adhesive CD Labels ruin the CD?

is it true that the adhesive labels you put on CD's ruin the life of the CD?
According to Tech TV, the adhesive on the labels interacts with the CD and breaks it down in some way, and greatly shortens the life of a CD or DVD. Anybody know if this is true?

 

yeah, but they were talking about those white labels you buy at best buy or any other store that you stick on the CD's.

 

Yes, they do cause problems. Short term, no problem, but long term testing shows they do damage the disks, and the data over time. CD's have a very thin, fairly fragile laquer finish on top, and the adhesives damage that, allowing air to oxidize the data layer. They recommend writing directly on the disk and not using any stick-on labels at all.

Not a durability issue, but I've always been leery of stick on labels from a balance point of view. Impossible to get them PERFECTLY centered on the disk... they've got to throw the disk out of balance at least a little bit.

 

I burned a bunch of CD's to carry in my truck this last summer. A lot of the ones that I put labels on distorted in the heat. None of the others did. I do not know if that was a label issue or not, but I quit using them.

 

it is also recommended that you do not put stickers on your dvd as they can cause the play back to "stutter" as well as throw the dvd disc off balance and in the long run cause damage to the dvd player it self. so i have been told.

 

I have heard that there is a printer that prints right on the disk, is that so?

 

I have seen this before.. friend of mine had a CD that a printer had printed on directly.. pretty interesting.. I'd imagine it was a laser printer?

 

there is i remember it was an epsom printer but donnt know the model. you put the disc in and it prints on the cd . it look very impressive.

 

There are new disks and drives in development that can burn a graphic-rich label right into the top surface of the disk. Pretty cool, but expected to be a couple years coming to market, and like anything new, will likely be on the expensive side at first.

 

Commercial disks are printed/painted directly onto the disks, with inks that don't damage the disk. They're not stuck on. Cheaper low volume disks made by some companies using standard CDRs & DVD-Rs often use stick on labels, but those will have long term problems too.

 

We'll have to wait for the jury

Sounds grrrreat, but we'll have to see whether the inks/toners they're using avoid the same problem of damaging the surface over time and shortening the life of the disc. I'd bet somebody's testing like crazy, now that everybody's suspicious of DIY labels.
I read about the cheap glue supplied with cheap DIY labels (in Fred Langa's newsletter) destroying CD-R's, but Fred seemed to think that the method Chaslang uses is the safest so far: that old Sharpie (especially the ones that SAY "CD-Marker" on them) dries so fast and penetrates so little that it doesn't do much to the surface, much less to the underlying layer and structure of the disc. It's inert within a few seconds of application: doesn't react with anything.