Lightscribe Good Business Idea?

[jacktheripper]

Hey guys, first post but certainly been reading truckloads of posts before making this one.

I've as of late become a cd-geek of sorts on the start of a new biz idea. Its mainly restoration of old media to new media and without much research (yes mistake) I jumped on Lighscribe as the main feature for my disc options for the customers. Since I want their stuff to sound and look for for a while...I want to make sure I'm taking the right road.

Now I've looked into the data of the MBI discs that are made (since all Lightscribe discs are MBI made if I'm not mistaken) they sit at a 16-20 max on C1 with 0 C2's and an average of .28 C1's. Which I don't think is all that bad and I understand that the PlethCyanine (ya..bad spelling) is a longer lifer then plain ol' cyanine. I dont have any LS/DVD's to test for their PI/PO's but the C1/C2's looked fairly well...certainly not TY but decent.

Now the big thing here is...did I take a detour and should I have moved with Inkjet/TY's over LS/MBI? I love the look of LS and its got such a 'professional' feel every time you print one off as opposed to alot of Inkjet printed stuff you see advertised with is not exactly well done. I suppose I could change that and make all inkjet pro-look but

On the topic, I'm thinking that Maxell BQ is the best archive option trumping way over MAM-A/E gold and Verbatim Ultralife.

Thoughts?

[Ian]

Those are good questions. While you're seeing good results with the MBI-manufactured LS media, I'd worry more about readability over time. As many people are finding, discs burned even 1 or 2 years ago aren't readable any more. I haven't seen any longevity tests with Lightscribe media, so I really don't know if you'll run into any issues.

Have you looked into inkjet printable media? Theylook better than LS and you can get printable media from TY, Verbatim and others.

[jacktheripper]

well that was my biggest worry after getting deep into this cd-geekdom (its great ).

But ya, definitely the longetivity. The LS media is pretty much the same media that other MBI stuff has except it has a different top layer that you can pretty up very well.

I have looked at Inkjet media...so really I'm going to shift over to some long-life stuff since I made this mistake. I suppose I can just keep the LS stuff I bought for personal and avoid unhappy customers .

Any suggestions as to what you've found for Longest life?

I know that TY has the best "error rates" and on and on and on...CD Freaks seems to be extremely heavy in TY ratings so I wonder if there isn't bias without many of the supporters knowing the science and going only on C1's and PI's. I'd like the longest lifers mainly without going into expensive regions.

So far by the looks of it, Verbatim has the best stats other then TY but really I get lost in the life expentancy area since there is very hot debate and not alot of research (as far as the cd-freaks forum went). I actually came here because I tripped on a few posts by yourself and Dolphin and I was won to come over here to talk.

[Ian]

I used to use a lot of Verbatim DataLifePlus media, but since they did away with that, I use TY for anything important. They give great results right off the bat and I have a lot of discs that I burned 7-8 years ago that are still readable.

I haven't seen any recent research dealing with the longevity of CD-R discs. Anyone else?

[jacktheripper]

for both CD-R's and DVD-R's

I say -R for the DVD's because from my understanding...its the most compatible, if not by at maximum 10% more compatibility...but hey, if anyone knows different, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks for that Ian...if at least you have personal experience at 7-8 years...thats a good sign.

[CowboySlim]

Any suggestions as to what you've found for Longest life?

Not only is my answer somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it is also quite likely the correct answer.

80 card column (IBM) punched cards!

Unfortunately, as a media nowadays, I expect it to be a tough sell.

[dolphinius_rex]

Personally, I recommend Verbatim DatalifePlus CD-Rs and Verbatim DVD-Rs. I used to only recommend TY CD-Rs, but lately I've seen their manufacturing quality go down quite a bit. I've had a lot more problems with then on our duplicator towers at work, where other CD-Rs are fine (other GOOD CD-Rs I mean).

For DVD-Rs, Verbs are at least on the same level as TY in my opinion.... and I'm not convinced that TY's bonding is good enough on average to ensure consistant disc longevity.

[jacktheripper]

thanks alot guys! Placed many many hour of reading into the "it was worth it" bin.

[jacktheripper]

Add one question here...Dolphin,

Is there a specific MID code or country of origin for the Verbatims that you would would advise against, lean towards, etc....since Verb's are very spread out in terms of what country they come from.

[dolphinius_rex]

Add one question here...Dolphin,

Is there a specific MID code or country of origin for the Verbatims that you would would advise against, lean towards, etc....since Verb's are very spread out in terms of what country they come from.

I tend to like the ones made by CMC personally. For CD-Rs, all DatalifePlus CD-Rs will have a MCC/Verbatim ATIP. for DVD-Rs, all Verbatim DVD-Rs will have an MCC/Verbatim MID code (except when they're pastel/TY Verbatim's, but that's not available in North America).

[jacktheripper]

I'll keep the thread running with another question...

for duplication...I see a few business's don't share our views on Verbs and TY's, they seem to use Riteks and Prodisc, their putting out as much as 10,000 discs a run....

I just wanted to be sure that I'm thinking right that Verbs and TY's are absolutely duplication grade media. I mean, I can't see why they wouldn't be with their outstanding quality level...(including an incredible scan I did on my recent batch of Verbs x16 -R with PO's at less then 4) and how duplication of mass amounts would change with the quality type of media (like how would prodisc be magically better with mass quanities over small quanities).

More or less...I'm just clearing doubt-webs in the head about duplication levels that you still use the same great stuff as TY and Verb.

[Ian]

for duplication...I see a few business's don't share our views on Verbs and TY's, they seem to use Riteks and Prodisc, their putting out as much as 10,000 discs a run....

I think much of this comes down to one thing: profit. Ritek and Prodisc is cheaper than TY and Verbatim so for the customer that doesn't know any better, they can make a few extra bucks.

Keep in mind that Prodisc and Ritek aren't bad for all things. If a customer wanted to a few copies of a holiday CD, it probably wouldn't matter. The data isn't really that important and most people would probably just toss them out once the holidays were over.

[dolphinius_rex]

Prodisc and Ritek are ok for short term use... think like 2 years. Although Ritek DVDRs have been known to die even as quickly as a couple of months in really bad situations.

Anyone who duplicates on Prodisc or Ritek would not (in MY opinion) be running on a professional level, even if they do a lot of business. I might however be biased, as I work for a company that does large amounts of duplication that uses Verbatim and TY media exclusively (moving more to Verbatim these days).

[jacktheripper]

Ah...sounds about right.

Thanks guys.