Best optical drive for G5 Powermac (or Mac Pro) w/Lightscribe or not?

I use Lightscribe in Mac OS X and Windows. The discs are a bit more expensive but it is nice to have custom labels etched into the disc. It is a definite improvement over a Sharpie.

The main advantage of Lightscribe is how clean the labels can look and the greyscale etching of photos on the bronze background gives a classy look. The big drawback is that the only way to get a dark finish is by setting the doing labels on the best setting which takes 15 minutes per disc. As I only create a few discs a month this is fine. If I were to need to produce many copies I would opt for a CD/DVD printer.

Another disadvantage of Lightscribe is the availability of Media. It just is not a very popular system so finding large spindles can be difficult some times. I had this problem with dual layer DVD's a few months ago as I could not find any manufacturer that made them. However I just did a quick search and found that they are available now, so I will be buying some.

In the future when my aging printer bites the dust my next model will have the option for Inkjet printable DVD's. It is an easier media to find. I will continue to use Lightscribe for discs that I keep a long time like nLited Windows discs and backup OS X installer discs. For my data archives and installer archives I will use the cheaper printable discs.

velocityg4 did a good job of defining the benefits/disadvantages of Lightscribe, but after having used both Lightscribe and direct disk printing I don't think I could ever be satisfied with Lightscribe technology again. The main reason I say that is not so much based on the time it takes (and some of mine with more than just a name on the disk took even longer) but simply on the idea of it being grayscale as opposed to full color printing. When I make a backup copy of my DVDs for instance, the perfectionist in me much prefers them to not only be archive copies but also to look the same as the original.

I highly recommend you just grab an Epson printer as many (all?) in the RX series do direct disk printing. I started with an RX200, then went to the 220, then 260, then 280 before I skipped up to the RX680 which is a scanner/printer combo. Epson themselves currently have a promotion on the RX280 which they are selling for $59 right now ($40 off) here rather than replace your current model Pioneer 116 drive - you gain a nice high speed inket printer along with the disk printing capability too! Also their new Artisan line (700/900) all in ones have a good disk printer as well.

California said:

Thanks guys.

I like the perfectionist angle, too; having copied dvds or cds look like the original.

The other part of my question is -- is this Panasonic 113 something lightscribe drive as good as the regular 20x dual layer Panasonic for accessing/copying the various DVD media formats out there? dvr -r +r etc?

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From what I have read, the lightscribe laser is separate from the cd and dvd read/write lasers so I would imagine it would just come down the speed/compatibility specs of the Lightscribe Panasonic vs. the non-Lightscribe one really. Each set of specs should have the info as to disk types it can use and what speeds it can write them as well, so a litle side by side comparison should reveal any differences pretty quickly.

You said the Panasonic lightscribe drive is basically a relabled ASUS it should be fine. I have an ASUS lightscribe drive write now and it is the most reliable burner I have owned. It has already lasted longer than any previous DVD burner I have purchased. It has also handled all cheap media I have thrown at it.

At $25 how can you go wrong.
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