Is it worthed to buy R200 to print DVDs??

[overloaded_ide]

YES.

I use the ritek g04 printable media, not had a bad one yet.

Me too. Though the last 4 I burned with my 8X burner have only burned at 2x. I have no Idea why, probably software or hardware related and not a disk issue. Old spindle I forgot I had from awhile back before any of the talk of problems and the rest of the spindle burned 4x, also the other spindle all burned 4x too like they should.

The R200 is well worth the money for several reasons depending what your doing and how you use it. First it makes the disks look nice and profesional, unlike a sharpie and my poor hand writting. A geust pops in one of my disks to watch now and they don't know rather it was the comercail disk, a backup, or an original production

The high quality graphics really help identify the disks at a glance if not in normal cases. I normally do use the standard black DVD cases, BUT I also have tons of clear CD thinlines I got super cheap. I can see the nice disk in those, and at a glance I know what it is. Unlike sorting though 50 disks all plain white with black blue or red hen scratch for writing. I don't write neat.

Clients like the proffesional looking disks. Makes a nice well rounded package, good looking disk, nice case inserts, quality case. Looks expensive and sells better.

Not had any problems here yet with printing disks or any rub off, smudges or others. My first printed disks look as good as a fresh printed disk. No fuss no muss so far.
I play em soon as they come out of the printer and not a problem yet here, though I think it does say to wait 24hrs before playing or something.
I have also printed then burned, even though it says burn first, still not a problem. Nice to know so far for me it worked fine printing then burning, so now when I need several disks in a hurry I can print one while burning the other then swap them and print burn as needed.

I ONLY use the R200 for disks!!
As others have mentioned it might be an ink hog and a little expensive to operate. Why bother??
I love my Canon I850 still, I have 2 of those. They will print anything and everything great with the high quality ink I refill with so actually the media I am printing on (even plain paper) costs me more than my inks!
With high quality cheap to operate printers why even think of burning up a R200 or R300 for general printing. I include case covers in the term general, it's still just a piece of fancy paper in the sleeve. Or in my case, mostly plain paper as I have gotten almost Photo quality on Great White 108 brightness plain papers with my canons. I make pinback buttons also, and those DO turn out photo quality quite often on plain papers under the gloss mylars.

Other than testing for comparision with my I850, I have never printed anything other than disks with the R200. I bought it for disks, and that's what I use it for. I could not see any better quality on photos or other prints with the R200 compared to the I850 Canon and I think the Canon was a bit faster.

I do far more printing than the normal person, a few weeks ago I printed about 1,000 pages of cardstocks and paper not counting my normal large amount of printing I am always doing. When was the last time most normal home users printed 1,000 of anything? That was with the I850 and it never grunted, other than needing refilled a couple times.

Grab a R200 or R300 for disks, all others uses use a canon
I have done many disks, my ink levels still show 3/4 full if that is indeed acurate. I'll know if I run out I geuss. I wish I had counted the disks, all full disks in full color, but I jerked it out the box and started printing original content disks and giving them away and lost track how many I did so far.

[Craig Tucker]

My video customers don't really care either, as I do offer outsourcing for this.

In view of the number of people who have bought this printer or want this printer, and the accolades it gets from those that own it, if I were offering a professional service to provide cutomers with DVD's I would not hesitate to include disc printing in the service that I provide. Sure the most important thing is the content on the disc, but people also like what they are getting to be presented nicely, and there is just no comparison between a full colour printed disc with an epson R200 and a title scrawled on with a sharpie.
Compare it to food you order in an expensive restaraunt, there is huge empasis on presentation, it would taste just an nice if it was just slopped onto the plate, but the customer wants it to be presented nicely not to look like they are eating a bowl of leftovers.

[Chip]

What do you mean by "printing right to the center"? Do you talking about printing right up to the center hub on CD's and DVD's that have the print substrate (white stuff) all the way to the hub?

All you have to do is open Epson Print CD, click the Inner and Outer diameter icon and move the inner diameter all the way to the left (smaller).

[BigRedDog]

Sorry for the newbie question. My scans are to the hub but my disks (samsung) are not. How do I edit the scans so that I don't lose any part of the picture when I print? Can someone give me a step by step or a link? I'm using Paint Shop Pro by the way. TIA.

[lordsmurf]

@Craig/@Chip

To retain competitive prices, I offered with and without. They always go without because it is cheaper. I had an Epson DVD printer at one point. It collected dust, so I sold it. The time to layout and design the label, as well as ink, takes time and money, so it costs extra. Again, it's offered ... but nobody really wants it, not unless it's free, and I'm not a charity.

I don't use a sharpie. I think that's the confusion. I include a plain matte silver or white disc. It comes inside a case with artwork. That's what they want, or at least what they're willing to pay for. In fact, sometimes I use branded media, at their request. They can label, write on it, or print on it themselves that way. If they don't pay for labels, and take the disc out and mix it up with others, that's their problem, not mine.

Ink does not last either. No matter what special paper you use, in 10 years .. poof... gone. Even laminated, ink quality does not last. Not at all. The saturation and detail deteriorates really easy, especially in damp or humid climates.

Toner is not messy or a hazard. They are much longer lasting, and much less of a hassle. A laser printer is cleaner inside than an ink printer. Ink leaks. No way around it. Toner only spills out if you're careless with it. On average, laser printers also last much, much longer than ink. The life of an inkjet is maybe 1-2 years. The life of laser can be 10-15 years. Maybe when they develop laser disc/paper printers, more of us will get interested. Once you go laser, you'll never want to mess with ink again. It's really that much of a hassle. The most I have to worry about with laser is dust in the machine. With my inkjets, it's always a struggle to keep them clean and keep the nozzles from drying out.

There's more money to be made from scanning in the wedding images, baby photos, etc, bios, whatever ... and then making the case. That gets a good read, and is seen on a shelf. Several minutes worth, almost 100x longer than the label's 2-second shelf life. A lot more room to work with, and you can get a really nice final product. People are willing to spend good money on a pro case, they're no so willing to spend money on the label.

So for many of us, no, an inkjet CD-DVD printer is a waste of money. Not everybody likes labels. Actually... it's more like 2 groups, those that don't care, and those that like them.

This is my experience and my views. Yours can certainly differ.

[Chip]

Your experience does differ quite a bit from mine. At my graphics shop we have HP5000's (using regular and UV inks), Mamaki (using solvent inks) and other various routers and plotters. Here's some info on solvent inks. Our graphics on billboards, buses, vehicle wraps have lasted 8 years and going in bright Dallas sunlight outdoors. Indoor life of course is much much longer. So using "inkjet doesn't last" contradicts what we're seeing. It depends greatly on your ink.

I suppose laser vs injet mess is a matter of opinion. We had a color laser printer but got rid of it because of the mess. To be more on-topic, my Epson R300 gets daily use. It looks just fine. Our HP5000's have like-wise never been cleaned and they still print razor sharp graphics. The Mimaki isn't as clean. I'd rate it equal to laser.

In a nutshell, to anyone thinking of buying an R300, I say go for it. If you see any image degregation (which I haven't so far), print a new one.

[Craig Tucker]

Craig, your experience does differ quite a bit from mine.

I think you mean lordsmurf.

[lordsmurf]

What kind of ink are your using the in R200 that will last so long under such harsh conditions?

It's 90-F outside right now where we are. If I printed a page on the inket and set it outside in the sun, it would be faded to nothing by the end of the day. That's simply an acceleration of what happens in the house in 10-20 years.

If you have suggestions of good ink, that lasts forever, that won't ruin the printers, that won't void the warranties because it's not supported buy the printer company, let us know. Again, to date, for me, for others I've seen, ink dies.

I don't think billboard inks relate to the inks in the printers we're talking about.

[Chip]

I don't think billboard inks relate to the inks in the printers we're talking about.

They aren't really "billboard" ink. It just shows you have far inkjet technology in general has come. Some people still think all inkjet fades really fast. I don't know how long Epson R200 ink is rated for, but inkjet prints can last.

Lordsmurf, I tell you what, let's see what happens with R300 CD prints. I'm curious too. I'll print off a colorful CD and bake it outside here in Dallas. We're slated for 95 to 98 degrees all week. I'll so some thinking and devise a way to put multiple pictures together keeping the same lighting conditions. I think all of my Pantone swatches are at the store. Well, I'll think of something to show color fastness and comparison. I think everyone will enjoy this test.

[cibal222]

OfficeDepot.com has the Epson America Stylus R200 Photo Printer for $89 - $20 off $75 coupon code 40784789 [Exp 7/31] = $69 with free shipping.

[dmagic1]

I just got one of these yesterday after my Epson 800 died after 7 years or great service. So far I love it. I just have two question.

1. Is there any way to get it to print boarderless on plain paper? Some reg trick?

2. Has anyone had problems with it not pulling the paper in straight? It has done that twice and I am a little concerned.

[stiltman]

Set it to photo paper, then reduce all the setting for plain paper

[Chip]

Cute kid Stiltman.

Instead of clogging this thread with my little experiment, I created another thread with a little test of the Epson R300 (and I guess R200) color fastness. Oh the anticipation mounts.

[overloaded_ide]

Lord Smurf,
Not trying to argue, but my expirence,
While I can't say I have seen ink last 100 years, (I am only 45), it's either Canon or Epson (maybe both) claiming nearly 100 year life. You can also buy UV inks for long outdoor use in direct sunlight also.

I NEVER use manufactorers ink cartriges after the first set runs out unless I need a spare set of empties. For instance, I have 2 Canon I850 printers I love, one at home one at the Office. It takes less than 5 minutes for me to pull the empty tanks from the printer, refill them (4 tanks), seal them, install them and be back printing again here at home. That's 5 minutes for all 4 tanks, not each tank.
However at the office I don't have any inks, so I have an extra set of cartriges to replace with when needed and bring home the empties to refill and take back in full. I bought these printers new when they first came out, about 1 1/2 - 2 yrs ago I think. In total I have 3 compleate sets of cartriges and 2 working printers
The printer at home prints anywhere from 30 - 100 pages a week on average. Some weeks very few pages (rare), or like about a month ago I printed about 1000 pages in just a few days (also rare). Most of those were 8x10 color flyers for advertising and hang all over the place in store windows exposed to direct sun. They still look as they did when they came out of the printer. I used lots of ink! I think about 3 of each color and 4 black tanks, all refills!
As for the flyers, it has been longer than it seems, they were to advertise a play that ran 3 weeks, the play is over now and I did the flyers well before the play started, so they may have been out about 6-7 weeks or so, not really sure. Anyway, long time!
Most were plain inkjet paper or multie purpose papers to be cheap, about 200 at least were card stock with photo settings, and a few on actual photo gloss paper. Of course the results varied as they came out of the printer because of all the paper and setting differences, but all I see still hanging including the photo gloss ones look same as when printed.
They all were printed using bulk ink I bought cheap in 250ml bottles. Not real canon oem inks!

I did ONE 13x19 poster with an epson 1520 printer and it was using actual epson inks, that one is in the marque in front of the theater, looks the same as the day I hung it there about 4 weeks ago. Mounted in a box behind plexi on the outside of the building. Has been lots of sun hitting it, and lots of humidity too, been having storms in the area.

Personally based on my experence with such things I have no worries about the inks fading any time soon on my disks. How they hold up to being handled alot I don't know, but if treated as they should be I am sure they should last quite well. So far I have not noticed any smearing or smudges on any disks me or my 13 yr. old play alot. And of course the ones we played once and never took back out of the case have no reason to be messed up anyway.

As for printing my disks, I do various things with them. Sure I sometimes take alot of time making a fancy disk label to print onto them. Most often though I just take a picture from the cover I made for the case and slap it on the disk with a title. Looks very nice! Or just use a nice stock background and insert some text for a title. That's how I do my CD's for my pickup truck, print a stock background and the titles of all the songs on the disk. I have nice professional real looking CDs easy to see whats on which disk and if one hits the floor while bouncing through the woods and gets stepped on no big deal, I just make another when I get to the house. I the meen time my friends wonder where I buy all those great CDs of old time music, they never know I made them.

As far as cleaning my printer, I never have in all that printing with the I850! Yea sure if you meen the head cleaning it does one of those itself ocasionally or I have clicked the clean heads once or twice. But the insides have never been touched, not even dusted and I live in a very dusty dirt road area. Only ink leak I ever had with the I850 was the first time I refilled, I used tape to cover the whole in the cartrig and had a poor seal, I now use a drip of hot glue to fill the whole and never had a leak! Even that one leak was no big deal, no mess, just i was out of ink again in the morning after refilling the night before. Must be a pad of some type that absorbed the ink, I never found it!

I use the Canon I850 as an example only because I haven't used the Epson R200 enough to know first hand what it will do, but I expect basically the same thing although I will only use it for disks. Also it will be harder to refill. R200 has 6 tanks, a chip that needs reset, and supposedly the oem tanks cannot be refilled and I have to buy after market tanks that can be refilled, for some reason. I still have plenty of ink left, but when I do run out I will look closely at the tanks.

I have friends that have a plain black Laser printer, they are always telling me what all I can't do for printing based on the fact that they are not able to do it with thier laser printer. Of course I ignore them and do it anyway, like the 1000 pages a few weeks ago. They can't do them on a black laser printer in black and white because it would cost too much, they were going to pay to have copies made, I did them in full color with my inkjet!

[Chip]

I just updated the R300 color fastness thread with the latest scan. We've had 100deg days lately and this disc has been cooked. I brought the disc in warm this morning and scanned it. The graphic is actually holding up pretty well. I'm grouping all of the scans in the first post and just re-editing that post with latest scans of the disc.

[dun4cheap]

Just a point of recommendation. While I am not quite sure how Lord Smurf and you store your cds/dvds. It is stongly recommended that you do not keep them in direct sunslight. This will damage/warp the disc and make it unuasable. With that said, it does appear the ink does not run. Good show.

[RottenFoxBreath]

well,i for one am in the "couldnt give a **** about labels on the dvds/cds."
i mean,its out of the case for about 5 seconds,placed into the dvd player,then back into the case.
way back in the day of the advent of sticky labels,it was kinda cool,with a bit of "wow,that looks like an original" factor.
but now,to me and everyone ive come into contact with,its a bit gimp-ish.
itll never be an original,itll never look or last the same,and if you feel the need to take it out of the case and have a w**k over the label,then its you that needs help.
waste of time.money,and resources.

[DivadX]

I got one at the time of the $28 OfficeDepot deal ($50 rebate + $20 off coupon) and I think it's great!

It does take 6 cartridges so you have to think about the cost when it comes time to replace them (and the debate as to used original epson or generic ink threads) but I've done about 20 so far and the levels have barely gone down. I've read other posts that say you can get 200+ prints.

I do crank up the color level +1 or +2 cuz the colors seemed a little light...oh and I'm using those matte white prodiscs right to the hub 23mmx118mm.

I also do the Krylon Clear Coat thang with great results...it really makes the colors come out glossy...and keeps it from smearing even after dried cuz almost everytime I show someone a DVD I've made and printed the first thing they do is rub their finger across it!?

...and here's a trick I do too. One of the problems with clear coating is getting over spray on the underside (or would that be underspray?) So since I'm not using my label Stomper anymore I found that it works great to hold the DVD while a spray it...the inset ridge around the edge totally block underspray and the post in the middle protects the hole. I give them a single medium coat (as opposed to the 2 light coats) then pop up the Stomper post so I can lift it off by the edges and put in a jewel case to dry while I do another...etc.

[handyguy]

There is supposed to be a new writer technology out that lets you etch the cover onto the top of a dvd. Adds only ten cents to the cost of the disk. I hope it comes out soon.

[dun4cheap]

It developed by HP. It uses similiar technology compared to the Yamaha Tattoo setup. That certainly was a flop. Novelty item. You could hardly even see the tattoo..

[lordsmurf]

Just a point of recommendation. While I am not quite sure how Lord Smurf and you store your cds/dvds. It is stongly recommended that you do not keep them in direct sunslight. This will damage/warp the disc and make it unuasable. With that said, it does appear the ink does not run. Good show.

In cases. You'd be a fool to keep them in the sunlight. It's not like I line my windows with them.

The last Epson DVD inkjets I had were messy. The ink ran, some of it was to blame on the disc. Some not.

I have art projects from high school, printed inkjet, on good paper and on the "pro" printers of the day. That was about 10 years ago, and they're pretty faded. I have been able to scan most of them, correct in Photosho, and reprint with my laser.

Now, I'm seeing from good prices here. If you can buy one of these for $25 after sale/rebate and then ink is not too expensive ($10 per cart at most, and it lasts for dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of discs), then maybe it's worth it. I might even go back and do it again for penny pricing. But I already know it won't last, and it'll be a bit messy. But for $25, I have no problems tossing it in the trash when it starts to die on me. Inkjet these days are made disposable. I tossed one last week. I have one left. I'll toss it too when the time comes, and buy another one.

[dun4cheap]

No doubt if left un protected I imagine it will eventually fade. As for the ink cartridges I have found full R200/300 sets for all the colors for $25 a set. I think this is more than reasonable. And unlike the HP 78 cartige I am not finding myself replacing a $50 so called hi capacity cartidge when one color runs out.

One other thing I find of interests is that many of us wine, myself included about the life of technology. The fact of the matter is most not all of us can't wait to have that new technology. So even if my epson R200 last 12 years or 12 months, chances are I will be sporting something newew in lest than 24 months. My Sony DRU500a dvd burner has worked like a champ since October 2001. It still works, but of course I have new burners that are faster. They are not disposable items.

[Chip]

Just a point of recommendation. While I am not quite sure how Lord Smurf and you store your cds/dvds. It is stongly recommended that you do not keep them in direct sunslight.

LordSmurf said that the R200/R300 disc would fade by the end of the day in direct sunlight so I figured I do a test to see just how long they'd last. I don't normally bake my discs.

i mean,its out of the case for about 5 seconds,placed into the dvd player,then back into the case

Keep in mind that's how YOU use your DVD's. This forum is filled with the gamut of users. Some rip MP3's, rip movies and don't really care about the label. Others take pride in their work and will spend an extra 2 minutes to make a slick label/case/DVD menu matching theme. This thread would be more to the taste of the latter.

[dydy]

Wow can't believe this post kept getting longer and longer. But anyway i'll receive my printer soon at about next monday or somethin. And I was wondering, what's the right way to do this whole thing? Is it BURN>PRINT>KRYLON, or PRINT>KRYLON>BURN ???


Thanks!

[DivadX]

I wondered the same thing...and it's probably a matter of preference...and also how much time you have.

First I did burn-print-krylon but got the "underspray" and was getting the hang of how heavy to spray it on and basically hosed about 6, so what was wasted...the burn.

Now I print...let it dry at least a day...then krylon...let it dry at least another day...then I burn just to save my laser when I know it's gonna look good. I have a very low rate of screwing up the burn, but a not-so-low rate of printing and clear coat. Now that I use my old Stomper trick, it works every time so I'm confident I could print and coat after the burn now too.

Anyways, here is what not to do...print then burn shortly after...even when it looks and feels really dry...not so much when you spin it up a few thousand rpm's...did you ever make those spinning paint wheels when you were a kid with a paper plate and you drop the ink on? you get the idea...hahaha!

[Poppa_Meth]

As for the Krylon, I use an old gallon paint can, preferably with paint in it to weight it down. Just drape a white knit rag over it and lay the disc on it. Spray almost straight down with Crystal Clear gloss, two medium coats. Never once had a problem with the underspray. the steep angle keeps it from spraying under and the cloth absorbs overspray to avoid any runs.

[Poppa_Meth]

This is one of the very first CDs I printed on the R300 with the original carts. Its been lying on top of a shelf in front of a window for at least 3 months now. That window gets a lot of sun. It has a good 6-8 hours a day direct evening sunlight hitting it. I'm not disapointed at all with the ink. It still looks almost exactly like the original disc.

[classfour]

I started with an Epson Stylus Photo 900, sold it after buying an Epson R200 (for the front loading ability - the 900 rear load was a bit tedius); which is basically a decontented R300.

Print quality thus far is excellent - including photos that I've scanned and printed for family and friends.

Some, not all, DVDs and CDs printed by either printer were indistinguishable from the originals - all depending on reflectivity and scanner calibration.

I do still use adhesive labels when required, but really prefer printing right on the disc.

As to discs: I've switched to ProDisc's due to having better compatibility than other brands of inkjet printable discs. Also, they are "hub printable", even on the silver ones (which can give an interesting look). I use the silver tops for most text based artwork, and use the white ones for printing full face labels (like on commercial DVDs).

The work that I've done for others using this media has always impressed: They typically ask how I could produce such a nice looking disc.

$.02

[dydy]

Okay. So the Epson R200 arrived today at my front door. Install everything, yada yada... and did some testing on a blank DVD-R. the quality of the image turns out pretty good, so then I decided to try the Krylon Clear Crystal Glossy... I don't know if i used or spray it the wrong way, but the whole DVD got really messed up. I then decided to print the cover for the 3 dvds I backed up and right now I'm just waiting it to dry up till tomorrow and gonna test to see if the DVD playback is gonna be okay.

One Question: I was wondering if the Krylon is really a necessity??

[Craig Tucker]

Nope, I don't use it and none of my discs have smudged.