Verbatim Corporation, the industry leader in offering the widest range of premium-quality LightScribe media, announced today volume shipments of the first Color-background LightScribe CD-R media to the US market. Production of the new media, which began shipping to the US in November, was ramped up to make it more widely available in time for the holidays. Sold in 25-packs, each package includes five vibrantly colored red, green, blue, yellow and orange discs that make ideal holiday gifts. Verbatim will also be showing the new LightScribe media at its CES Booth in the South Hall #4/36249 in Las Vegas, January 8-11. The richly colored CDs were made possible by the new LightScribe Media Version 1.2 coating technology which enables enhanced image contrast.

Verbatim's Color-background LightScribe CDs were specifically designed for LightScribe-compatible drives and software licensed by Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). With more than 20 million LightScribe-enabled drives shipped to date, drives with the direct disc labeling technology account for more than 10 percent of all CD/DVD burners manufactured on a monthly basis.

By combining Verbatim's new Color-background LightScribe CDs with these drives, consumers can use the same optical disc drive laser to burn content on the data side of the disc and to produce silkscreen-quality black text and graphics labels on the label side of the discs. In addition to making the recorded discs more memorable, the color-background media make it easier to organize a collection. For example, music enthusiasts can select blue for jazz, green for rock, red for pop, orange for classical and yellow for blues.

Color-background LightScribe CD-R discs are label-compatible with all LightScribe-enabled drives. For optimized labeling, Verbatim recommends that users always upgrade their LightScribe system software to the latest version. Software and label gallery downloads are available at http://www.lightscribe.com.

To ensure broad playback support, Verbatim's complete family of LightScribe media is compatible with all current CD-R, DVD-R and DVD+R standards.

Availability, Pricing

Verbatim LightScribe Color-background CD-R discs in 25-packs are available in the U.S. through leading retailers, Internet resellers and distributors with an MSRP of $19.99 US. Verbatim also offers the original gold-background LightScribe 16x DVD+R media in 10, 20 and 30-packs, as well as 16x LightScribe DVD-R media in 30-packs and 52x LightScribe CD-R media in a variety of spindles and slim cases.

About Verbatim

Verbatim Corporation, a Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Company, is an international organization that develops and markets innovative, high-quality products for storing, moving and using digital content. Known for its leadership in the removable storage media and related accessories markets, the company provides reliable, unique technologies and products that are highly sought after and broadly distributed worldwide. For more information, contact Verbatim at 1200 W.T. Harris Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28262, (800) 421-4188, FAX (704) 547-6609; or visit the company's web site at http://www.verbatim.com.