LightScribe – Tristan Louis (TNL.net)

HP LightScribe: More info

I’ve been getting a lot of feedback regarding LightScribe, the new technology for writing labels on CDs and DVDs. First of all, a correction to the previous entry: In that entry, I said that LightScribe was a silk screening technology. Steve Loughran, who worked on the technology, points out that It has been likened silk screening, but it is definitely not: it is laser printing at v. high resolution onto discs. This is an important distinction that I missed out on. Another alert reader pointed out to me that LightScribe now has its own site. From there, one can learn more about the technology and licensing information. More details: At the current time, LightScribe will work with Windows 2000 and Windows XP but support for additional operating systems will come in the future. The new technology will not have much of an impact on prices, adding only a few pennies to the price of disc media and a few dollars to the price of a computer. LightScribe-enabled disc drives will also be available as peripherals Basic printing will take about a minute to complete but more complex images can take up to 15 minutes to print. I do believe that…

True Innovation: HP Lightscribe

January 8, 2004

Technology

Apple, Compact Disc, Computer printers, Computer storage media, consumer electronics, Digital rights management, DVD, Hewlett-Packard, HP, iPod, LightScribe, Microsoft, Real Networks, software package

HP made a big announcement today, and it was not its partnership with Apple. The real innovation was the introduction of LightScribe, a new technology to silkscreen CDs and DVDs. While the product itself would have been worthy of its own announcement, the news was buried into a general overview press release. Scheduled for shipping later this year, the new technology allows CD and DVD burner manufacturers to add a new feature that allows users to easily silkscreen disks. When you think of the potentials, this is pretty huge. I can see a couple of new areas expanding with this. First of all, manufacturers offering the technology will obviously tout it as an extra. Second, I could see a number of companies offering software package that allow you to better customize the images for your CDs. Last but not least could be the spread of professionally created images and backgrounds for such disk. LightScribe may seem like a small thing but I think it will have a much longer impact than HP’s partnership with Apple on the iPod. However, the partnership, in conjunction with Real Networks’ announcement that were supporting AAC in their new client, definitely puts Apple’s DRM in…