CD/DVD Printer?

[Seehorse]

Does anyone have any recommendations for, or experience with any CD/DVD Printers? I'm looking for an inkjet printer that will give good, sharp results quickly on printable DVD's.

I've got an EZ/CD 4200 which uses the Epson C42 engine and it's been a real POS, leaking ink at times, feeding the disk thru without printing, blurred text & graphics... well, you get the idea. Because of my experience with this printer I'm somewhat worried about any of the Epson CD printers I've seen, are they ok or do they also have any of these issues? I need a printer that will spit out a sharp, clear, quality printed disk in less than a minute. I know I can get that with the $1,000 and up units but can I get it in the sub $500 range?

Thanks!
Scott Cooper
Seehorse Video

[Supreme2k]

Epson R200.

That is all.

[arrived03]

i am using the canon i865 and the discs look stunning.

[mike1061]

Is the i865 avalible in the US? A google search turned up nothing in the US.

And do you have to use the software it comes with? Or could you transfer files made with avery software to the i865 software.
Thanks Mike.

[SoundFX]

Here's another vote for the Epson R200. Best $99 I ever spent...

[kosekjm]

I have the R300, which is the same as the R200, it just has the media card reader that the R200 doesn't. I have to say that the cd's look phenomenal. (With the right cd/dvd mostly Ritek G-04 and Prodisc S03). I would recommend either the R200 or the R300 to anybody. The R200 will only run you about $99.00 or so, whereas the R300 can run up to (last time I checked) $179.00. The print engine in these two printers is the same engine, so if you don't need the card reader, save your money and get the R200.

As for the Canon i865, I thought that I had read that due to patent issues, Canon is not selling any of their CD capable printers in the US, so that is why you can't find any info on the 865 stateside.

The one thing that I have found odd with the R200, is ink capacity. I have two friends at work who both bought the R200 based off of some prints that I have shown them. They are both running out of their black ink. According to them, they have only printed about 50 disks or so and "a few" sheets of text. How many is a few? I don't have any idea. Any way, they have both had to replace their black carts. I have done about 90 DVD/CDs and have printed about 36 4x6 photos and about 5 5x7 prints and I'm still over 1/4 tank on all of my colors. (Black is just below the 1/2 mark) Now, I don't use the R300 for regular text printing, I use my old HP for that, so that may be why their tanks are lower.

Get this printer, you won't be disappointed.

kosekjm

[iooi]

blurred text & graphics...

That sounds like its laying too much ink down onto the disks or the source pic isnt very good, but my money is on too much ink.
Try lowering the settings. Start at plain paper and work your way up.

Use a Epson 900 here for about a year, no problems with the quality at all. ITs all in getting the settings right.

[watty252]

Just got the cannon i865 myself, brillent results.

[rich_jtg]

Yep, its a shame you can't get the i865 in the US... the CD caddy that comes with it makes printing a breeze!

Top quality printing too! (not trying to rub it in!) 8)

[marvel2020]

If you can, even try and get the Epson Photo 900, will even cheaper and does the excact same job as the other Epsons.

[jimmalenko]

I have a mate who swears by the Canon i865. As luck would have it, someone actually wants to take my HP 5550 off my hands in exchange for a printer of my choice, so I have ordered the i865 also. I had a bad experience with an Epson C40U and it has sworn me off them for life.

[arrived03]

i had the 5550 & the i865 pisses all over it , you will love it.
I was using the original inks but $30 each is a bit steep so now I use summit ink which costs me $6 each from the computer fair the quality looks exactly like the original inks & they last a lot longer than hewlet packards , I usually get around 80 dvd covers on photo paper(again sumimit)plus the printing on the discs & the ocasional photo or text print before i have to replace the ink tanks.

[jimmalenko]

i had the 5550 & the i865 pisses all over it , you will love it.
I was using the original inks but $30 each is a bit steep so now I use summit ink which costs me $6 each from the computer fair the quality looks exactly like the original inks & they last a lot longer than hewlet packards , I usually get around 80 dvd covers on photo paper(again sumimit)plus the printing on the discs & the ocasional photo or text print before i have to replace the ink tanks.

Thanks for the info.

You can imagine how devastated I was when someone said to me

Him:  Hey your printer's really cool. Can I like swap you for it ?

Me:  I don't want to swap. I'm happy with what I've got.

Him:  Well, what's say I buy a printer when I buy my new PC, I'll take your printer and you can have the new one I buy ?

Me:  Ummmm, yeah, sure, but....(wondering whether I should tell him to just buy a 5550 or not)...it has to be my choice.

Him:  I only want to spend $300 on the printer. Can you get something you'll like for that ?

Me:  Yep, Canon i865. $283.00. Done.

Him:  Deal.

moron.

[arrived03]

i better make this clear before someone jumps down my throat.
when i say i do around 80 photo dvd covers , i mix n match a few covers with a lot of white on them , i download all my covers from dvd coverart so the movies that are alright i get the plainest covers , but the really good movies or boxed set movies i usually download the best looking ones which most of the time consist of a lot of colour especialy the use of black which i go through the most . When i first got the printer I was downloading and printing the best for all the covers and i was getting around 40-50 covers . So far I have printed around 280 covers and discs with the canon i865 and it has cost around A$100 in ink , which is excellent considering the hewlett packard 5550 would cost that amount for the ink to do if i was lucky about 30 covers.

[Seehorse]

blurred text & graphics...

That sounds like its laying too much ink down onto the disks or the source pic isnt very good, but my money is on too much ink.
Try lowering the settings. Start at plain paper and work your way up.

Use a Epson 900 here for about a year, no problems with the quality at all. ITs all in getting the settings right.

If I lower the settings, then the quality goes straight into the crapper. The first disk I print in a session WILL get black ink pooling on the CD Tray (not necessarily on the disk itself), and the thing will spend 2 minutes trying to feed (but it absolutely will NOT print, it'll just grab the CD tray and throw it thru). I've discovered that I must wait for it to quit trying to feed, then put the disk tray in the printer and press the paper feed button.

I'd LOVE to be able to get a Canon i965, I have a 960 that's a great printer. Unfortunately for some reason the 965 (or any of Canon's CD Printers for that matter) isn't available in the US. Based on the comments here I think I'm leaning towards the Epson R800, since it's the fastest CD Printer I can find.

Thanks,
Scott

[iooi]

Sounds like you need to send the printer back to them and get the problems sorted......
Something is well wrong if its doing that..

[jimmalenko]

I'd LOVE to be able to get a Canon i965, I have a 960 that's a great printer. Unfortunately for some reason the 965 (or any of Canon's CD Printers for that matter) isn't available in the US. Based on the comments here I think I'm leaning towards the Epson R800, since it's the fastest CD Printer I can find.

That's interesting. I looked at the i965 and the only differences I could see between it and the i865 was that the i965 is optimised for photo printing and it's ppm is less than the i865 probably because of this. The i965 is about $200 more. It wasn't viable for what I wanted to do with it and was out of my freebie price range.

[RDS1955]

I'm thinking about purchasing a color Laser Printer.. Anyone have any ideas as if there is a good quality color laser printer or accessory I can use with a Laser Printer to print Labels with ??? Any help/pointers/suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated..

Paranoid ?!?!?!?, who's Paranoid ?!?!?!?