OK I was just thinking..I heard that some markers have chemicals that can damage it. but Sharpie seems like the kind of brand that wouldn't do that to the innocent *.*
Supposedly there are chemicals in a standard Sharpie that can eat through the surface of a CD-R. Whether or not this is true I've never been able to determine to my satisfaction. However, blank DVDs have an extra protective coating that CD-Rs don't, meaning that even if it is true for CD-R it's still not for DVD+/-R.
Sharpies are fine, I have used sharpies on 90% of my DVD's and 100% of my CD's. I have even accidently wrote on the data side of a couple of CD's (don't ask) and guess what they still play just fine even after several years. I probably should re-burn these music CD's but hey i am cheap and they still play so I say what the heck!
Wow, you actually got it to play after writing on the data side? You can probably clean it off with rubbing alcohol. Trying copying it first, then try cleaning it and run it through CDCheck or a similar program to see if it affected the readability. Not sure if Alcohol can damage discs... Yeah, sharpies are good. I eat them for breakfast!! I think 99.999% of my DVDR are marked with Sharpies. The other .001% is unmarked/DVDRW.
Yeah I listen to the one music CD in my truck all the time with no problems So I am just saying I don't beleive the sharpies effect the disk at all. Give it try on a CD write on the data side and then play it you will be surprised!
Actually writing on the data side doesn't necessarily tell you anything. The story about Sharpies goes something like this (I read the original source some time ago). It's possible for the ink in some markers (not just Sharpies) to eat through the protective coating that sits directly behind the reflective foil. If that happens it's only a matter of time before the foil gets damaged and creates an unreadable spot on the CD. There can also be problems with very fine point pens as they can scratch the coating off while you're writing. The data side actually has an extra protective layer over the dye, so they're actually not only more resistant to markers, but also to scratches, on that side. As far as reading a CD with marker on the data side, that just means the ink doesn't stop the particular wavelength of light used by the laser. My understanding is that DVDs have an extra protective coating between the visible (label-side) surface and the foil, so even a marker that would eat through the printing on a disc wouldn't expose the foil. Edit: I found this post from Hydrogen Audio that gives much more information in a much clearer manner than I ever could.
well vurbal no disrespect to you or the person that wrote that, but I guess anyone can make a bunch of assumptions on what could or might happen, but I have been using markers to write on music CD's for 12 + years and I still have some of those that play perfectly fine with no issues so I guess until I see these effects myself I just won't beleive them.
I use a Papermate CD & DVD Marker (posh Sharpie to those that don't know - lol). No problems yet w/ any of the hundreds .. nae thousands previously done There is of course always the risk of disk-rot : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_rot
I used a big fat artline permanent (graff style) on my early burns and some of those did fail me I now use the proper pens on cdr's but as others have said this should not matter to dvdr I play it safe by using cd/dvd markers on all my burns now this failure applied to my audio burns they started skipping so I cannot say anything for data burns (and the discs had no scratches and stored at best and skipped at the same precise moment each time)
