Just wondering if anyone has used any of the Cd labeling kits that are out. If so, are they safe to use in car cd player, or is possible for them to peal off from the heat of the player? I just bought the Stomper Pro Labeling system, but I am just a little worried about ruining my car cd player.
Any info would be great?

Thanks

Hmm, personally i wouldn't paste anything onto a cd.. I'm not sure it's completely safe, and i too would fear it would peal off.

I've tried those labels before, but usually I don't bother. Some friends demand them when I burn CD's as to know which tracks are what. Thus far, the adhesive seems to stick quite well. For myself, however, I'm perfectly happy with an old-fashioned laundry marker

hrm...

well 4 years ago, when i started....um....making legal backups of my cds...

i used a labeling product [neato] and haven't had a problem with the dozen or so discs i made for myself.

yeah, and when friends asked me to make....um....legal backups of their cd's...

they always wanted a nice graphical label with the track listings...

oh well...


the moral of the story? there is none, but i haven't had a problem with labels, but now i just "sharpie [ultra fine point]" the disc...


later
mike

I've never had any problems with labelled CD's either. I too use Neato. The adhesive is supposed to be top-notch.

Anyhow, the only problem I've ever heard of with Neato labels is that some slot CD-ROM's and car CD-players can't load them.

What I would fear is off centering, because when I rip CDs, they spin very fast in the DVD ROM drive. I don't know if it can be a problem.

If the CDRs don't already have cases, I use relatively cheap thin disc cases from Office Depot and label them with magic marker informally, or if they're going out, I might print an inside label.

I stopped writing on discs long ago. It may be a fine practice, but I'm not sure, and what's the added expense and effort of using cases? Practically 0. It also forces me to have only one CDR out of its case at any one time. Habit now, and a good one. Nex

I have some CD-Rs labeled with paper labels, and some of them vibrate very bad when in the drive. So I turn the speed of the drive down while I make a copy of the CD, I don't trust all that vibration is doing any good to my drive.

For CD-Rs I just use plain old magic marker, I don't see the point or the effort to create beautiful labels .

Agreed. Or covers, for that matter. Threw away most of my CD-R covers, labelled the disks with a cd-pen and stuffed them all in on of those big CaseLogic carrier bags. Saves a lot of space and is much easier to organize... And buying spindles is a lot cheaper too, of course

So is there any truth to the rumors that pens can corrode the discs..?

I assume I am safe with pens that claim to be specifically designed for labelling CDs..?

"Sharpie" pens are alcohol based and shouldn't damage CD-R's (and of course there are pens specially designed for writing on CD-R's, which could probably be assumed safe). Many other ink bases (petroleum/oil) could be hazardous to the coating...

For once I am probably the most knowledgeable person who can answer this question

I work for an online image library, and a good proportion of our material from photographers and agencies comes in the form of CD or DVD. Over the past 2 years we have uploaded more than 7TB of data from such medias... You can do the maths and figure out how many CDs we have come across

As I am in charge of hardware, I can safely say I have seen all of the problems you can get from badly labelled CDs. I even had to clean the mess from exploding CDs a few times

Here are my observations:


* Round CD labels designed for CD are usually fine. However when I go back to some of the first CDs we uploaded, often the labels are peeling at the edge, or pulling the reflective surface too much thereby corrupting the data on the outside rim.

* Other kind of labels are a big no-no: we have all kind of problems with those; they put the cd off-balance; the glue is not designed for CD and over time eat throuh the protective layer, but worst of all, some labels come unstuck in high speed drives, and when they take a bit of the protective layer with them you end up with an explosive CD

* Markers which are not designed for CD slowly eat through the protective layer and end up corrupting data or rendering the CD unreadable

* Markers which are too sharp risk scracthing the very thin protective layer with the same result as above

* Markers designed for CD are fine. And that is the only safe way of labelling CDs. Furthermore, if the CD does not have an additional layer for writing (ie: manufacter printed), as soon as you start writing on the protective layer above the refelective layer you start increasing the error rate. In this case, if you really value your data only write in the inner transparent ring.


And in any case: CD do not last 100 years. Depending on the brand they start losing data from the moment they have been written.

Yes, you should get pens designed for labeling cdrs

As the most delicate part of a cd is the top surface, would labels not make them less prone to damage?

Thanks, Arman68, I'm adding this thread to my faq.txt

In theory a label would add an additionnal layer of protection to the reflective surface.

In practice however it only works in the short term: the glue+paper has a much lower life expectancy than the CD materials. Furthermore when exposed to heat in high speed CD drives the paper, glue and CD all have different thermal properties which means the label have a tendency to peel off the CD. You can do a similar experiment by placing a piece of paper on top of a CD in a warm oven (not too hot ) the paper should curve and the CD remain flat.

If the bonding material (glue) is of bad quality the potential result is the label coming unstuck at the edge, possibly taking away some of the CD with it.

If the bonding material is strong enough but does not allow enough margin for expansion, the result is a curved CD which is likely to be unreadable when warm.

Ooops, I'v been labeling most of my DivX CDs!

What's the story on alcohol-based "Sharpie" pens? I can't think of anything safer than quickly evaporating alcohol (except perhaps a water base).

I've been using Fellows/Neato labels for two years now and I haven't had any problems, but then again my CD's haven't been near a heat source or in one such as a car in the summer time. I label my CD's so that I know what they are, and for a some "added protection."

One thing is for sure do not use Avery CD labels - they are the ones which will peel off even if you never use the CD.

The Yamaha's CRW-F1UX is able to burn! tattoos on CDRs.

READ MORE HERE!

I started out years ago using fellows/neato with one of those stompers, made it extremely easy to center plus made damn nice looking cd's. I life in the southeast USA where the inside of my automoble gets HOT HOT HOT. Never once had any problems out of any of the cd's. I don't use it much anymore simply because it is a pain in the butt. However IMHO they look nice I have some that are up there in age without a problem, as a matter of fact I think they saved the protective layer from becoming scratched many a time thus saving my cd.

IMO if you don't mind the hassle I think they're great.