[ale] had to share this one.. (DVD labelling)

[aaron]

On Monday 03 July 2006 10:09, Geoffrey wrote:
> Had a client who recently complained that their dvd burner quit working. 
>   After researching this and verifying that it worked fine for me. I 
> asked them to bring me one of the DVD's they had burned in order to see 
> if maybe it was an issue of bad media.
> 
> They presented the dvd to me and let me know how proud they were of the 
> labels they had started printing and placing on their DVDs.
> 
> You've probably guess it, they put the label on the wrong side of the 
> dvd.  Actually, on the wrong side of 11 dvds...

FYI, it's possible for your clients to pretty easily ruin their DVD's with 
stick on labels even when they put them on the correct side. Spindle speed is 
pretty critical with standard CLV  (-R) DVD's and slight imbalances 
introduced by offset labels or even the added label weight can make disks 
unusable for some players. Also, if you try to pull up or adjust a 
mis-applied label or push out trapped air bubbles, you can end up pulling off 
or distorting the die backing.

I do a fair amount of DVD production and duplication and have sworn off using 
stick-on labels even though I've gotten quite adept at applying them 
properly. The most reliable, usable and affordable DVD labeling option I've 
found is the Epson  R200 / R220 and R320 printers. These will print directly 
onto inkjet DVD's and the R200 / R220 can be purchased for less than $100. 
I've used 3 of them to print hundreds of DVD's, and while they do have their 
quirks, the price makes up for the extra attention they may require to make 
the DVD caddy work.

I also don't know if these Epson photo inkjets with DVD capability play well 
with Linux; all the ones I use are connected to Mac OSeX machines.

peace
aaron