LGR Oddware - Yamaha DiscT@2
Added 2021-02-28 00:30:00 +0000 UTChttps://youtu.be/e1pehz1hNtk
Greetings folks! Didn't quite get this one finished in time to go up on Friday, but here it is for your viewing pleasure today. I suppose it'll end up being March's first public video instead. And what a video topic it is, ahh the early 2000s and all its novel approaches to optical media labeling.
This episode of Oddware is all about Yamaha's largely forgotten DiscT@2 drives, a series of CD-RW drives releasing in 2002 and lasting only about a year on the market before being discontinued in '03. And well, I think the reasons why will be clear. (So long as it's burned onto blue azo dye, ha.) Regardless though, the fact that this thing burned bitmap images onto the data side of any CD-R was a pretty neat idea on paper. Or, polycarbonate.
I've also got examples of the other types of "disc labeler" drives that are mentioned in the video, so perhaps I'll also get around to those in some form in the future. Particularly Labelflash and LabelTag, as I now wonder how feasible it is to use both technologies on each side of a single disc.
Anyway, for now I hope you enjoy this episode and have a good week!
Comments
I remember when I saw the first advert for DiscT@2 on the back of a Mac magazine -- probably MacLife. I bought one as soon as it was available, and used it off and on -- mostly for work stuff, and it was indeed disappointing. Physical labels gave better results or, if you could get a modification kit, the ability to print directly onto a printable CD via a Canon printer (which was hobbled from being able to offer the option in the US for some obscure legal reason, if I remember right). I eventually switched to a direct disc printer -- not one of those massive $3k ones, but the Dymo Disc Painter, which did the trick for work, but had the printing quality of a late 1990s inkjet printer. Still, it was perfect for my work needs and, for the price, was a great deal. By the time I got a LightScribe drive, disc usage was on its way out, so I rarely used it.
Ralph Fontcuberta
2021-03-11 19:40:44 +0000 UTCI still have a few discs on my shelf that I burned images onto! Can't toss them. Loved this episode of Oddware :)
Chad Keck
2021-03-04 16:39:46 +0000 UTCOoh maybe WinMX? I remember using that for a time post-Napster and pre-Limewire.
LGR
2021-03-02 16:16:21 +0000 UTCThanks :)
LGR
2021-03-02 16:14:41 +0000 UTCTEE-ATT-TOO was tough to resist, it's all I can see looking at that awful logo
LGR
2021-03-02 01:10:07 +0000 UTCPretty much the Oddware mantra at this point, ha
LGR
2021-03-02 01:09:30 +0000 UTCThank you! Always like including that one :)
LGR
2021-03-02 01:09:02 +0000 UTCYeah I really should've. We all need more Cool Crab.
LGR
2021-03-02 01:08:46 +0000 UTCHeh π
LGR
2021-03-02 01:08:30 +0000 UTCI didn't but thanks, I'm glad to hear!
LGR
2021-03-02 01:05:48 +0000 UTCDisc tattooing happens at a single set speed, one that's separate from the burning speed for data! You can set the burn speed as high as you wish but the tattooing speed stays the same.
LGR
2021-03-02 01:05:43 +0000 UTCI see you managed to resist the urge to call it βDisc T at 2β in protest at its awful name.
Kirk Northrop
2021-03-01 17:03:53 +0000 UTCI was wondering if it was to do with the way the TOC is written for CD-RWs myself.
zephyrmo
2021-03-01 12:27:45 +0000 UTCGreat video, rubbish bit of tech :)
Mark Elliott
2021-03-01 08:38:44 +0000 UTCWow, what an odd piece of hardware indeed. I've never heard about disc tattooing before. I guess, it could be cool, at least if it worked as advertised. And did not cost too much.
Vladimir Vyun
2021-03-01 00:13:36 +0000 UTC"Mom! I want a DiscT@2 !" "No honey, only sailors and criminals get disc tattooes."
Grunk
2021-02-28 21:18:11 +0000 UTCThat was a slick bit of editing to transition from the footage of the CRT to the capture of Nero!
Benjamin Smith
2021-02-28 20:01:51 +0000 UTCHow strange! If you ever play around with something like this again, maybe a Cool Crab cd tattoo? Haha
Myles MAN
2021-02-28 19:24:51 +0000 UTCCool to see on a XP PC with SCSI. Rhymes make themselves.
JennaKay
2021-02-28 18:22:39 +0000 UTCNice effect when you switched between the physical screen and the screen capture.
Chris Gardner
2021-02-28 18:20:52 +0000 UTCI also had Lightscribe, but I didn't use it much. Limewire on the other hand, and kazaa and napster and mx something
Uncleawesome
2021-02-28 18:00:04 +0000 UTCOn a CD-R, the difference between burnt and unburnt parts was quite visible. And if you used multi-session burning, each session burnt with different speeds (2x, 4x etc.) showed up as a ring on the data side with a different shade. So maybe this "T@2" thing had something to do with the burning speed. Laser power maybe? On the other hand, on CD-RWs I don't remember ever being able to tell how much of it was burnt. I think the material didn't change color at all. So if the software stopped you from using a CD-RW, is probably because they knew that any drawing wouldn't be visible. Not that regular CD-Rs were that much better :D Thanks for this Oddware, I enjoyed it a lot :)
Enrico Gueli
2021-02-28 17:40:54 +0000 UTCπΆ You put the limewire in the win32 folder and you delete them both together. πΆ
PiraTed
2021-02-28 17:17:17 +0000 UTCNever heard of that one. I did have a lightscribe drive I used a bunch. But eventually got fed up with all optical media (except for DVD-RAM) because it was so darn unreliable.
The 8-Bit Guy
2021-02-28 16:32:26 +0000 UTC... or not seeing it as was the case for the first CD-R :P
Jason Wellband
2021-02-28 15:01:16 +0000 UTCI liked... "seeing" it
Jan
2021-02-28 13:22:17 +0000 UTCOh yes. This is so cool and yet so pointless.
Alyxx the Rat
2021-02-28 10:17:45 +0000 UTCGreat video. As you do. I do have to wonder about what, if anything different would happen if you didn't use a background and only text. But still, even if that helped with contrast by leaving the original dye in-tact, I can't imagine the result will ever be satisfying. Cool piece of hardware though. I really think this sort of tech could have lasted a bit longer if it focused entirely on printing labels on any kind of disc medium, as just a separate device, without reading or writing data capabilities. Still, it's been about 14 years since I installed any support for optical media in any of my systems. And even with game consoles dropping this form of media and on-demand media being so common, I wonder how long any of this lasts. Even for retro hardware, the SD 2 SCSI adapters have CD emulation. Tech Tangents just did two great videos on that. All in all, good job, man :) It has all the ingredients I like about your Oddware videos.
Jan-Marten de Boer
2021-02-28 08:03:47 +0000 UTC2002, wasn't that yesterday? ;.;
BastetFurry
2021-02-28 07:58:01 +0000 UTCIt's the Megaluminum Monster, same machine normally used for 9x capturing. The 2007ish WinXP build normally used doesn't have SCSI support
Curus Keel
2021-02-28 07:48:24 +0000 UTCThis reminds me, I still have a few unused LightScribe discs around! Too bad the drive is longggggggg gone though.
Phakorn Sripayak
2021-02-28 05:08:12 +0000 UTCOh man Nero π I remember being a kid trying to burn dreamcast isos to cd for my console and haaaated it when I could only find .nrg files, I could never get those to work right.
DFawlt Uzr
2021-02-28 05:00:34 +0000 UTChah! funny, my roommate in college had something like this.. I think? .. I know I've had a lightscribe on my LiteOn drive... never did get around to testing it though
Evan B
2021-02-28 03:56:57 +0000 UTCSomething I noticed that got me curious, is the XP PC in this video a new build or just one I haven't seen before that you maybe just had in storage or something?
LevyNeptune
2021-02-28 03:56:12 +0000 UTCI have an appreciation for the sort of pointless technology that companies used to (well, and still do) release just for kicks. Stuff that's entirely useless but it's flashy and usually has some interesting tech behind it... but only when it actually works. This isn't much different from the so called "hoverboards" that absolutely and categorically don't hover. It's something that's only pretending to be cool, but certainly doesn't reach anywhere near those levels. Sometimes when watching these videos I wonder why I haven't heard of the hardware, and I think maybe something was too expensive, poorly marketed or too ahead of its time. Not here. This thing absolutely deserved to fail and fall into obscurity. It's not just pointless, it doesn't even properly do what it's supposed to do. Still, it was a great video, as usual.
Pablo Rodriguez
2021-02-28 03:48:11 +0000 UTC#SeeingIt
Headset Guy
2021-02-28 03:35:27 +0000 UTCGod I miss the days when tech companies would just throw random engineering and βinnovationβ into the market. 95% of it made you think βbut why?β, but at least it kept things interesting. π
Joon Choi
2021-02-28 03:21:59 +0000 UTCI never even heard of these before this, so ridiculous, but hey 2002! LOL I have a Toshiba laptop that came with Label Flash and burned a couple DVD's with it, it did a pretty decent job. I used Lightscribe for a long time, and burned a bunch of those, sadly all of those internal Light Scribe drives died, and of course they dont really sel them anymore. Lightscribe discs take so long to burn and then they tend to fade after time, the fact that these T@2 discs take some of the space of data its a wonder someone in the R&D department ever approved this but you know you wouldnt have had a video to make if they didnt LOL. thank you great review, Clint, as always!
John Piscopo
2021-02-28 02:59:38 +0000 UTCDid you use a new mic to record audio? Sounds super smooth.
Jared
2021-02-28 02:57:34 +0000 UTCCurious... does burning at a slower speed help it come through more visibly? I know from past experience that burning at slower speeds helps the data to stay intact longer so in this case, might result in a "darker" burn perhaps? I dunno, but might be worth quickly testing out if you didn't get a chance to. :B
Kris Asick
2021-02-28 02:02:05 +0000 UTCI love how Yamaha had to put the pronunciation of the product in phonetics within the media release.
Mark Zita
2021-02-28 01:58:10 +0000 UTCBrilliant video as always clint, would love to have seen how the other colours worked with it... im shocked you didn't add cool crab! Haha. Keep up the awesome work
Mya Crosbie-Styles
2021-02-28 01:50:28 +0000 UTCI have no memory of these, which is too bad, since if I had known about it when I was burning LightScribe discs back in 2004-05 or so, I absolutely would have lasered both sides of the disc, then showed it to people who would have just said "so"...
Chris Munch
2021-02-28 01:45:16 +0000 UTCWith that background, kinda disappointed you didn't go with "Comic Sands" :D
John Covil
2021-02-28 01:28:23 +0000 UTCThat name makes me irrationally angry. And the fact that it has to use up part of the data storage also does, though at least that means you don't need proprietary discs...
Chillalil
2021-02-28 01:13:37 +0000 UTCOh, wow, I never knew this was a thing available for consumers - far as I knew, this sort of thing was just used for console copy protection, or at least something similar. Fascinating stuff!
Valora Inverse
2021-02-28 01:07:15 +0000 UTCThat pun in the end β did not see that coming π
Max Grobecker
2021-02-28 01:06:03 +0000 UTCAll the things you said are running through my head.
Steve Lovelace
2021-02-28 00:57:27 +0000 UTCOoh let's get matching DiscT@2 tattoos.
LGR
2021-02-28 00:53:56 +0000 UTCWhat an odd bit of Oddware! Right, Iβm off to get a tattoo!β¦ Great video!
Perifractic's Retro Recipes
2021-02-28 00:49:19 +0000 UTCLGR: disrupting sleep patterns 'round the globe since 2009
LGR
2021-02-28 00:38:14 +0000 UTCAs Jorg said, no sleep just yet then. Nice before bed viewing :)
Stuart Donaghy
2021-02-28 00:37:06 +0000 UTCHis video is probably why I'll never cover LightScribe, heh. Great stuff!
LGR
2021-02-28 00:35:04 +0000 UTCOh yeah, I heard about this in Technology Connections' video on LightScribe! Will be interesting to see if Yamaha's approach is any better.
Andrew Ferguson (DominateEye)
2021-02-28 00:34:05 +0000 UTCYOU SIGNED UP FOR THIS π Hope you enjoy and have a good night!
LGR
2021-02-28 00:34:03 +0000 UTCDamnit, I just wanted to go to sleep. Guess that will have to wait 20 minutes more π
Jorg Rademaker
2021-02-28 00:32:29 +0000 UTC
