The topic of storing dvds horizontally is bad for your dvds got me thinking of another problem I have heard of. My friend told me it's bad to lable my dvds and dvdr's with a sharpe, b/c over time the marker can seep into the disc and damage it. Is it true or not that it's bad to write on your dvd's or dvd blanks with a sharpe? If it is why do the dvd-r's or +r's have underline print for you to write on?

It depends on the kind of marker.

its probably not bad to use a sharpie on them.. isn't that what everyone uses? :P

Sharpie extra fine point permanent marker in black?

I think sharpies are bad if they are alcohol-based.

You would think that in the time it takes for ink to seep into a disc, DVDs will no longer be the medium of choice and you would have already replaced your current disc with its newer, better, more ink resistant format.

some of you guys worry too much

Buy a pen that's chemically safe...they're what, 2 dollars? And yes, some markers will damage the disc. Remember that the top layer is usually just a very thin foil metal that's not particularly resistant to chemicals.

If they're the new Amaray pens then it should be fine.

If you are worried, buy those special CD/DVD markers which use substances chemically safe for the discs.

So let me get this straight... you're worried about *potentially* (AFAIK, there has not been any DEFINITIVE empirical proof of this) damaging a >$.75 media that, for all intents and purposes, won't even last as long as it would (presumably) take for said ink to (again, presumably) damage the substrate?

Methinks people worry too much about too many insignificant things...

It's not the loss of 75 cents -- it's the loss of the content that you may have no way of getting back

I don't buy it - if you can *reasonably* say that you somehow managed to come into posession of a *recordable* medium with data already on it, AND you would have no recourse in terms of an original in case of corruption, then methinks that implies you have something that you shouldn't have...

I make a backup of my computer files on DVD-R, my hard drive fails, I go to restore the files from DVD-R and oops! the magic marker ruined the disc.

Isn't that common enough?

ever hear of redundant backups? again, not having been empirically proven to be the case, I doubt you'd want to "restore" anything from a DVD-R that has presumably been around long enough (years perhaps?) to have (again, *allegedly*) the marker ink "eat" into the substrate...

'sides, is $.75 too pricey to make a new backup every year or so?

again, I don't buy it. if the data is THAT important, one would think more than one backup would be in order...

EXACTLY! Because everyone knows that the only REAL reason to have DVD-Rs is for bootleg material! Any other excuse is just that, an excuse, a smokescreen!

For those of us who understand the other uses for DVD-Rs, I suggest playing it safe and applying a label to the disc and using a sharpie on THAT.

I've switched from tapes to DVDs for computer backup and I write on the DVD with pens labeled as being suitable for writing on CD.

I believe DVD is even less sensitive to the ink than CD as it doesn't rely on the reflectivity of the surface that you write on. When you scratch the writable surface of a CD you can see through it, that doesn't happen with a DVD.

By all means DO NOT attach a label to your DVD recordables!

I had a set video disks on DVD that became basically UNREADABLE after about 1 hour of viewing.

My movies looked just fine after I first made them. I watched them at least once after burning them. THEN, after making sure they worked, I applied CD Labels to the disks using a proper CD label Stomper.

Bad move.

The disks had pixelization and sound problems ever since.

Somehow the label was causing them to spin SLIGHTLY off and after an hour they got very pixely and garbled.

AFTER i removed the label with a hair dryer and lots of patience the movie works again.

Id rather write on them with sharpies.

edit to add: These are LEGAL recordings of TV shows off of my DVR

Ive used sharpies to write on my cd's / dvds for years and they havent destroyed them.

Everyone I know also uses sharpies so I think its safe to assume they wont destroy your discs.

Just last week I attended an Adobe Photoshop conference. One of the tips that he specifically had was not to write on your CDs with a Sharpie. Obviously there is truth to this if the people at Adobe are reporting this. Just an FYI of what I heard.
My opinion, don't write on them at all, find a way to put a label in the case. Easy fix.

I wonder if any anal people will be writing on them with a sharpie but on the INNER CENTER of the disk where no data is opposite it. lol

I wonder if the materials experts have an estimate of how long in theory it would take for sharpie ink to actually start effecting these discs?? My guess is about the same time the disc would probably fail anyhow.

Or they may have decided it's better to be safe than sorry.

The gentleman giving the talk from Adobe, stated he had archived items to a Cd e few years back and he has already come across CDs that were effected by the marker. That is according to him, and that was also writable CDs and not a DVD.
Why would anyone want to write on a DVD anyway. To show that you own it when you loan it to someone? I would think about who I was loaning it to if I were that worried about getting it back.

Theres many possible explanations for a disk failing over time.

Roxio says its ok:
http://www.roxio.com/en/support/discs/discprinting.html