MaximumPC 2005 11

PRINT DURABILITY

In a perfect world, this

wouldn’t even be an issue,

because we’d all handle our

DVDs and CDs exactly like

manufacturers tell us to—

lightly and by the edges, like

delicate petit fours. In real-

ity, however, we grab discs

with our grimy thumbs on

the label, toss them like

Frisbees wherever there’s

room, and have even seen

the cat go at them with

that sandpaper tongue.

As a result, we know that

no matter how dry the ink

may be, photo-printed

discs will smear under

pressure, and LightScribe-

labeled discs won’t. We

were a little surprised

to find that LightScribe-

etched images fade slightly

in direct sunlight, but

not at the rate of photo-

printed discs. WINNER:

LIGHTSCRIBE

And the Winner Is...

CONVENIENCE

No outrageously priced ink cartridges.

No dry-on-the-clothesline time. No hefty hardware

squatting on your desk. Guess which technology has

these advantages?

LightScribe’s burn-flip-‘n’-print process might be

time-consuming, but it’s also effortless, especially now

that most CD-mastering applications—such as Nero

and Easy Media Creator—have integrated LightScribe

support. Lo and behold, some laptops even come with

LightScribe drives for people who are unwilling to tote a

photo printer through the airport around twitchy security

guards. Of course, you still need special media for either

technology, but that’s life. WINNER: LIGHTSCRIBE

PRICE

It would have been a real treat if the poki-

ness of LightScribe was offset by a big price differential,

but surprisingly, this isn’t the case. Our survey of media

prices for photo-printer-ready CDs and LightScribe CDs

showed that LightScribe discs were, on average, three

times more expensive than photo-printer-ready discs.

You’d have to print a whole lot of labels on your photo

printer before the cost of ink cartridges caught up with

the price of LightScribe media. Still, it must be said, that’s

a small premium to pay if you’re a laptop user on the go.

WINNER: PHOTO PRINTERS

LIGHTSCRIBE DRIVE

BenQ DW1625,

$120, http://www.benq.us

SPEED

This could have been the

trickiest category of the

bunch, as print times for

both technologies are large-

ly dependent on the com-

plexity of the image and the

print quality level chosen

by the user. But alas, the

winner was obvious. At

maximum quality, Epson’s

R220 took 2:56 (min:sec) to

print a color image; BenQ’s

DW1625 took 36:14 (min:

sec) to print the same

image using LightScribe,

also at maximum quality.

Ouch. For a simple text

label, Epson’s R220 took

1:44 to print eight lines of

text; and BenQ’s DW

cut its time down to 6:

(min:sec). A LightScribe

speed increase is in the

works, but it’ll have to be a

phenomenal jump in order

to catch up to photo print-

ers. WINNER: PHOTO

PRINTER

head 2 headTWO TECHNOLOGIES ENTER, ONE TECHNOLOGY LEAVES

S

orry, no sudden plot twist or surprise ending here. Photo printers

work fast and work well, turning out beautiful, full-color discs—

something that used to require adhesive labels and a strange-looking

contraption with which to apply them. Still, we found ourselves more

impressed with LightScribe’s showing than we anticipated. It makes

good-looking grayscale discs without any additional hardware, and is

a perfect fit for those discs you want properly labeled, but not enough

to fire up your printing or illustration application. If the burn time can be

cut down and the media price slashed, we might find ourselves turning

less and less to the photo printer. Hell, we might even print LightScribe

discs to use as Christmas ornaments.

round (^2) round 3
round 4
round^5
NOVEMBER 2005 MA XIMUMPC 17
printed discs.
LIGHTSCRIBE