Best printable DVD-Rs, CD-Rs, and CD-R business cards...

[YngwieJM]

I'm going to buy a printer with CD and DVD direct-to-disc printing and I'm looking for advice on what printer to get and what the best printable media is. I'm looking for the most smudge-proof media that plays on every (pretty much) DVD player. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

[The village idiot]

Epson R800 due out in February, Epson R300, Stylus photo 960, Stylus photo 900, Stylus photo 2200 (2100).

The R800 and R300 have much improved loading for the disks.

For the best printable media, just look through the Media forum for the disks people have had success with. There are several that work on the printing side, on the playback side, you will have to decide what works best with your burner and player.

[iooi]

I'm looking for the most smudge-proof media that plays on every (pretty much) DVD player. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

Well Ritek dvd's are good, Smudging is more down to over inking than the quality of the disks.
Cd's all seem to be OK for printing to.
Just make sure they are inkjet printable
Using Epson 900 here but would love one of the new 300's. Mrs isnt letting me though... Yet...
Not seen a R800 yet.

[YngwieJM]

Thanks for the tips guys. What is better the photo 900 or the R300? I really don't need to print from flash memory so I am only asking which one has better disc printing quality.

[jliles]

Hi there,

I've owned both the Epson 900 and the R300, and I have to say the R300 (for me, at least) wins hands down. I purchased mine primarily for photo and disc printing, and it does both beautifully. The R300 has a much better designed CD loading system then the 900. It's printer driver, unlike the 900, has a setting for "premium CD/DVD surface", which lays down more ink on the surface - not enough to require excessive drying time, but enough to prevent the washed-out images I would get with the 900.

To get similar quality on CD/DVD media with the 900, I would have to use a glossy paper setting or darken the image, which caused a lot of ink to be laid down, increasing the possibility of smudging and forcing the disks to dry overnight. With the R300 and Ritek G04 printables using "premium CD/DVD surface", I get beautiful results that are dry less than a minute from when I remove them from the printer.

If you like printing photos in addition to disc covers, you'll want to know that the R300 is a 5760 x 1440 printer, while the 900 is only 5760 x 720. The 900 will print on roll paper and on thicker stock than the R300 will, but for me this wasn't really an issue. The R300 is a great printer and you won't be sorry if you get it. If you want to use pigmented ink though, I think you'll have to wait for the R800 (please correct me if I'm wrong - I believe this is going to be a pigmented inkjet printer)

Hope that helps,
Julie

[jliles]

Almost forgot...

The R300 uses individual ink cartridges for each color, while the 900 has a single color cartridge for all 5 colors (black is separate). With the 900, you'll have to replace the whole color cartridge if one color runs out (unless you are into refilling cartridges, which I'm not). With the R300, you only need to replace the color that runs out.

Julie

[YngwieJM]

Thank you very much jliles! I'm sold! R300 it is. Now all I have to do is find one in stock somewhere (I've found that all local merchants are sold out) or order one from newegg.com or something.

[jliles]

Definitely shop around. You may want to try Staples.com. They seem to have it in stock for $179.99 (which seems to be the going rate at most stores). I've ordered from them before, and one big advantage they have FREE next day delivery for anything over $50 (No, I don't work for them! But I have ordered from them before.) They will, however, charge you sales tax, so figure this in when doing price comparisons with other online stores with delivery charges.

Try using Froogle or Pricewatch to compare online prices and stock.

Julie