detail information

Designing and burning with SureThing Labeler:

Included in the retail bundle was a copy of SureThing CD/DVD Labeler LightScribe SE PLUS Edition.

We chose a Mandrake Linux 10.1 Installation Disc to test out the LightScribe feature. After we were satisfied with the setup we pressed Print Label (LightScribe).

In the print option dialog we also find a Diagnostic button and we clicked it to see what info it provided.

We closed the LightScribe Diagnostics windows and selected 'Best quality" and OK to print the label in the Print Dialog windows.

The program gave us a notice 'Please ensure that you have a LightScribe disc inserted in the drive with the label side down". (As you can see you can choose - Don't show me this message in the future." We went on with OK to print the label.

SureThing showed us an estimated remaining time of 28 minutes and 49 seconds for best quality.

For illustration I will show you the progression from Draft to Normal to Best quality.

Draft quality. Image is clear if not a bit indistinct.

Normal quality. Excellent! The label is now a lot darker and the graphic details are excellent.

Best quality. Very nice indeed!

The procedure for LightScribing to DVD+R is the same as for CD-R so I will just show the results here.

Draft quality. You can see the image is quite faint.

Normal quality. Here the image has darkened but is not as distinct as on CD-R.

Best quality. This gives the best image clarity but there is a fuzziness or blurriness that does not exist on the CD-R media.

This drives purpose for existence is to do LightScribe. In its early stages the quality is already quite good.

We hope that you have gotten some more insight in the LightScribe feature/technique now, after reading this section. And according to the LightScribe site, it looks like there will be an interesting update coming soon.

⋅        Will I need to purchase a new LightScribe DVD drive when the new media with the speed enhancement is available in the market?

LightScribe has just announced a 50% speed enhancement to be available in the next quarter. The enhancement comes from changes made to the discs themselves, and these new media will be compatible with the existing drive. So if you were to buy a drive now, you would be able to take advantage of the faster discs when they are available.

Sounds like an interesting update indeed.

Before we round off this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next page…