Printing color on dvd's/cd's

  • Thread starter Thread starter JE
  • Start date Start date
I have had reasonable success with an Epson R200 and Memorex DVDs. My first
efforts had some uneven printing that I eventually attributed to some media
problems (not the printer).

Mike
 
JE said:
Has anyone had any good experience with color printing labels on dvd's and
cd's?
Click to expand...

Having sucessfully modded my Canon MP500 to direct print to disc, there's no way
I would ever do labels again for CDs or DVDs...
 
JE said:
Has anyone had any good experience with color printing labels on dvd's and
cd's?

Thanks
Click to expand...


Do your self a favor, shell out for either an epson r200/r220 or a base
canon model. If you are in the states, get a tray from e-bay and
enable the feature on the canon, though presently canon is inbetween
models so availablility is somewhat limited. The ip4200 is the lowest
end.

If you print labels, you gotta shell out for the labels and the ink.
If you print on printables, you just gotta shell out for printable
discs which you can typicaly find for about 40cents per.
 
Surething labels and software are very good and look good when using HP
and Canon printers with OEM ink.
 
I should also have asked if it takes any special software for printing or
will most programs such as Roxio and others still work?
 
JE said:
Has anyone had any good experience with color printing labels on dvd's and
cd's?
Click to expand...

I'm an audio guy (not a printer guy). When I bought my Plextor CD burner
around 5 years ago, I wanted a no-nonesense piece of audio equipment.
Plextor was very specific about advising against the use of labels on
CDs (DVDs are the same technology). Now, Plextor bundles software that
creates labels.

Well, "Du-uuu-uh?!"

At the time, I'd swear by Plextor: now, I'm not so sure.

There are a few reasons why I'd never put a label on a CD. The first is
simply that the disk can be unbalanced by the label, in exactly the same
way that a tire on a car can operate badly, banging into the road, when
out-of-balance. Your disk may run at extremely high speed, expecially
when involved with duplication or other burning. Another reason is that
label adhesive might bleed out and goop up the clamping assembly in the
disk drive, tranfering bits of adhesive to subsequent disks put into the
machine (yuck!).

Note that the major brands of blank disks change their suppliers from
time-to-time. Even if they make disks themselves, they can make one
product and buy another one and just package it (my own personal
examples: Sony, Maxell, Fuji). The latest batches of TDK (a company I
used to trust implicitly) say "India" on the label -- it's hard to see
the word becuase it's printed in medium brown ink on a bright red
background. My last (and final) batch of Sony disks skip in two of my
drives because they're punched off-spec.

I have no idea who Memorex is any more: last I looked, it's a company
based in Hong Kong, with legal HQ on an island near Cuba; the president
is being hauled up on fraud charges (check it out), and god only knows
whose disks you've really got who will make them next month. Therefore,
my last disk purchase was of Taiyo Yuden brand -- a product that I
trust, an outfit that actually makes disks for the big guys. They're
printable, but I can't print them with my HP inkjets. Yet.

Companies that make cruddy media and/or bad accessory products, market
deceptively, especially products that can damage my equipment, get no
quarter from this guy.

Enough out of me. I'm flapping my fingers!

Richard
 
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