Any decent FREE Lightscribe software available?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 5, 2005
Messages
5,552
Location
Kansas
Okay, I'm converting an LP to CD for a couple of friends. Way back in the '70s they were in a local band and recorded a single album. Of course, this was way before CDs were available and they would like to have their album put on a CD.
I have a Lightscribe system (allows burning a picture on the top of a special CD), but Hewlett Packard has dropped all support for this system.
Basically, all I want to do is to burn a black-and-white image of the front of their album on the top of a Lightscribe CD. Then, of course, I wish to burn the music on the opposite side of the CD so the music can be played in any CD player.
Looking on the net, some software is available for this, but it's got a price tag on it, more than what I wish to pay just to do a favor for a couple of friends.
Anybody here recommend a free software to do this that has minimal junk on it?
 
Is Lightscribe still a thing ? I haven't heard this mentioned in 10+ years. I had a CD burner that could do it and probably tried it 2-3 times. Want to say Nero-Burning ROM could do it (??). They used to, and may still, have a trial version you can use for a short period.
 
Originally Posted by earlyre
whats your OS?
https://lightscribesoftware.org/freesoftware/
literally the first link after googling "FREE Lightscribe software"
the necessary system software wont work with win 8.1 PRO, or 10 PRO


OS is Windows 7. Will that software work with photos or will I have to pay for the premium system? Basic system is text only, I think.
Is Lightscribe still a thing? Well, if it works just one time, it's still a thing.
Forgive me for being a tightwad. I feel this would be one project that I would pay for the premium version and get stiffed.
 
you might need the second one, the "template labeler" , but i can't answer your question directly, I USED to have a light scribe drive, and it was pretty nifty, but not in this win 10 machine( that that software won't work with anyway...)
 
Sure you can find Lightscribe software for free, but good luck on finding affordable Lightscribe media any more. Unless you've got a stack of them already, just go ahead and forget this idea because it's so dang cost prohibitive. I have Lightscribe drives in two of my desktops, and haven't been able to find media that is less than $2.50-3 EACH for a CD, when non-Lightscribe CDs are about $0.15-0.20 each. It was a thing for a while, and then the market shrunk far enough that nobody wanted to make cheap Lightscribe discs any more. Good luck!
 
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
then the market shrunk far enough that nobody wanted to make cheap Lightscribe discs any more. Good luck!


HP was proud of Lightscribe and allowed LG, Samsung and Lite-On to produce Lightscribe drives for use outside of HP's machines. Problem was that those discs were expensive to make even back then and I think Sony came out with a competing standard. Also, the Taiwanese and Chinese were aggressively pushing into optical media and the Japanese producers couldn't compete. HP probably entrusted Mitsubishi(Verbatim), Taiyo Yuden and TDK to make Lightscribe media. TDK is no more.

While Dropbox and Google Drive killed optical media for consumer use, there's people who still burn CDs and some local/state/federal governments as well as some professions still want their deliverables/submittals on a CD or DVD for safekeeping although a burned disc doesn't have the staying power of a tape or hard drive.
 
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
Sure you can find Lightscribe software for free, but good luck on finding affordable Lightscribe media any more. Unless you've got a stack of them already, just go ahead and forget this idea because it's so dang cost prohibitive. Good luck!


A legitimate point, but I have a stash of old Lightscribe discs and and Lightscribe CD burner. I used to use the HP software years ago for a company I worked for, but that seems like a lifetime ago. I'll probably just burn the song numbers on the top side of the disc (this software is free. Wanting to put a photo on the top requires money, which I may do anyway)
I'll probably just take a front and back photo of the album, glue those photos to the inside of the CD jewel and just burn a CD with the song numbers on the top instead of putting the cover photo on the top of the CD.
 
If they want 100 or so of these discs, there are factories that will record the CD, label the top in color with also a box and papers nicely printed in color, for about what a blank Lightscribe disk is worth now.
 
Last edited:
I remember having a LightScribe burner that came in my old HP Pavilion in like 2006. Was obsessed with it and every CD I made had to have a design on it. All of those CDs now the design is either totally faded away or faded enough you can't tell what it originally was.

Seemed like a neat idea at first. When I got a new PC before I scrapped the HP I took the LightScribe drive out of it and put it in an external enclosure, still use it (although just to burn CDs, not LightScribe) because the burner in my new PC sucks and can't make a CD that doesn't skip. It made one so badly that my car's stereo said "Please eject"

I still have a spindle or 2 of LightScribe blanks in my closet come to think of it...
 
Here is an image of a Lightscribe CVD I took out of my desk draw today that was burned in 2006. It still looks good and is legible.
[Linked Image]
 
Is the disc still readable by a computer? Burned CD/DVDs aren't known for longevity, the dyes in the media do fade.
 
Sorry, more than we week went by. But yes, the Lighscribe disk I burned in 2006 is still perfectly readable. In fact I tried several and all of them work fine 13 years later.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top