CD/DVD printable printers

  • Thread starter Thread starter Carol V.
  • Start date Start date
C

Carol V.

Anyone have a printer that prints directly to CD/DVD's? How are the
results? Are they worth it? I think only Epson offers this ability.

Thanks
 
Carol said:
Anyone have a printer that prints directly to CD/DVD's? How are the
results? Are they worth it? I think only Epson offers this ability.

Thanks

I have a epson R200 that I use to print on dvds.The results are beauiful
Click to expand...
I scan the photo i want and print to cd/dvd and it looks just like the
one i scaned.
JOHN.
 
Carol said:
Anyone have a printer that prints directly to CD/DVD's? How are the
results? Are they worth it? I think only Epson offers this ability.
Click to expand...

On the consumer level, inkjet, there is only Epson and Canon, and
Canons have this feature disabled in north america... and even those
i've only just met the new ip4300 so I don't know any such details
other than it looks like it's got all the stuff.

But vs sticky labels... 100% worth it. Sub $100 investment for
hundrads of CDs. The incost of a basic epson is the cost of the ink
and prints cds out of the box. Checkout the epson referb store for
deals at www.epson.com subcatagory clearance center.
 
John H. said:
I scan the photo i want and print to cd/dvd and it looks just like the one
i scaned.
JOHN.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I was looking at a 220 at Sam's under $100. Do you know can you
write on these labels with a sharpie? Also does the ink last, smear, etc.?
 
zakezuke said:
On the consumer level, inkjet, there is only Epson and Canon, and
Canons have this feature disabled in north america... and even those
i've only just met the new ip4300 so I don't know any such details
other than it looks like it's got all the stuff.

But vs sticky labels... 100% worth it. Sub $100 investment for
hundrads of CDs. The incost of a basic epson is the cost of the ink
and prints cds out of the box. Checkout the epson referb store for
deals at www.epson.com subcatagory clearance center.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Saw one at Sam's really reasonable. Will check out Costco also.
Do you know if you can write on these labels with a sharpie if you don't
want to print?
 
Carol said:
Thanks. Saw one at Sam's really reasonable. Will check out Costco also.
Do you know if you can write on these labels with a sharpie if you don't
want to print?
Click to expand...

"TOP NOTCH" for sharpies... with the added bonus of being able to use
crayola markers.

I will add that the Epsons in the with CD printers onboard are not the
best general purpose printers. *Great* photo printers though. If you
want to own only one printer, i'd lean tward canon. Canon would
require a CD tray available pretty much only on e-bay, and I lack any
data on the new model, the ip4300. http://pixma.webpal.info/ We're
talking $100 class for the printer, $30 class for the tray, and no
experence with the ip4300 what so ever. ip4200 and ip5200... no
problem, but those are pretty limtied to what's left on the store
shelves.

If you go epson, be aware they use much ink in their cleaning cycles
and the diaper tends to fill up more quickly than others.
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=51595&forum_id=40
This is information on how to add an external waste tank. With one you
extend the printer's service life. Waste pad or diaper replacement is
pretty much not an option, but given that the printer's value is within
a few bucks of the ink it comes with... it's not something one should
be worried about.

Costco carries TDKs at like $40 for $100... you can find better deals
online, and you can find hub printable discs online, but the DVD-Rs
they sell are top notch and the printing surface supurb.
 
"TOP NOTCH" for sharpies... with the added bonus of being able to use
crayola markers.

I will add that the Epsons in the with CD printers onboard are not the
best general purpose printers. *Great* photo printers though. If you
want to own only one printer, i'd lean tward canon. Canon would
require a CD tray available pretty much only on e-bay, and I lack any
data on the new model, the ip4300. http://pixma.webpal.info/ We're
talking $100 class for the printer, $30 class for the tray, and no
experence with the ip4300 what so ever. ip4200 and ip5200... no
problem, but those are pretty limtied to what's left on the store
shelves.

If you go epson, be aware they use much ink in their cleaning cycles
and the diaper tends to fill up more quickly than others.
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=51595&forum_id=40
This is information on how to add an external waste tank. With one you
extend the printer's service life. Waste pad or diaper replacement is
pretty much not an option, but given that the printer's value is within
a few bucks of the ink it comes with... it's not something one should
be worried about.

Costco carries TDKs at like $40 for $100... you can find better deals
online, and you can find hub printable discs online, but the DVD-Rs
they sell are top notch and the printing surface supurb.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the help. Are you serious about the Crayola markers, or
pulling my leg?? Never heard of that. Anyway, I do have oter printers that
I use for everyday and photo. Wanted this mainly for printing to CD's.

Thanks
 
Carol said:
Thanks for all the help. Are you serious about the Crayola markers, or
pulling my leg?? Never heard of that. Anyway, I do have oter printers that
I use for everyday and photo. Wanted this mainly for printing to CD's.
Click to expand...

The surface of the printable discs are designed to take water based
inks. I.e. consumer inkjet ink. Crayolas do very well, though
sharpies do have a longer life.

But just to print on CDs... you should be happy... might consider it
for your photos as well, it's pretty good in that department. My
experence with the r200 was well, limited to 500CDs under or so before
I had issues... but again you are mostly investing in ink, subtract
about $60 to $70 from the sticker price of the printer.
 
Carol,

I'm an audio person, so I take disk quality seriously. I would never buy
the TDK disks at Costco because they're not made by TDK and not TDK's
legendary quality. TDK's own "real" disks are still available elsewhere
for a lot more money. If you look very carefully at the milk-chocolate
brown printing on bright red background, the tiny printing -- you'll
barely make out the word "India." That's what you can expect at Costco
and other chain stores. I've had too much trouble with bad media in my
life, including awful blank CDs, to mess with products like this.

After a bad batch of Sony CDRs (made by Sony themselves), I mail-ordered
a cake box of genuine Japanese Taiyo-Yuden (the most trusted brand in
this business). The cost was .39 per disk, inclusive of tax and shipping
-- these are printable white.

Sharpies and similar pens do not work well on this surface, which really
soakks up the solvent. I'm doing better with water-soluble felt tip
writers. And if you stop and think about it, most inkjet inks are the
same: water-based. Makes sense, no?

I also don't believe in using press-on disk labels in high-speed disk
burners because at these speeds, the labels can unbalance the disks and
cause problems. My best CD burner originally came with cautions to this
effect.

I don't have a printer that can do disks. Why then did I buy printer
disks? Because when you open the package of retail regular disks they
have colored swirls printed on them, so you can hardly read anything you
write on them. And they're junky, too (race to the bottom to meet the
pricing requirements of Wal-Mart, etc.). I have software that reveals
the actual manufacturer of the disk; the truth is that more often than
not, the disk is not made by the brand printed on it. Quality can't be
trusted from one batch to another because they've virtually been sourced
on the spot market. And what good is a familiar brand name? Hint:
Memorex is based in Hong Kong, registered on a Caribbean island. The
president has been busted for fraud. I have Fuji disks made by four
different companies, not one of them Fuji.

To hell with all of them. Look up CD quality in CD user groups. Surprise!

Luck to you.

Richard
 
"zakezuke" wrote
The surface of the printable discs are designed to take water based
inks. I.e. consumer inkjet ink. Crayolas do very well, though
sharpies do have a longer life.

But just to print on CDs... you should be happy... might consider it
for your photos as well, it's pretty good in that department. My
experence with the r200 was well, limited to 500CDs under or so before
I had issues... but again you are mostly investing in ink, subtract
about $60 to $70 from the sticker price of the printer.
Click to expand...

Thanks. What problems did you have after 500 CD's?
 
Richard said:
I'm an audio person, so I take disk quality seriously. I would never buy
the TDK disks at Costco because they're not made by TDK and not TDK's
legendary quality. TDK's own "real" disks are still available elsewhere
for a lot more money. If you look very carefully at the milk-chocolate
brown printing on bright red background, the tiny printing -- you'll
barely make out the word "India." That's what you can expect at Costco
and other chain stores. I've had too much trouble with bad media in my
life, including awful blank CDs, to mess with products like this.
Richard
Click to expand...

Pay attention to what richard says. Though I reccomended Costco TDK
-R, I didn't reccomend their +Rs which did get moved to india, they are
still out of Taiwan.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

Richard is likely talking CDs, and as i've never bought them, i'm happy
to take his word for it... as their DVD+Rs are from india and they are
not rated as highly as their -Rs, what he says has the ring of truth.
 
Carol said:
"zakezuke" wrote

Thanks. What problems did you have after 500 CD's?
Click to expand...

Full diaper.. waste ink overflow... disconnected waste station which is
used to suck the ink out of the heads and protect the head from drying
out. It was replaced under warranty but I elected to sell the free ink
and get another printer. Others have had better experences, and it's
not like it's not covered under warranty.

This was just me.

My canon ip3000 was up to 836 DVDs before I took it out of service,
upgraded. The black pigment ink, not used in DVDs, did slow slight
signs of banding, overcleaning I believe resulted in blown yellow
gasket, but the ultimate issue was being ignored unpowered.
 
Carol said:
Thanks. Saw one at Sam's really reasonable. Will check out Costco also.
Do you know if you can write on these labels with a sharpie if you don't
want to print?
Click to expand...
You must not use a Sharpie much! Is there
anything that a Sharpie won't write on. You need
to let a broad Sharpie dry a bit longer but after
drying it won't smear on most surfaces including
glass, porcelain, plastics, etc.
 
zakezuke said:
Pay attention to what richard says. Though I reccomended Costco TDK
-R, I didn't reccomend their +Rs which did get moved to india, they are
still out of Taiwan.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

Richard is likely talking CDs, and as i've never bought them, i'm happy
to take his word for it... as their DVD+Rs are from india and they are
not rated as highly as their -Rs, what he says has the ring of truth.
Click to expand...

You're right, Zake.
I don't have any experience with burnable DVD disks, and I cannot say
anything about their quality. I also don't know what to say about
Taiwan-made CDRs or CDRWs. I've used some, and they've been OK. Others
have not. There are different sourcers. I know that among the denizens
of one CD site, there's at least one sourcing brand that they avoid like
the plague.

I can say, ironically, that disks sold by Maxell and another "brand"
that were revealed to have been made by Taiyo Yuden have been 100%
trustworthy in my experience. And, of course, the TY bulk disks that
I've bought. A few batches of "ordinary" Maxell disks that I bought were
made by Maxell themselves. However, a batch of expensive Maxell
"archival" disks proved to have been sourced from Taiyo Yuden, and I'll
bet that they were simply ordinary TY disks with fancy printing. I don't
think that TY distributes retail-packed disks here.

I have an interesting way that I check disk quality. Firstly, I don't
check them in my good component stereo CD players -- these have good
mechanisms and electronics, both of which can compensate somewhat for
cruddy disks.

My car stereo and. especially an RCA CD clock radio, are my disk test
beds. The quality of these transports is so marginal that if there's any
tracking (or off-center) punching problem, these machines will skip
tracks, especially toward the outside of the disk.

And to think that I once trusted Maxell and TDK audio tape as if it were
made by God himself. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

Richard
 
zakezuke said:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
Click to expand...

Thanks for this link. It's really good. For the most part, it
substantiates reports about audio CDs, too. I noted that one company has
faked Taiyo-Yuden video disks.

The companies that I used to trust implicitly have moved on, probably
due to the intense competition in this field. Thus, Maxell (always a
division of Hitachi) is now selling little iPod transmitters, cheap
headphones, and other gadgets. TDK, always independent, is now
manufacturing electronic components. And both of these companies are
mostly buying their disks from others!

When I bought my Plextor CD burner, they warned against two things:
- Putting stick-on labels onto disks.
- Using heavy printing.
The reason was because the disks could be unbalanced when run at high
speed, as in a computer play drive or burner. And my Plextor burner's
fastest speed is when reading CDRs (32x). Today's drives are much
faster. When a disk is unbalanced in this drive, I can really hear the
vibration.
Now, Plextors run faster, they're cheaper, I no longer can tolerate
their software support, they've forgotten that they ever made my
non-bargain-basement drive (!!!), and Plextor is selling label kits(!!!!!).

I can't talk about Plextor or others, but I note that Lite-On claims
that their drives are exceptionally good with unbalanced disks. I have a
hunch that they're right. The price is nice and low. No longer seeing
any reason to buy the best professional brand, for my last two burner
purchases, I threw my lot in with Lite-On ("When in Rome...").

Plextor, like everyone else, now regards their merchandise as throw-away
products. No repair information is provided nor performed; Plextor won't
even tell me how to clean and lubricate my drive!

Ach: Who needs this?

Richard
 
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