There are some clever bunnies at HP We may not always like its PCs, but we have to admit, there are few companies that are so consistently innovative.  Lightscribe is the latest bright idea to emerge from its offices.  Actually, the technology no longer belongs to Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard, as a separate organisation has been set up to take care of it.  The original idea, though, came from a HP engineer, and it's the first to market with compatible products, so it's safe to think of it as a true HP concept.

Lightscribe is a hi-tech alternative to disc labelling.  Using the very same laser that burns data onto the underside of an optical disc, it enables you to burn any image onto the medium's topside.  For it to work, you need both a Lightscribe drive and a compatible disc that features a thin dye coating on the label side.  In a process similar to thermal printing, the light from the laser causes a chemical reaction in the coating, changing the colour of the dye on the affected portion.  You can thereby 'burn' high-resolution images.

Because Lightscribe is built around a standard optical drive, images have to be built up in rotations in exactly the same way as data.  At present, the process is extremely slow due to the precision required. It works at the equivalent of 2x burning, so an entire disc takes up to 35 minutes.  We're assured that the speed will increase.

For most demonstrations, HP has used the latest Nero 6, whereas the PC reviewed above features Sonic's RecordNow.  With either of these, you can burn any (PEG file onto a Lightscribe disc. •