CD/DVD Labeling Brand & Type

[Mixmachine]

I’ve been using the Avery brand for years, but apparently something is happening to my 2 or 3 year old stock, lately a few of this labels from the same batch have been jamming players, the label bubbles up or peels off keeping the player from ejecting the CD, other times I hear music ‘drop outs’ or noises as the ‘bubble’ drags against the internal CD transport mechanism, the solution for this last issue is to apply pressure and flatten the label again, but if it jams later is a PITA to remove.

I was going to buy a new batch of white labels today but I’m wondering if any other brands are better at handling this issue, I suspect the problem lies with excessive ‘car heat’ and most likely the label’s glue some how deteriorated over time since other labels didn’t cause this problem before.


What brand of CD labels posters here are using??

Anyone using inkjet “Printable’ discs??

Is this new ‘Light - scribe’ CD media type any good??? Any one using it ?? (Even though one needs to invest in a new burner drive.)

[Mixmachine]

well, for those that might care

I picked up a fresh label batch from the 'Stomper' brand to be safe, and they are working perfectly, so apparently CD labels should come with an 'expiration date' as they go bad if you don't use them on time.

[Bernie]

I'm still leery about using these stick-on CD labels and thus won't try them. There's no knowing how long they will stay on and if the adhesive will have an adverse chemical reaction with the disc rendering it unplayable.

[QUINNY]

Like most things in life, the more you pay, usually the better the quality.

Personally, I always tried to but the more expensive glossy ones or even the transparent ones.

I think labels can actually be good for CD-Rs as they are further protection to the top surface. Get a scratch on that and you say goodbye to the info on the disc in that location, so anything that can stop, or partly stop it happening is a good thing......until you put them into an auto changer that gets hot, hot, hot. People used to say that the labels would affect the balance of the disc's spinning and make them unplayable, but in all my years producing CD-Rs, the labels were never an issue.

Bernie: I think the discs will become unplayable long before the label glue affects anything. CD-Rs really are crapola and I personally don't believe any of the longevity claims. They're better today than they've ever been, but..........they're just not a robust medium.

[Videoskooter]

Originally Posted by QUINNY

CD-Rs really are crapola and I personally don't believe any of the longevity claims. They're better today than they've ever been, but..........they're just not a robust medium.

Agree 100% with that. I never ever believed the industry's claims that this is eternal. For some time I'm warning friends for this, also when they want to copy a photo collection on a CD. Unfortunately some of them have already experienced my prophecy.

Maybe it's interesting to read this:

How Long Will a CD-R Last?

[SandraDee]

I've recently noticed that when I put labels on my CDRW's they start to play very eratically but they play fine if i just use a soft marker pen so i don't bother with labels anymore.

[JOL]

I don't use stick on labels any more but when I did I'd use neato labels and had very few problems with them. The three times that they came off or bubbled I called the company and they sent me one hundred labels for free. Wow a company that actually stands by their product. I now use Tayo Yuden printable cdrs that print directly onto the cd. They are supposed to good for 100 years. I hope so because I went through an horror story with all my masters two years ago. I discovered that most of the masters I had made on cdr that were between 3 to 4 years old would not play at all or if they did they sounded like an old 78 rpm record with so much static that they were virtually unlistenable. Thankfully I had almost everthing I had made either on reel or cassette and it took me a year to re-transcribe everything (660 cds) to a usb drive. Word of warning hard drives also do not last longer than 5 to 6 years and it is advisable to buy a new one every 4 years and transfer all your masters onto the new drive. New technology is not all it's cracked up to be. I have records that are 60 years old and they still play albeit therye have pops and ticks. Those cdrs once they go that's it the info is lost forever.

[Mixmachine]

Originally Posted by JOL

I don't use stick on labels any more but when I did I'd use neato labels and had very few problems with them. The three times that they came off or bubbled I called the company and they sent me one hundred labels for free. Wow a company that actually stands by their product. I now use Tayo Yuden printable cdrs that print directly onto the cd. They are supposed to good for 100 years. I hope so because I went through an horror story with all my masters two years ago. I discovered that most of the masters I had made on cdr that were between 3 to 4 years old would not play at all or if they did they sounded like an old 78 rpm record with so much static that they were virtually unlistenable. Thankfully I had almost everthing I had made either on reel or cassette and it took me a year to re-transcribe everything (660 cds) to a usb drive. Word of warning hard drives also do not last longer than 5 to 6 years and it is advisable to buy a new one every 4 years and transfer all your masters onto the new drive. New technology is not all it's cracked up to be. I have records that are 60 years old and they still play albeit therye have pops and ticks. Those cdrs once they go that's it the info is lost forever.

"Neato" Label?? I'll keep this in mind but I don't think I've seen this brand around my area's local shops, in any case the "Stompers" are working fine so far for me, although I've tried them only on a couple of CDRs so far.

I also read a while back that the Taiyo Yuden CDRs are among the best, I went with the Ridata/Rytek brand, also praised by many.

A few of my old CDRs are damaged beyond repair with CD rot, one favorite CDR (Sony), --- transferred from vinyl and Reel --- that was acting up turned out to be damaged by rot not by the 'Label' issue, after using a magnifying glass the weird shiny spots on the recorded side turn out to be 'air bubbles' or 'pits' that makes tracking impossible for any player, luckily this music still is in my HDD.

I kind of dislike CDRs without labels, (or jewel insert for that matter)I always throw something in there, even if just plainly generated, I like to have the play list at the very least.

I just recently for the first time picked up Photo paper for inserts and they came out really nice, (well, only one so far) time consuming propositions though, designing, testing, and cutting and folding (paper was a bit to thick) to size takes a lot of patience and time, but this is all a labor of love anyways..

When is time to replace my Printer I'll make sure to get one with the 'printable' CDR/DVD feature, this ought to take care of the 'label' issue.

I hope my HDDs don't die on me, I bought a second 300 gig to transfer some aging Reels before this Reels or the player finally give out to the ravages of age, I would hate to loose all this music after all the work and expense…..

[JOL]

I was using the Ridata exclusively for years and those are the ones that ending up giving me all the problems. I emailed them when I found out that half my masters were no longer working and they never responded to my query. Neato has a office in New York and I believe that Fellows bought them out.

[Mixmachine]

Originally Posted by JOL

I was using the Ridata exclusively for years and those are the ones that ending up giving me all the problems.

Ridatas ???

Well, I don't know anymore then, I remember a couple of years back reading many postings about CDR quality and Ridata from Rytek was highly regarded then, apparently they produced their own products, (and sold lesser quality rejects to others) as oppose to many other brands (Memorex, Sony) that just re-package from other manufacturers, usually buying 'bulk' without any care for quality control what so ever.

I still have a bunch of Ridata discs left , I'll try the Taiyo Yuden next

PS: One thing I'm doing now is creating an 'Image' of the project when I burn a CDR, this way I can save it and back it up to a different HD drive. If the CDR rots away or is lost , I just burn a new one.

[JOL]

Here's the link to Neato. Their labeling program that comes with the labels is very good.

6.3 email

[Mixmachine]

Originally Posted by JOL

Here's the link to Neato. Their labeling program that comes with the labels is very good.

6.3 email

Thanks, It is bookmarked for later

I see now what Quinny was saying above about the "High gloss' types,

I like this 'full coverage' label types, more space to work with, especially when working with mix tape transfers that require a lot of text for Song/Artist/time labelings, but unfortunately my EZ creator V7 software doesn't allow that , I don't know about the latest version that just came out a few months back.

One problem about using different Label making software is that they won't read or import the Roxio's EZ creator's files, and therefore I need to re-type everything!!

[JOL]

I never write out the play list on the labels. I reserve that for artwork and the title of the file. I usually use the the front and back cd cover inserts for play lists.

[discodevil]

Have any members used LightScribe?
The purpose of LightScribe is to allow users to create direct-to-disc labels (as opposed to stick-on labels), I think it is only in black and white using a purpose built burner.

[canadiantire]

I just bought a LightScribe capable burner but haven't tried this feature.

On the other hand, I have been using the Avery #08684 adhesive labels.

They are made of translucent adhesive plastic, instead of paper.

They look absolutely professional, particularly on a plain white background CD.

It also works nice on brandless-silvertop-CDs on which it looks like a commercial one.

It also has the advantage to keep the original colors of the design.


Because they are fairly expensive, I reserve their use for my most precious recordings.

I've been using them for two years and they show no sign of discoloration nor they peel off.

More to come on LightScribe results...