Posted by Richard Crowley on 01/25/08 19:04

"nobody special" wrote ...
> Stick-on labels on DVD's will only end in tears. They unbalance the
> disk and make it wobble, causeing noise, wear, and misreads, then
> inevitably come loose and jam the unit or destroy it while spinning.
> And they will blame YOU, quite rightly.

Absolutely. Stick-on labels are to be avoided on DVD discs.
They are also not a very good soluton on CDR discs, either,
but for a different reason. The CDs don't turn at anywhere near
the RPMs of DVDs, but CDs have only a very thin (and vulnerable)
layer between the top ("label") side and the dye and reflective
layers are. Any kind of warping, bubbling, hardening, etc. of
the label and/or adhesive will quite possibly affect the data layer.

> For a better yet cheap solution, check out a small thermal labeler at
> the office supply store, either Brother, Casio, or Dymo makes it, I
> believe. Small little unit, you slide the CD or DVD thru a slot like
> you do with a credit card, and the printer melts a thermal ink label
> onto t he disk, dry and ready the instant it comes out the other side.
> Limited to text, but faster and miles ahead of using a Sharpie or
> stick-on labels. Not too expensive as I recall.

I have one of the Casio models and it works OK on mirror-finish
surfaces, but is unacceptable on most inkjet-printable surfaces.

You could, however, get pre-printed (silk-screened) discs on shiny
surface stock with a blank spot for the date and title (etc.) Seems
like quite a good compromise between having a nice-looking product,
and something that is customizable (date and title) and quick and
easy to produce copies of.

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