Best Inkjet Printer for Direct CD and DVD Labeling?

[cmashieldscapting]

zakerzuke does know what he is speaking of, he is a real user.

Yes, Canon is better at not wasting ink with cleaning cycles.
OEM vs aftermarket ink has nothing to do with it, as good aftermarket ink
is just about as good as OEM.

Thanks for backing him up and reassuring me on this as I am just about
to take his advice, purchase a Canon Pixma ip5200, buy a tray
separately, and follow the instructions to install it. I do have one
more question which I will post shortly.

Cori

 

[cmashieldscapting]

When I checked Amazon.com regarding the Canon PIXMA iP5200 Photo
Printer, information at the bottom of the page said that of people
viewing this item, 13% ultimately buy the Canon PIXMA iP6600D Photo
Printer while only 9% buy the Canon PIXMA iP5200 Photo Printer.

Why is the purchase number higher for the Canon PIXMA iP6600D than for
the Canon PIXMA iP5200, and will the ip6600D do any better, worse, or
the same, for the main purpose I want of producing nice copies of
printable disks? Thanks.

Cori

 

[zakezuke]

When I checked Amazon.com regarding the Canon PIXMA iP5200 Photo
Printer, information at the bottom of the page said that of people
viewing this item, 13% ultimately buy the Canon PIXMA iP6600D Photo
Printer while only 9% buy the Canon PIXMA iP5200 Photo Printer.

Why is the purchase number higher for the Canon PIXMA iP6600D than for
the Canon PIXMA iP5200, and will the ip6600D do any better, worse, or
the same, for the main purpose I want of producing nice copies of
printable disks? Thanks.

Cori

Firstly, after 536 discs I just started to notice light banding on the
black on my ip3000. 536 is the offical number from the service report,
not some estimate. This started after the printer sat for 3 weeks, and
this was using aftermarket ink. I have the ip5200 now so i'm not
worried at all about the ip3000, but thought i'd share an accurate
history. Oddly enough the issue won't affect disc printing, just plain
text printing, but I can say with all accuracy that i'm considering a
new head after 536 discs, and these run $60 to $80. Disc printing is
rougher on heads, and assuming my numbers that's an extra 15cent/disc.
Heads are covered under the year warranty. You may not experence this
issue, and this was with aftermarket ink.

The ip6600 will use more ink, it has light cyan and light magenta which
it uses to fill the white spaces. The reult will be smoother skies,
smoother skintones, what you would expect by having the white between
the dots filled with a lighter color. But it will use these like
candy. But it's not the better general purpose printer, it has no
pigmented black tank for text. If you plan to print any text documents
at all, expect them to not look at good, and cost more per page.

The ip5200 is the general purpose printer. It does a fab job with only
4 tanks, while having 5 one black is used for plain paper. It's
bigger, pigmented, and the output is top notch, good enough for
barcodes. The last time I did the math I believe it's about
3.2cents/page, vs the older generation which was 2.5cents/page.

The ip4200 is a cheaper version of the ip5200, with basicly less
nozzles and weighs less.

All these printers take tray type C which can be had on e-bay, though I
am using and others are using tray type B. The difference is the
thickness, that's about it.

 

[cmashieldscapting]

Firstly, after 536 discs I just started to notice light banding on the
black on my ip3000. 536 is the offical number from the service report,
not some estimate. This started after the printer sat for 3 weeks, and
this was using aftermarket ink. I have the ip5200 now so i'm not
worried at all about the ip3000, but thought i'd share an accurate
history. Oddly enough the issue won't affect disc printing, just plain
text printing, but I can say with all accuracy that i'm considering a
new head after 536 discs, and these run $60 to $80. Disc printing is
rougher on heads, and assuming my numbers that's an extra 15cent/disc.
Heads are covered under the year warranty. You may not experence this
issue, and this was with aftermarket ink.

Well, that's exactly the sort of thing I need to know. Hidden costs
and false economies.

The ip6600 will use more ink, it has light cyan and light magenta which
it uses to fill the white spaces. The reult will be smoother skies,
smoother skintones, what you would expect by having the white between
the dots filled with a lighter color. But it will use these like
candy. But it's not the better general purpose printer, it has no
pigmented black tank for text. If you plan to print any text documents
at all, expect them to not look at good, and cost more per page.

The ip5200 is the general purpose printer. It does a fab job with only
4 tanks, while having 5 one black is used for plain paper. It's
bigger, pigmented, and the output is top notch, good enough for
barcodes. The last time I did the math I believe it's about
3.2cents/page, vs the older generation which was 2.5cents/page.

The ip4200 is a cheaper version of the ip5200, with basicly less
nozzles and weighs less.

Thank you, that is EXACTLY the information I needed! YES, I AM looking
for a general purpose printer to back up or even phase out my Epson
Stylus Photo RX500 should it ever become not quite "the thing," not
just a specialty printer to do one thing. There should be choices but
in a case like this there are so many it's mindboggling and I need some
solid reasons to choose one over another.

All these printers take tray type C which can be had on e-bay, though I
am using and others are using tray type B. The difference is the
thickness, that's about it.

Forewarned is forearmed, I now have a good idea what to get, where to
get it, and what to do with it! You've been a lifesaver! THANK YOU
EVER SO!

Cori

 

[Voinin]

Canon won't say, as it is in their interst not to.

See:
http://pixma.webpal.info/Pixma345/345.html

and
http://pixma-faq.periastron.com/index.html

You basically:

Obtain or fabricate CD tray.

Remove inner cover lid (optionally replace with roller piece)

Adjust printer service menu for a location that uses Letter paper and CD
printing.

Adjust registry for CD printing, or install european driver.

Install CD printing app.

I got a CD tray and some printable DVDs. I have to tell you that it's
not quite what I was expecting. It's a LOT better! All I've got to say
is WOW! I am impressed as all hell at the quality. I believe the
phrase is, "it knocked my socks off." And it seemed to dry pretty
quickly, too.

 

[Gary Tait]

ridiculuous. canon has no interest not to say. they just do not
support that in NA because of patent infringements.

Exactly. Their interest is not getting sued by the CD printing licensors.

 

[Oldus Fartus]

but you at least know what you are getting, the quality and results are
consistent, the risk of clogging an expensive printhead are less, and
you do not have to support fly by night relabelers who will not disclose
what they are selling you.

Yes, generally speaking I could not argue with that if one does limited
printing. Each of my three CD/DVD printers (Epson 210 and 310, and
Canon IP3000) uses roughly a set of tanks per fortnight. Speaking
comparative prices the R310 costs about twice the price of one set of
genuine Epson tanks. I can buy four sets of after market tanks for the
price of one genuine set of tanks, so it doesn't take a rocket scientist
to work out with the volume of printing I do, the after market tanks
more than pay for themselves, including replacement of the printer if
necessary.

My Canon has lasted well over two years so far, the 210 was bought in
October last year, and the 310 in January this year. All show no signs
of head clogging so far, and no extra cleaning has been necessary.

Life of prints? No difference has been noted so far between genuine
inks and after market.

 

[measekite]

zakezuke wrote:

snip due to request

snip for brevity
snip not relevant

Thank you, that is EXACTLY the information I needed!

Forewarned is forearmed,

this is part of what i have been tyring to say. aftermarket ink causes
all sorts of problem since you cannot depend on it from batch to batch
and you never know what you are getting because the relabeler will not
disclose. beware that therer are many relabelers and their employees
lurking on this ng touting the undisclosed stuff. they try to make
beleive they are just regualar users. this also invade other websites
that are not ngs

 

[measekite]

the cheapest and best way is to spend about $80.00 for an epson r220
(comes with a full set 6 carts of epson oem ink) and is dedicated to
print cds and works well for that purpose. the advantages are the
printer really has a net cost of about $20.00 after you discount the oem
ink and you do not have to spend money buying a tray from dap pay pal
folds and screw around with your labor. besides you have a new printer
and you do not have to mess yours up.

snip

 

[zakezuke]

Well, that's exactly the sort of thing I need to know. Hidden costs
and false economies.

Well... I can't honestly say this will happen to you, this did happen
to me. I do have to further update this and say canon is replacing the
heads in both my printers. My mp760 would seem to also be experencing
banding. I don't have an accurate service report at this moment, but
Canon as pointed out by others in this group does honor the warranty
beyond the warranty period, in my case 4 days. I'd "guess" 500 discs
were also printed on my mp760, and the mp760 uses OEM ink only.

So the net added cost per disc thus far for me is zero, but as CD
printing is rougher on heads, a head replacement is to be expected
sooner than usual. This is fair to say.

I will also say I have officaly abanonded the ip3000, this printer I
bought new for $65 in favor of the ip5200, and it's still prinitng
discs, and will do so on a new head.

Thank you, that is EXACTLY the information I needed! YES, I AM looking
for a general purpose printer to back up or even phase out my Epson
Stylus Photo RX500 should it ever become not quite "the thing," not
just a specialty printer to do one thing. There should be choices but
in a case like this there are so many it's mindboggling and I need some
solid reasons to choose one over another.

While I am a big fan of the photos on the rx500, i'm not a big fan of
this printer as as a general purpose printer. Great for photos, pretty
top notch for photos.

Forewarned is forearmed, I now have a good idea what to get, where to
get it, and what to do with it! You've been a lifesaver! THANK YOU
EVER SO!

Happy to help... if epson reolved some key design issues, i.e. better
waste ink station, even with the waste ink being massive I would buy
it. The r800 is still "very" much worth looking at. The r200 is
cheap enough that buying two is no big deal and if it needs a service
call you can always print. The r220 the same deal.

 

[zakezuke]

this is part of what i have been tyring to say. aftermarket ink causes
all sorts of problem since you cannot depend on it from batch to batch
and you never know what you are getting because the relabeler will not
disclose. beware that therer are many relabelers and their employees
lurking on this ng touting the undisclosed stuff. they try to make
beleive they are just regualar users. this also invade other websites
that are not ngs

Actually the banding i'm experancing on my mp760 with OEM ink is worse.
I've had less issues on my ip3000 with aftermarket ink, but this is
likely to do with the fact that I used it more.

I find I can depend on aftermarket bulk ink more than OEM because I buy
enough to last a year. Same batch, same results. But I will never say
that OEM isn't going to be better, I did stock one printer with OEM and
the other with aftermarket.

 

[zakezuke]

I'd have to be sure it was worth the extra bother. In what ways are
the Canons more reliable? Thanks.

The Epson r2x0/r3x0 series depends on an ink waste station for proper
operation. It's a little system that has a pad, a rubber wiper, and is
on a sort of plastic dowel and grove system that causes when forced to
the far end by the head rises up to make contact with the head. The
head, when not in use, sits on a white gasket which is only connected
to the waste station by a hook on one side. If for example this waste
station were to get knocked out of place, the head would be exposed to
air and will clog, this device with a rubber wiper that smacks against
the head every stroke, and this pad which is hend on by nothing more
than a hook, this pad which will get ink soiled, has to be ink soiled
to make a proper seal. On top of this, the main head shaft rises to
accomidate thick media such as the CD tray which is there and abouts of
0.1 inches high. This waste station is mobile and does lock into place
via a lever which will fall back into place when the head smacks into
the arm. On top of this, the r200 at the very least has no frame what
so ever. The thing is assembled on a jig, and is held together simply
by the plastic shell.

The Canon is using a thermal printhead. They do have a limited life,
officaly I think it's limit is about 10 cartridge changes but most
users say "20" cartridge changes before they consider another head.
Thermal is a more simple system than micropiezo, it uses no moving
parts, has a shorter nozzle length, and any clog that might happen is
likely to be cleared by the action of cleaning as the force of steam is
rather powerful, vs something that depends in part to gravity to drop.
Now i'd lean tward micropiezo in terms of life, these things typicaly
don't have to be replaced. The problem is a clog is a much more
serious matter and in fact the cleaning cycle is nothing less than a
hydro pump.

I'm not saying the canon doesn't waste ink, it sure does. If you don't
use the printer for 96 to 120 hours, it will auto clean using .14g of
black, 1/2 a gram of color. If you don't use your printer for more
than 1 year hours it will use 1.5g of black, and 1gram of color. This
info is in the ip4000 service manual, and the newer printers may be
different. I can't say how many grams the epson uses in terms of waste
ink, but having an external inktank I measured my waste ink in terms of
ounces. The canon design isn't the most efficent out there, but the
Epson is far worse.

So you asked in what way I found the Canons to be more reliable. Using
very old thermal printheads, while a disadvantage in terms of choices
in ink and prone to burn out eventually don't depend on a complex
cleaning station which is actuated by the smacking of the printhead
against it.

 

[cmashieldscapting]

I got a CD tray and some printable DVDs. I have to tell you that it's
not quite what I was expecting. It's a LOT better! All I've got to say
is WOW! I am impressed as all hell at the quality. I believe the
phrase is, "it knocked my socks off." And it seemed to dry pretty
quickly, too.

Glad to hear from a happy customer, especially if you got the CD tray
from the link I posted. Did you? If not, where did you get it, as I
plan to do the same soon? Thanks.

Cori

 

[zakezuke]

I got a CD tray and some printable DVDs. I have to tell you that it's
not quite what I was expecting. It's a LOT better! All I've got to say
is WOW! I am impressed as all hell at the quality. I believe the
phrase is, "it knocked my socks off." And it seemed to dry pretty
quickly, too.

I'm calling 536 my final limit without issues. This represents 6
ounces of magenta, or aproximatly 13 cartridge changes. I "think" I
blew a head gasket somewhere between the printer sitting for two to
three weeks and doing deep cleans to resolve minor banding in the big
black, which oddly enough wasn't used. Print #537 had a dash of yellow
on it. Could be my home made trade, could have been my wiper was
saturated with yellow ink, too many boarderless prints, it's hard to
say. But on a printer that I paid $65 on, and canon is sending a free
replacement head out of warranty by a few days... and given my volume
it's not such a bad deal.

The stock canon software is not all that great. No unicode support
what so ever and the max diameter of only 118mm. Acoustica CD/DVD
label maker ($22ish) or Discus 3.1 ($39ish) are highly reccomended.
Surething is OK, but doesn't support canons directly the last time I
checked, and not officaly. Nero if you have it will likely do the
trick but I've always found it cumbersome. I use Acoustica, it offers
nice spiffy hub hugging tracks.

 

[Gary Tait]

the cheapest and best way is to spend about $80.00 for an epson r220
(comes with a full set 6 carts of epson oem ink) and is dedicated to
print cds and works well for that purpose. the advantages are the
printer really has a net cost of about $20.00 after you discount the
oem ink and you do not have to spend money buying a tray from dap pay
pal folds and screw around with your labor. besides you have a new
printer and you do not have to mess yours up.

snip

Not if you

A: already have a printer with inherent CD printing capabilities, in
which case there is a one-time expenditure of $50 (very most) or less
for the tray and maybe roller. You can print for free if you are willing
to do without the roller, and can fabricate a tray yourself.

B: add in the long term cost of having to buy ink for that printer
also (especially OEM ink).

 

[zakezuke]

Not if you

A: already have a printer with inherent CD printing capabilities, in
which case there is a one-time expenditure of $50 (very most) or less
for the tray and maybe roller. You can print for free if you are willing
to do without the roller, and can fabricate a tray yourself.

B: add in the long term cost of having to buy ink for that printer
also (especially OEM ink).

The pixma ip4200/5200/6600D/mp500/800/830/900/950 come wth rollers.

Assuming you can get the ip4200 for $80, I would have to agree the
epson r2x0 out of the box costs less when talking into account a $20 to
$30 tray from e-bay, and the fact that the epson clearance center
offers R200s for $59 (presently out of stock) and r220s for $71 with
free shipping (in stock).

I don't honestly know how many CDs I got on my r200, but it was NOT
836. So long as you buy a tray, and offical tray, there is no real
risk to the canon, though CD printing is likely to be harder on your
head. It's designed to print on CDs.

 

[measekite]

Not if you

A: already have a printer with inherent CD printing capabilities, in
which case there is a one-time expenditure of $50 (very most) or less
for the tray and maybe roller. You can print for free if you are willing
to do without the roller, and can fabricate a tray yourself.

B: add in the long term cost of having to buy ink for that printer
also (especially OEM ink).

there are many kinds of sense and this is non sense