A tool for burning visible pictures on a compact disc surface (2022) (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

203 pointscarlesfe9mo ago61 comments

61 comments

Back in the day, there was a Yamaha burner with a feature called "DiscT@2". It could burn images and text onto the unused area of a CD-ROM. I just had to get it and did so, and I had a bit of fun with it.

xattt9mo ago

It seemed especially badass when the model number was the CRW-F1, released in 2002.

It was also cool because the activity would blink purple (orange + blue) during writing. This set it apart when blue LEDs were all the rage.

jonah-archive9mo ago

I still have mine (in a firewire enclosure)! Last tested the DiscT@2 feature about four years ago, at the time qpxtool had a utility for burning the imagery under Linux.

bayindirh9mo ago

I still have that particular Yamaha burner (CRW-F1). Besides DiscT@2, which I used to burn all types of useful information, it had really good burn quality. Given I used a good brand, none of the discs had rotted or lost data even after a decade.

xattt9mo ago

Disc rot/substrate oxidation would be a media issue instead of the writer.

1 more reply

m-s-y9mo ago

Same. I had one of these in ‘98/‘99. The disc didn’t even go into a standard tray—-you had to use a caddy that completely enveloped the disc.

4rt9mo ago

any idea what the caddy did?

some sort of feedback for rotation angle maybe?

4 more replies

Molitor59019mo ago

I fondly remember LightScribe, that was a pretty awesome technology.

gambiting9mo ago

I was going to say, I still have a 5 pack of Lightscribe DVDs unopened in a box specifically to save something "special" but obviously nothing has ever been special enough to warrant using them. And now that they aren't made anymore it would feel downright sacrilegious to use them, not to mention 4.7GB of capacity is just not enough for anything nowadays really.

yaky9mo ago

4.7GB is quite enough for a standalone Linux DVD (for devices that still have DVD drives). Plus some cool art.

Might be a good idea to preserve a known-working distro for some old PC, especially for discontinued or less-used architectures. Just saw a discussion the other day about finding 32-bit Debian for an old laptop.

1 more reply

Molitor59019mo ago

Yeah! I have had that exact same feeling! The one I remember burning the most was a collection of photos and movies of my family. I printed across the disc a photo of everyone. It was just so cool, even in black and white, but I always held back because they were a little expensive, and I wanted to save them for something really special! Had they been the same price as other discs.. I think I would have used them more.

layer89mo ago

Someone would probably buy them on eBay for a good price.

2 more replies

tomjuggler9mo ago

Still have a few of those knocking around. USB is just not the same

ungawatkt9mo ago

I gave this a go about 3 years ago when the hackday project[1] first got published, it turns out choosing the parameters is _very_ disc dependent, since every disc is a little bit different (possibly even between lots of the same type, not published anywhere, and quite sensitive. I got it working for the CD-R's I got, but it took ~50 experiments to get ok parameters (the image was pretty good, but still wobbly in some areas of the disc).

That said, the end result is pretty cool, if hard to photograph.

[1] https://hackaday.io/project/186303-burning-pictures-on-a-com...

axoltl9mo ago

It’s a slightly more involved project, but tmbinc managed to write arbitrary pictures to a DVD surface:

https://debugmo.de/2022/05/fjita-the-project-that-wasnt-mean...

extraduder_ire9mo ago

Cool idea. Like a more accessible version of lightscribe. (if you use a dual-sided disc)

I assume this isn't possible with a DVD/bluray due to the much much smaller pits.

whycome9mo ago

> I assume this isn't possible with a DVD/bluray due to the much much smaller pits.

Or, you know, higher resolution images.

HPsquared9mo ago

I suppose these shapes could be made incredibly detailed. There must be some kind of application for that.

isoprophlex9mo ago

Its basically a bespoke diffraction grating printer, indeed. So, you could probably print holographic images?

_def9mo ago

This github issue mentions a paper about holographic images on a DVD: https://github.com/arduinocelentano/cdimage/issues/14

But I can't actually imagine what it would look like. Sounds amazing though!

eahm9mo ago

30+ years of computer and I had no idea you could do this. These are the kind of things I get excited about!

londons_explore9mo ago

Congrats to the author - a few decades ago I attempted the same, with very little success (using data tracks, not audio, which might have been my mistake).

The challenge (as I saw it) was that the drive has the option to toggle the state of the laser every sector, effectively letting it invert all your data if it wants to. To have control of the laser state, you need to be able to do perfect predictions if the drive will toggle or not.

Any unpredicted bit leads to the laser state toggling and the image being ruined.

lucianbr9mo ago

Assuming control of the decision to toggle, could that be used to draw something even while burning useful data? Of course you would have very low precision, but still. Maybe an outline or something.

londons_explore9mo ago

Yes. You get the option to toggle the laser every 33 bytes, which is a lot of controllable toggles to make cool patterns.

zapp429mo ago

I love the Github username!

thomassmith659mo ago

I gather it's a reference to the pop singer Adriano Celentano?

myself2489mo ago

Ol rait!

1 more reply

danjc9mo ago

It would be awesome if you could encode data using this technique

hiatus9mo ago

Are not visible pictures encoded data?

bestham9mo ago

Just burn a QR-code.

ashoeafoot9mo ago

Can you encode holograms, similar to scratch holograms?

grishka9mo ago

Oh wow, the readme to one of the mentioned projects is in KOI8. It's been decades since I last saw that encoding used.

globular-toast9mo ago

If only this existed 15 years ago when I got rid of my burners.

mystified50169mo ago

It did! I remember playing with 'Disc T@2' when I was a kid. I had a lightscribe then too, so I put pictures on both sides

al_borland9mo ago

After many years without an optical drive in my home, I bought an external one within the last year or so. It's one of those things that occasionally comes up, and is useful to have around, and I figured the longer I waited the more difficult it would become to find a decent one.

valianteffort9mo ago

Optical media is unmatched for archival purposes. I have photos, videos, and documents I'd be devastated to lose. I simply cannot trust magnetic or solid-state storage over the long term.

Luckily blurays are still somewhat cheap in Japan so I stock up when I visit. Stored properly they should outlive me.

3 more replies

sandreas9mo ago

I still use my bluray to rip audio CDs... Pretty oldschool but with navidrome and audiobookshelf it is a pretty solid workflow...

See https://pilabor.com/blog/2022/10/audio-cd-ripping-hardware/

pavel_lishin9mo ago

I don't even remember if the CD/DVD drive I have in my desktop is a writer or not. I distinctly remember purchasing one about a decade ago, but I think I was looking for an external one.

Hell, I'm not even sure if it's plugged in at the moment, I may have unplugged it to plug in another hard drive...

lhoff9mo ago

I had a DVD Burner in my self build PC and discovered a year ago that it wasn’t plugged in and that it must have been like this for years. That was the moment I decided it’s time to remove it.

amelius9mo ago

Can it still hold data?

_def9mo ago

I assume no https://github.com/arduinocelentano/cdimage/issues/16

classichasclass9mo ago

But a multisession disc with this technique should be possible, using a data track and then the rest as "picture audio."

1 more reply

ziofill9mo ago

+1 for the GitHub user name :)

meindnoch9mo ago

LightScribe reinvented?

jccalhoun9mo ago

No. It is reinventing DiscT@2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiscT@2

Animats9mo ago

Right. See [1]

It was really slow, but it did work.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightScribe

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

61 comments

Cockbrand9mo ago

xattt9mo ago

It seemed especially badass when the model number was the CRW-F1, released in 2002.

It was also cool because the activity would blink purple (orange + blue) during writing. This set it apart when blue LEDs were all the rage.

jonah-archive9mo ago

I still have mine (in a firewire enclosure)! Last tested the DiscT@2 feature about four years ago, at the time qpxtool had a utility for burning the imagery under Linux.

bayindirh9mo ago

xattt9mo ago

Disc rot/substrate oxidation would be a media issue instead of the writer.

1 more reply

m-s-y9mo ago

Same. I had one of these in ‘98/‘99. The disc didn’t even go into a standard tray—-you had to use a caddy that completely enveloped the disc.

4rt9mo ago

any idea what the caddy did?

some sort of feedback for rotation angle maybe?

4 more replies

Molitor59019mo ago

I fondly remember LightScribe, that was a pretty awesome technology.

gambiting9mo ago

yaky9mo ago

4.7GB is quite enough for a standalone Linux DVD (for devices that still have DVD drives). Plus some cool art.

1 more reply

Molitor59019mo ago

layer89mo ago

Someone would probably buy them on eBay for a good price.

2 more replies

tomjuggler9mo ago

Still have a few of those knocking around. USB is just not the same

ungawatkt9mo ago

That said, the end result is pretty cool, if hard to photograph.

[1] https://hackaday.io/project/186303-burning-pictures-on-a-com...

axoltl9mo ago

It’s a slightly more involved project, but tmbinc managed to write arbitrary pictures to a DVD surface:

https://debugmo.de/2022/05/fjita-the-project-that-wasnt-mean...

extraduder_ire9mo ago

Cool idea. Like a more accessible version of lightscribe. (if you use a dual-sided disc)

I assume this isn't possible with a DVD/bluray due to the much much smaller pits.

whycome9mo ago

> I assume this isn't possible with a DVD/bluray due to the much much smaller pits.

Or, you know, higher resolution images.

HPsquared9mo ago

I suppose these shapes could be made incredibly detailed. There must be some kind of application for that.

isoprophlex9mo ago

Its basically a bespoke diffraction grating printer, indeed. So, you could probably print holographic images?

_def9mo ago

This github issue mentions a paper about holographic images on a DVD: https://github.com/arduinocelentano/cdimage/issues/14

But I can't actually imagine what it would look like. Sounds amazing though!

eahm9mo ago

30+ years of computer and I had no idea you could do this. These are the kind of things I get excited about!

londons_explore9mo ago

Congrats to the author - a few decades ago I attempted the same, with very little success (using data tracks, not audio, which might have been my mistake).

Any unpredicted bit leads to the laser state toggling and the image being ruined.

lucianbr9mo ago

Assuming control of the decision to toggle, could that be used to draw something even while burning useful data? Of course you would have very low precision, but still. Maybe an outline or something.

londons_explore9mo ago

Yes. You get the option to toggle the laser every 33 bytes, which is a lot of controllable toggles to make cool patterns.

zapp429mo ago

I love the Github username!

thomassmith659mo ago

I gather it's a reference to the pop singer Adriano Celentano?

myself2489mo ago

Ol rait!

1 more reply

danjc9mo ago

It would be awesome if you could encode data using this technique

hiatus9mo ago

Are not visible pictures encoded data?

bestham9mo ago

Just burn a QR-code.

ashoeafoot9mo ago

Can you encode holograms, similar to scratch holograms?

grishka9mo ago

Oh wow, the readme to one of the mentioned projects is in KOI8. It's been decades since I last saw that encoding used.

globular-toast9mo ago

If only this existed 15 years ago when I got rid of my burners.

mystified50169mo ago

It did! I remember playing with 'Disc T@2' when I was a kid. I had a lightscribe then too, so I put pictures on both sides

al_borland9mo ago

valianteffort9mo ago

Optical media is unmatched for archival purposes. I have photos, videos, and documents I'd be devastated to lose. I simply cannot trust magnetic or solid-state storage over the long term.

Luckily blurays are still somewhat cheap in Japan so I stock up when I visit. Stored properly they should outlive me.

3 more replies

sandreas9mo ago

I still use my bluray to rip audio CDs... Pretty oldschool but with navidrome and audiobookshelf it is a pretty solid workflow...

See https://pilabor.com/blog/2022/10/audio-cd-ripping-hardware/

pavel_lishin9mo ago

I don't even remember if the CD/DVD drive I have in my desktop is a writer or not. I distinctly remember purchasing one about a decade ago, but I think I was looking for an external one.

Hell, I'm not even sure if it's plugged in at the moment, I may have unplugged it to plug in another hard drive...

lhoff9mo ago

I had a DVD Burner in my self build PC and discovered a year ago that it wasn’t plugged in and that it must have been like this for years. That was the moment I decided it’s time to remove it.

amelius9mo ago

Can it still hold data?

_def9mo ago

I assume no https://github.com/arduinocelentano/cdimage/issues/16

classichasclass9mo ago

But a multisession disc with this technique should be possible, using a data track and then the rest as "picture audio."

1 more reply

ziofill9mo ago

+1 for the GitHub user name :)

meindnoch9mo ago

LightScribe reinvented?

jccalhoun9mo ago

No. It is reinventing DiscT@2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DiscT@2

Animats9mo ago

Right. See [1]

It was really slow, but it did work.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LightScribe

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse