printer recomendation

[perry2]

Has anyone tried a few different CD printers?
Looking for recomendations for hub savvy printers. Are the Epsons hub
printable? Are they a good choice?
Thanks

[BSpielbauer]

Has anyone tried a few different CD printers?
Looking for recomendations for hub savvy printers. Are the Epsons hub
printable? Are they a good choice?
Thanks

You do not state where you are located (what country). My understanding is as follows:

1) In the United States, the only "regular inkjet home PC" printers that can print onto CDs and DVDs are made by Epson. This is due to a patent issue. It is possible to buy the correct model of Canon, and then to do some modification to the printer, and then to also try to purchase the required tray, or perhaps jury-rig a homemade version, and accomplish the same thing. If this does not sound appealing, though, your only choice is Epson in the US.
2) In other countries, it is possible to buy some models of Canon that can do this. I know this is true for Australia.
3) There are several models of Epson that can do this. The most reasonable ones were the RS200 and the RS300. Both models are now being replaced by the newer versions (RS220 and RS320). If you can still find the older ones, they are often heavily discounted. Neither will yield a "better" print result. The RS300 (RS320) just has a small LCD graphic display, and it can also let you plug in some memory cards, perhaps from a digital camera. Other than that, they are identical.

I know there are also other, more expensive Epson models that can also print to CD/DVD. I have not heard any information as to whether their print quality tends to be better, though.

You can also purchse special dedicated printers that will ONLY print on CDs and DVDs. These run more money. I cannot give any guidance or recommendations, if this is what you are considering. I have no experience.

I own the RS200, and have been very pleased. The quality looks somewhat professional, although it does not have the same degree of "reflectiveness" that most of the commercial discs have. Still it exceeds my expectations, and also my needs. There are those who (carefully) spray on a finisher to make them look more "shiny." I decided against this, due to the increased risk if you get any overspray on the data surface.


And, yes, the Epson -- and the software that comes with it -- is capable of printing all of the way to the hub (assuming you buy hub-printable inkjet media). This is my own preference.


Hope this helps,

-Bruce

[perry2]

Thanks for the detailed reply Bruce.
As far as "where I live", guess I just take it for granted that everyone
lives in the US!!
I've done some more reading here and it sounds like the Canon ("overseas" model) also does a nice job and is cheaper to get inks for. Sounds like Epsons eat ink like it was free. I dont do gobs of printing but I dont want to run out of ink after a few disks and end up spending as much on refills as a new printer would cost! So I guess ink is an issue as well. More investigating to do...

[gerryc]

Epson cartridges aren't excessively more expensive than Canon ones. It's just that you have 6 in the Epson versus 4 in the Canon. Best price I've found for OEM Epson cartridges is around $13 ea. compared to $10 ea for the Canon. I have both the Epson rs300 and the Canon Pixma 4000. I use the Epson mainly for photos and DVD/CD labeling and the Canon for everything else.

[ebenton]

Like I just said in another post, I think you can still get a C86 that will print on CDs for less than $99. I have often thought of getting one of these just for printing CDs and nothing else, but I actually don't mind using a Sharpie to label my disks.
Probably by the time I decide to buy one, they won't be available any more.

[mrswla]

Sounds like Epsons eat ink like it was free. I dont do gobs of printing but I dont want to run out of ink after a few disks and end up spending as much on refills as a new printer would cost!

I have the Epson R200. I think it does a wonderful job at printing dvds and dvd jackets. As far as running out of ink after a few disks, I don't agree with that. I normally yield between 50 to 100 dvds and dvd jackets per ink color. As far as price, the colors run under $12.50 each at Office Depot and black runs about $17. But if you have a BJ's Wholesale Club near you, you can get all six inks for $60. Hope this helps.

[classfour]

Having both R200s & 1 R300, they both print nicely. The R300 is running a CIS, the others are running generic ink - which will soon be replaced with auto-reset refillable cartridges (as soon as I use up my store of generics), as I'm already buying bulk ink for the R300. If it weren't for the hassle, I'd do as others have: Buy an R200 from Epson ($77 shipped), remove the ink ($96 value) and sell the printer for $50 or so. Equal $27 minus selling fees for a set of Epson OEM ink.

As I'm too lazy to do that - I buy generic for a little less. If the printer dies from the generic, I'll get a reburb R200.

[meridklt]

I'm in the UK.

After seeing a demo in PC World I decided to purchase a Canon Pixma iP4200 for my DVD run of 80 discs and DVD box labels and I can't rate this printer highly enough.
Printing a full colour disc surface right up to the hub took about 20 seconds and I was able to complete the 80 discs in one run and not one suffered any type of ink problem (I burned the discs first).

I don't know if the ink usage is heavy as this is the first time I have attempted this sort of task. It used 2.25 cartridges for roughly 33 full surface colour discs and their full colour box labels.

[trhouse]

Fry's is selling refurbished R200's for $49.95 with $20 rebate. The inks are selling for about $65 for a full set of color and the black cartridge is $17. A new R200 is $59.95 with a $20 rebate.

[perry2]

Thanks for all the input guys!
Athough the decision isnt much easier. In other threads I heard people saying the Epsons sucked but ppl here are happy with them. I suppose it would be easier to buy an Epson rather than a Cannon which would require modification.
To Gerryc above, your the one guy whos has both, yet you use the Epson for DVD's and the Cannon for all else. Did the Cannon not produce as well as the Epson? Or does the Cannon not have the disc printing mod?
Thanks!

[gerryc]

My Canon does not have the disc printing mod. I bought the Epson specifically for printing discs.

[spector]

Hey, I'm just curious where you guys are seeing the R200 for sub 100$. On Frys website (outpost.com) the only have the R220 it seems for 100$. From Epson's website they have the R200 and R220 but they are both 100$ on there not 70$ like some mentioned here. Any tips?

My R200 has junked out on me after trying to use a CIS and then OEM inks. What a money hole that thing was.

Im not happy about having to buy another Epson but it doesnt look like I have much of a choice. I would really like to go with cannon instead but am not really into the idea of modding a printer to print on cds, these things are finicky enough already.

[SCDVD]

Epson cartridges aren't excessively more expensive than Canon ones. It's just that you have 6 in the Epson versus 4 in the Canon. Best price I've found for OEM Epson cartridges is around $13 ea. compared to $10 ea for the Canon. I have both the Epson rs300 and the Canon Pixma 4000. I use the Epson mainly for photos and DVD/CD labeling and the Canon for everything else.

The fact that the Epson has 6 instead of four does not mean that you use more ink. The additional two cartridges are light magenta and light cyan. But the total amount of ink used per print does not increase. Since each cartridge is replaced independently when it is empty, there is no wasted ink. I haven't seen the Canon printer so I am not supporting Epson over Canon. I just wanted to point out that six versus four cartridges doesn't use more ink.

[trhouse]

Fry's only has the R200 in stores for the $49.95 ( refurbished ) and $59.95 ( new ). These prices are after a $20 rebate. The R200 has been replaced by the R220. The prices are good I believe until the end of the year but one store was out of both new and refurbished. Another had only three new and 17 refurbished units left.

[OldeMan]

I do not do full label prints on my DVDs with the Epson R200.

95% of my printing is black text only with a very small logo with a couple of colors in it. I print maybe 3-4 DVDs a day, No paper ever.

However, the Epson seems to subtracts ink shot counts from each cartridge everytime you turn it on so that the ink levels for each cartridge seem to go down by the same amount and they all show no ink at about the same time... even though only the black is really out. I tried some generic cartridges but it didn't really like them. I ended up buying a new R200 (about 2 months ago) as it was cheaper than buying the Epson cartridges. All six cartridges show less than one half ink level at the moment...

It does a nice printing job but I'm think I'm getting ripped on the cartridge ink levels.

ymmv

[Skith]

OldeMan leave the printer on, it will do less cleaning cycles that way. The reason it is purging ink every time you turn it on, is to ensure there are no clogged heads.

The type of print head used by epson applies an electric charge to dispense the ink droplets, even when not printing, a minute amount of electricity is applied to the print heads to prevent the ink from clogging.

Trust me, if you leave the printer on, you will save yourself a lot of ink.

[OldeMan]

Thanks Skith,
I'll try that...

[Super Warrior]

I use the Casio CW-50 title printer. That gadget rocks!

Only prints in 1 color(black) and mostly text, but it does a fantastic job.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007FGUS/102-1423618-8331336?v=glance&n=172282

[slacker]

The Epson 800 is at the top of the food chain! A little more expensive, but the inks are archive quality (100 years). Uses UltraChrome Hi-Gloss inks.

[xxiangg]

I used a Canon printer in the past and was very happy about its
easy ink refill. In the past summer, I bought an Espon R200 ($50
after rebate from OfficeDepo). But I learned that its ink refill is
even more difficult then before (I owned Espon777 several years
ago). Then, I learnt that Canon printer also can do DVD printing
if its functionality is enabled. So I recently bought a Canon printer.
Once my original set of inks for R200 is running out, I will junk the
printer and switch to the Canon printer. Certainly, if the ink cost
is not your concern, Espon is also a very good choice. Spend $50+
for a set of new inks several times a year is too much for me. Oh,
I used only ink refill in the past once the original ink is running out.
I also do not expect the prints to last 100 years.

[takeshi]

I recommend purchasing ink from Megatoners or Swift. There's no reason to pay $60 each time to refill. Ink from those two vendors is good and significntly less expensive. Megatoners can have flakey service in my experience...