glad I read about this.I had no idea.I used to use labels on my cd's,& DVD's,then I quit because of the cost of the ink.I was just getting ready to put some labels on some DVD's I backed up.Now I guess I should check on some of my old CD's and see if they still work,& re burn them if they do.I had no idea,Thanks

Hi coolsystems, welcome to CDFreaks!

I hope you manage to salvage your CDs and DVDs.

how can i remove my dvd-r without damging it and having to reburn?

Hi xSkittles, welcome to CD Freaks!

Just throw away the DVD-R.
No, j/k, I think you were talking about labels.
Position the DVD-R in a jewel case or another protective surface. Carefully strip off the label from the top surface. That should work.

Never use paper labels on your media, period. Not only will you increase the risk of having a disc explosion in your drive, but you will for sure shorten the lives of your drives by using them.

Due to the fact that no person on this planet can place the label EXACTLY centered on the disc you will cause the disc to wobble, even if it is very slight. This wobble becomes more apparent to the laser as it moves to the outer edge of the disc. As the wobble becomes more apparent to the laser, the drive will then continue to recalibrate the laser as well as slow down and speed up more than it should have to.

If you compare highway miles to city miles on a car you will notice the same thing. Cars with mostly highway miles (no paper lables and good quality discs) will last significantly longer than cars with city stop and go miles ( paper labels and/or low quality media).

Save yourself the trouble. Dump the paper labels and get a Microboards Print Factory.

If I paste the label on first before I do the burning, I get verification error. This is just a lay man observation. It happened to me 2 times, both burning with paper label on.

I don't have verification errors without the label on. None so far, But 2 out of 2 with labels on. So I now put the label on after burning.

Maybe you haven't read all of this thread?

I was just curious if the effects of paper labels on discs can be noticed right away while playing or if it takes multiple times for something to occur.

The problems with my labelled CDRs became noticeable after awhile. Not right away.

BTW, welcome to CDF

This might be a stupid question but are the effects less severe while playing the DVD or CD via a computer? I doubt that they are, I was just curious.

Nope. I still had problems playing and ripping.

Would playing DVD's with paper labels have any negative effects on the DVD player long term?

That, I really don't know as I no longer put labels of any kind on my discs (and when I did use labels, DVD drives/players weren't available!)....but maybe someone has an answer for you.

There have been some reports of paper labels detaching themselves from the disc inside DVD players and jamming the drive.

Paper labels are evil.

Paper label will influence the burning quality as well as the disc itself,during the burning and reading,the disc circumvolved at fast speed,if there is a paper label on the disc,a friction will be generated,the friction will lead to bad burning and reading quality.

I have been using Surething disc labels for about two years and have not had read issues for these discs. They are well centered and, so far, all play in the DVD players I have used. I haven't scanned them as there have been no issues. I've also never had a label peel off or even start to peel off. The same goes for data discs I have received over the years for work related purposes. I guess I have been very lucky. I also never burn a disc after a label is applied. Always before.

If I were to peel the label off a disc and remnants or segments were remaining, would they still effect the play quality? And if a labeled disc is already effected can the pealing off of the label cure the problem?

I was able to save the data from some CDs after removing the cheapo paper labels... but it actually pulled off some of the recording layer on a couple discs. I think in my case the labels contracted after a few months and warped the disc.

DVDs should be a little sturdier--the recordable layer is sandwiched between plastic. Try removing the labels and see if you can read your data back to HDD. Don't leave patches of label so that the disc's unbalanced, though--that could be rough on your drive especially at higher speeds.

I was wondering the same thing, but I use those stickie notes in my cd case wallet 200, I bend the notes back to back sticky side to paper side so it dont stick, and place inside the plastic sleeve on top of the dvd, so I know what I labled it as, I don't like to write on my cds. Do they get damaged that way?. Probably going cut off the stick side, I kinda thought about this thread long time ago, cause the glue would damage it, duno if it was true or not.

So here is my results - media Fuji branded DVD+R DL from BestBuy

Firs scan WITHOUT label
Second scan - WITH!

What I can say - no comments!

I think I can detect a teeny tiny difference between the two scans?!

Did you put on the label before writing to the DVD or after ?

I put after...
I kinda understand it may be better if I apply Label first , then Write, but i dont want to do experiment and waste another DL

I've been using these labels for a few years now and have had no playback problems at all. I used the paper labels before, and had to reburn quite a few movies......I guess only time will tell the effects on these backups

I save all my dq scans , I need to find a backup scan without the label, scan it with the label on, then take the label off and scan once more. To see if the dvd is degrading or the label just interfering with the scan.

The only thing i can add is that if you put a sticker on a disc and it has to spin 10,000 rpm's look out