’s precisely why the label-making program 00:10:54.949 --> 00:10:57.400 would bend the text by default. 00:10:57.400 --> 00:11:02.320 See, the time it takes to burn a label is directly dependent on the range from the inside 00:11:02.340 --> 00:11:06.040 boundary to the outside circumference that is being used. 00:11:06.040 --> 00:11:09.500 And by being used, I mean AT ALL. 00:11:09.500 --> 00:11:15.040 Even if just a thin line is drawn from here to here, the label will take 25 minutes to create. 00:11:15.040 --> 00:11:19.300 This is because it can’t just rock the disc back and forth to make that line. 00:11:19.300 --> 00:11:23.589 It burns the label just like it burns data, so it has to follow a spiral starting from 00:11:23.589 --> 00:11:27.940 the inside boundary and going all the way to the outside edge. 00:11:27.940 --> 00:11:30.060 Remember that Test label? 00:11:30.070 --> 00:11:34.769 It spent the majority of the time with the laser off, and because it can’t just skip 00:11:34.769 --> 00:11:40.189 the blank parts of the label, it takes a long time to write just a single word. 00:11:40.189 --> 00:11:44.069 But the drive CAN skip blank sections along the disc’s radius. 00:11:44.069 --> 00:11:49.649 So, if you bend the text into a ring, then only this region is actually being used. 00:11:49.649 --> 00:11:53.750 So the drive can skip all this, burn from here to here, and then it’s done. 00:11:53.750 --> 00:11:56.100 And here’s how that comes into play. 00:11:56.100 --> 00:12:00.319 This disc here, even though it’s just a small amount of text, took about 25 minutes 00:12:00.319 --> 00:12:01.420 to make. 00:12:01.420 --> 00:12:06.960 The text gets very close to the inside edge, and continues almost all the way to the outside edge. 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:12.200 So even though none of this space is being used, the laser still had to travel over all of it. 00:12:12.200 --> 00:12:16.500 But this disc, with much more written information, only took about 10 minutes. 00:12:16.509 --> 00:12:20.910 All of the text is contained between these two boundaries, so the inside portion could 00:12:20.910 --> 00:12:24.399 be skipped, and the drive didn’t need to burn anything past here. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:30.329 So, to save time, the program is always going to encourage you to bend the text like this, 00:12:30.329 --> 00:12:33.399 as these labels can me made in as little as 5 minutes. 00:12:33.399 --> 00:12:37.100 If you’re OK with 12 point font, this can get down to 2. 00:12:37.100 --> 00:12:41.399 With that limitation, though, how attractive is the system, really? 00:12:41.400 --> 00:12:45.260 Sure, this is more legible than a sharpie, but if you want to make … 00:12:45.260 --> 00:12:47.380 professional looking labels like this, 00:12:47.380 --> 00:12:51.760 you’ll be spending at least 15 minutes each go, and probably more. 00:12:51.760 --> 00:12:55.420 You could save some time by selecting either the “draft” or “normal” settings, 00:12:55.420 --> 00:13:00.760 but those sacrifice burn intensity and/or resolution and will produce a lighter image. 00:13:00.760 --> 00:13:04.160 And the lengthiness of the burn process isn’t the only weakness. 00:13:04.160 --> 00:13:07.910 You may have noticed how low-contrast this atrocity was. 00:13:07.910 --> 00:13:10.600 Ignoring the fact that it’s a monochrome image 00:13:10.600 --> 00:13:12.520 (c’mon, we’re not making miracles here) 00:13:12.520 --> 00:13:17.260 this is a rather low-contrast affair even when burned on the “best” setting. 00:13:17.260 --> 00:13:23.380 LightScribe looks pretty good with black text, but introduce images and things get less optimal. 00:13:23.389 --> 00:13:27.649 In order to look their best on a LightScribe label, the image should be adjusted to have 00:13:27.649 --> 00:13:32.260 borderline extreme contrast, an adjustment that is unfortunately omitted 00:13:32.260 --> 00:13:34.220 from this labeling utility. 00:13:34.220 --> 00:13:37.079 And the image quality concerns don’t stop there. 00:13:37.079 --> 00:13:41.089 Look a little more closely at these labels and you’ll see that the text isn’t entirely 00:13:41.089 --> 00:13:42.730 aligned right. 00:13:42.730 --> 00:13:46.040 There is a slight shifting going on at many points. 00:13:46.040 --> 00:13:50.589 Some of this is likely down to my particular LightScribe drive, but the format was prone 00:13:50.589 --> 00:13:52.629 to this happening from time to time. 00:13:52.629 --> 00:13:56.300 I’ve even had a few discs come out as a complete mess, 00:13:56.300 --> 00:13:58.760 likely due to a dirty barcode ring. 00:13:58.760 --> 00:14:02.399 This is real, by the way, this is supposed to have words on it. 00:14:02.399 --> 00:14:06.140 And here’s one image abnormality that’s appeared on every single LightScribe disc 00:14:06.140 --> 00:14:07.689 I’ve ever made. 00:14:07.689 --> 00:14:13.200 You can see the actual spiral pattern of the laser’s travel in solidly dark portions. 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:17.220 Of course, I think that’s pretty neat but let’s be honest, it’s a flaw. 00:14:17.230 --> 00:14:20.500 You’re probably thinking of another flaw to LightScribe that kept it from reaching 00:14:20.500 --> 00:14:23.060 mass popularity: Cost. 00:14:23.060 --> 00:14:26.279 LightScribe drivers were probably stupid expensive, and the discs? 00:14:26.280 --> 00:14:27.980 Pfft, waste of money. 00:14:27.980 --> 00:14:29.380 Actually, no. 00:14:29.740 --> 00:14:33.459 The drives themselves were barely any more expensive than standard drives. 00:14:33.459 --> 00:14:37.450 Even in the early days, there were plenty of LightScribe enabled drives that actually 00:14:37.450 --> 00:14:41.610 cost less than standard drives from some competing manufacturers. 00:14:41.610 --> 00:14:46.660 Remember, there’s not much different about a LightScribe drive, and HP was happy to license 00:14:46.660 --> 00:14:48.399 it to many manufacturers. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:54.410 By 2005, 6 different drive manufacturers had signed on to make LightScribe drives. 00:14:54.410 --> 00:14:57.840 And the media was a bit more expensive than standard blank media, 00:14:57.840 --> 00:15:00.300 but honestly not by much. 00:15:00.300 --> 00:15:04.939 Assuming you were sticking to mainstream brands and not bargain basement specials, an equivalent 00:15:04.940 --> 00:15:11.640 LightScribe disc from the same manufacturer was only about 20 to maybe 50% more expensive. 00:15:11.640 --> 00:15:16.540 It’s hard to make a comparison now because LightScribe is pretty much dead, but I recall 00:15:16.540 --> 00:15:23.520 that a spindle of 50 LightScribe DVDs was about $30, and CDs were between $22 and $25. 00:15:23.520 --> 00:15:27.860 Honestly that seemed very reasonable to me, especially because there’s an added cost 00:15:27.860 --> 00:15:31.569 to either paper labels or inkjet-printable CDs. 00:15:31.569 --> 00:15:33.139 Oh, paper labels. 00:15:33.139 --> 00:15:34.139 Ugh. 00:15:34.139 --> 00:15:35.529 How I hated paper labels. 00:15:35.529 --> 00:15:40.269 That was the single greatest advantage of LightScribe in my eyes, as they worked great 00:15:40.269 --> 00:15:41.639 in cars. 00:15:41.639 --> 00:15:46.980 A CD with a paper label never behaves too nicely with the slot loading players in cars 00:15:46.980 --> 00:15:50.360 or many Apple products back when they included optical drives 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:51.720 and headphone jacks. 00:15:51.720 --> 00:15:56.279 LightScribe discs just looked great without any compatibility issues, and everyone who 00:15:56.279 --> 00:15:59.420 I ever gave one to was impressed with them. 00:15:59.420 --> 00:16:03.959 So really, it’s just a little sad that no one cared to use them more. 00:16:03.959 --> 00:16:05.149 But, I understand. 00:16:05.149 --> 00:16:10.429 A sharpie and a cheap CD is pretty sufficient, particularly since so many burned discs were 00:16:10.429 --> 00:16:12.989 just throwaway affairs to begin with. 00:16:12.989 --> 00:16:15.949 And there were still more problems with LightScribe. 00:16:15.949 --> 00:16:20.879 The label surface is pretty susceptible to wear (in CDs anyway), and it can fade quickly 00:16:20.879 --> 00:16:26.129 if left in direct sunlight or exposed to extreme heat, and over a period of years the label 00:16:26.129 --> 00:16:28.829 will fade regardless unless cared for. 00:16:28.829 --> 00:16:31.790 They can last a long time if cared for, though. 00:16:31.790 --> 00:16:36.560 These backup discs for my netbook (that’s right, netbook, remember those?) are around 00:16:36.560 --> 00:16:39.720 7 or 8 years old now and the labels look fine. 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:43.989 Granted, these are DVDs with the inherent protection of the top surface layer. 00:16:43.989 --> 00:16:45.780 Where is LightScribe today? 00:16:45.780 --> 00:16:47.540 Officially deceased. 00:16:47.540 --> 00:16:49.500 You knew it was coming, didn’t you? 00:16:49.500 --> 00:16:54.660 HP officially ended LightScribe support in 2013 by removing its website and even going 00:16:54.660 --> 00:17:00.260 so far as to say “you can find the software you need somewhere else, not here.” 00:17:00.260 --> 00:17:04.940 And while you can still get LightScribe drives and media, it’s pretty much new old stock 00:17:04.949 --> 00:17:06.419 only at this point. 00:17:06.419 --> 00:17:11.970 Today, you can find the LightScribe utilities you may need at lightscribesoftware.org, a 00:17:11.970 --> 00:17:16.000 website run by Steve Nelson who is really going out of his way to keep LightScribe support 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:17.000 going. 00:17:17.000 --> 00:17:20.880 And indeed, I owe him thanks, as I needed to download the system utility to make the 00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:22.439 discs for this video. 00:17:22.439 --> 00:17:27.539 But before it died, LightScribe was improved by offering discs in other colors, but that 00:17:27.539 --> 00:17:30.350 was about all the innovation it ever received. 00:17:30.350 --> 00:17:35.320 If they could have gotten a full label done in 5 minutes, I think it would have fared better. 00:17:35.320 --> 00:17:40.640 But then again, that would probably require a much stronger laser than what’s in a garden 00:17:40.649 --> 00:17:47.289 variety optical drive, making the drive much more expensive, and further limiting appeal. 00:17:47.289 --> 00:17:50.080 Oh well, it was neat while it lasted. 00:17:50.080 --> 00:17:54.000 Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed this look into what I honestly feel like is perhaps 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:57.980 the most underappreciated development in optical disc history. 00:17:57.980 --> 00:18:01.500 I don’t know what could have been done to make LightScribe a little more popular because 00:18:01.500 --> 00:18:07.179 let’s face it, how often did you even want to make a nice label for your angsty mixes? 00:18:07.179 --> 00:18:11.950 And if you needed to make discs professionally, it’s just far too slow and by that point 00:18:11.950 --> 00:18:16.299 you would be wiser to invest in some sort of screen printing setup or even just having 00:18:16.299 --> 00:18:18.990 ordering discs to be commercially pressed. 00:18:18.990 --> 00:18:23.299 It was always going to be a niche product, even though it was pretty neat. 00:18:23.299 --> 00:18:27.370 As always, thank you to everyone who supports the channel on Patreon, especially the fine 00:18:27.370 --> 00:18:29.710 folks that are scrolling up your screen. 00:18:29.710 --> 00:18:35.130 A lot of channels here on YouTube need to rely on outside sponsorships to stay possible. 00:18:35.130 --> 00:18:39.380 But thanks to the amazing support of people like you, this channel doesn’t. 00:18:39.380 --> 00:18:43.220 If you’d like to become one of these awesome people and help support the channel, and get 00:18:43.220 --> 00:18:47.970 behind-the-scenes access, sneak peaks, and other perks, please check out my Patreon page. 00:18:47.970 --> 00:18:50.680 Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll see you next time. 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:53.000 And now, the outtro music. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:57.160 ♫ suspiciously smooth jazz ♫ 00:18:59.820 --> 00:19:04.580 A bonus fact about LightScribe: Because of that barcode thing, the disc actually has 00:19:04.580 --> 00:19:06.769 a natural orientation. 00:19:06.769 --> 00:19:11.320 This means you can add something to an already labeled disc simply by burning something onto 00:19:11.320 --> 00:19:12.909 it in the unused area. 00:19:12.909 --> 00:19:18.690 So, my Awesome Mix 2006 can be amended with a warning for non-awesome people. 00:19:18.690 --> 00:19:23.450 Also, this allowed you to burn the same label again, which would make it a little darker, 00:19:23.450 --> 00:19:28.710 but with repeated burns slight alignment errors would compound and make the image increasingly 00:19:28.710 --> 00:19:29.500 blurry. 00:19:29.500 --> 00:19:34.560 LightScribe was not the first direct-disc labeling product, nor would it be the last. 00:19:34.560 --> 00:19:40.900 In 2002, Yamaha had developed the disturbingly named DiscT@2 (pronounced “Disc Tattoo”) 00:19:40.980 --> 00:19:42.020 --uh that’s terrible-- 00:19:42.020 --> 00:19:45.200 which could etch a sorta-label on the bottom side of a CD or 00:19:45.210 --> 00:19:48.190 DVD in the unused data portion. 00:19:48.190 --> 00:19:53.090 Um, lots of problems there, you can’t use it unless the disc isn’t anywhere near full, 00:19:53.090 --> 00:19:58.950 the “label” is on the bottom side so not really a label, and also these weren’t radically 00:19:58.950 --> 00:20:02.509 easy-to-see because the dye layer isn’t meant for that. 00:20:02.509 --> 00:20:06.880 Nevertheless, it was briefly a thing, but had very little support. 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:11.160 NEC would later use Yamaha’s patent on DiscT@2 00:20:11.160 --> 00:20:13.100 (seriously, that’s an awful name) 00:20:13.100 --> 00:20:17.440 to create LabelFlash, which was a direct competitor to LightScribe. 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:22.580 This came out in 2006, with the discs having a bright blue label on top. 00:20:22.580 --> 00:20:27.740 It fared even worse than LightScribe, probably because it was a later format with less manufacturer 00:20:27.740 --> 00:20:32.730 support, the discs were way more expensive than LightScribe media (like 2 or 3 times 00:20:32.730 --> 00:20:36.870 more expensive) and it also was limited to DVDs only. 00:20:36.870 --> 00:20:39.919 And I’ll leave you with something that I can’t demonstrate unless smell-o-vision 00:20:39.920 --> 00:20:41.260 takes off. 00:20:41.260 --> 00:20:44.380 LightScribe media has a very distinctive odor. 00:20:44.380 --> 00:20:49.560 Crack open a fresh spindle of LightScribe discs and you’ll be greeted with a not-unpleasant 00:20:49.570 --> 00:20:53.590 but certainly unnatural mild chemical smell. 00:20:53.590 --> 00:20:57.500 The best way to describe it is, I think, musty crayons. 00:20:58.580 --> 00:21:03.380 Yeah, it’s a little musty but also plasticy and like hot wax. 00:21:03.389 --> 00:21:04.889 Musty crayons. 00:21:04.889 --> 00:21:09.760 I actually kinda like it, but I have a feeling it’s not exactly healthy.