Thanks. I DO have an Epson R200 (actually 2 of them) and I LOVE the printable nature of the unit. But, since my experience with TDK's PrintOn DVD's, I became a bit "gun shy" in trying any other brands of printable DVD's. I just ordered (from www.rima.com) some of Taiyo Yuden's printable media, just to see how that will work.
I DO have to say, after discovering all of these forum's, you guys are extremely knowledgable on all of this!!
Thanks for all the great info!!

Anytime, and good luck with the TYs!

I did a couple of scans a wee while ago on this topic

Scans attached below are in order of:

Without label
With label
With label 18/08/06

Would have done a scan on the same machine but by BenQ 1620 has died so just did a scan on my Plextor 760. Doesn't seem to be an issue with paper labels warping discs over time.

I still using paper label (the white/yellow thingy).. from my personal experience, disc that I'be burn 2 years ago still readable..and I'm plan to move to HD-DVD/Blue-ray within the next 2 years anyway. Also my primary burner is a slim type laptop 8x one which burn at very low rpm ... within the next 2 years there is greater chance that my hard drive will fail than the chance that my disc will become unreadable anyway

Whoa. I had no idea that paper labels would cause so much trouble on a DVD-R. Good thing I have only put paper labels on 3 so far.

I would love to invest in an Epson or Canon CD/DVD printer though. I've used Microboards equipment before and thought the quality of the printed label was great.

Thanks for the info guys.

I sticky labelled all my DVDR

Eventually the DVDs could not be read.

Placed each DVD upside down in a plate of water for a few hours

Removed the labels

Surface scanned and reburnt to Printable dvdr

Man I feel like an idiot, the one time I don't check the site for something as "trivial" as a paper label.
Just finished putting the last labels on about 30 DVD-/+R's for my dad.

I will have to go against common consensus on this one (knock on wood).

I have "Neato" brand labels on several hundred DVD's, many of which are several years old, and so far I have had no Ill effects that I can tell.

I have not done quality scans or anything, but I have yet to come across one that was bad after the label was applied, I did have coasters on some before the labels were applied, but that was before I came here and learned about "Quality Media"

I have had problems where I cannot put labels on CD's for my vehicle because it makes them too thick to get sucked into the player, but on my Home CD players, they are no problem either......I guess time will tell though, maybe they won't last as long as they would have without the labels ???

If those labels are working for you, then that's good for you!

The common consensus isn't that it will *always* cause problems, but rather that it causes problems so frequently that people should beware of using paper labels.

Paper labels have often enough been proven as the cause of unreadable or problematic DVDs and the problems have gone away after removing the label (which should only be attempted for DVDs - not for CDs).

I've removed labels from problematic CDs. I soaked them in isopropyl alcohol and the labels came off easily.

any insight on HP lightscribe media???

Wow. I bought some labels to do some last minute Christmas stuff and holy crap - they suck! Every disc (only did 10, thank the maker) was completely unreadable. I'll just wait 'til my printable media gets here Tuesday. I'd rather gift late than gift crap. I'll be returning this junk to the store.

I used Matte-finish Memorex CD Label Refills. I used an empty spindle to align the labels then carefully, slowly, and firmly applied them to avoid bubbles.

It's worth mentioning that the hub-ring label works fine. Here's an 8x scan for "baseline" and a 16x scan I tried as a "stress" test, both with the center label on. Typical, acceptable scans from my drive. (Disc burned on an LG 4166@8x).

Still, these scans are sub-par for Taiyo Yuden media

I use labels extensively, but only for copies of DVD movies that are given to the kids.... If you have children, you know that original discs stand no chance against the young ones.... So now I am keeping the originals and giving them copies... I would be shocked if the DVD label causes failure before the disc gets too scratched to be readable anyways Onde it happens, I just reburn another copy and label it so it will look nice gain... until it gets too scratched to be usable. Repeat cycle as needed

I have never used labels for data, but not because they cause problems. I don't use them because I was always afraid of the heat causing the labels to bubble and ruin the drive :P

Well i am peeved. I actually joined to try to find out how to align a certain brand of paper cd labeller i have bought only to find this above - EEEEEEEEEK-
I have just labelled almost all my dvd's and bought the Fellowes NEATO press and 100 pack label paper - AND a new printer and spare colour cartidges :'''''( So even tho everyone says 'Don't do it" are ya really really sure ?? ok ok i am grasping here....lol. Well this really does suck big time.

Also [u][b]

Jesterrace
Moderatoronly an idiot would risk functionality for cosmetic reasons. If you are really that desperate for fancy labels just spend a little bit more and buy Inkjet printable discs as the results are FAR better.


Honestly if ya don't know ya just don't know but please don't expect everyone to know everything unless they are learning and discovering. Your comments are a bit harsh :/

Hi DippyMe, welcome to CDFreaks!

Yes, I can see how seeing this would upset you after labeling a lot of your DVDs.
But better late than never, wouldn't you say?!

You might be one of the lucky ones who don't experience problems with paper labels on DVDs, but if I were you I would stop using paper labels for future DVDs.

The comment made by Jesterrace was made 10 months ago, so let's not have a quarrel over this now, please!

They look sooooooooooo much better
Now i will go research the dvd printable disks subject
cos i had no idea about those either. LOL

Oh the internet ! so full of learning

thanks for the welcome

It's worth while investing in a disc printer if you plan to label a LOT of discs ....so far, I've resisted 'cos a Sharpie is good enough for my purposes

As Drage said, welcome to CDF

You want to try my new Canon Pixma iP4300?

Sure, but if I like it, you might lose it

I've had DVD reading problems right from when I started copying DVDs. My copies would only read a couple of times before I started getting read error messages. It left me puzzled: what on earth was causing this phenomenon?
I never imagined the fancy labels I used could be the cause.
Now I now from experience and I can't repeat enough: labels are bad, bad, bad! Evil! Evil!! Evil!!!
Shoo! Vade retro, Satanas.

Strip them off and it may be that the problems relieve.

But don't try the same thing with CD media because the reflective layer is only protected by a thin layer of lacquer (and for some older media, not protected at all) so it's easy to damage.

I'm assuming most of the sticky labels that are causing problems with DVD media are the full circle type.

What about paper labeling the center only with the smaller inner labels? (the kind that label just the inner 1/2 inch or so of the disc)

I usually put paper labels on DVDs (inner small circular label too) and never had problems....
In two cases unreadable DVDs (a lot of freezes during playback on my home player) became perfect after labeling !!!
Probably adding paper label increased thermal capacity and/or disc overall mass avoiding some defects of the disc media used...