Anything I should know about the dvd printing for the Epson R280 printer?

[yoda313]

Well I recently acquired a Epson R280 printer free after rebates with a combined purchase. It has the cd/dvd printing tray feature.

It came with a printable memorex cdr as a bonus for first time users. I did a test last night and was impressed. I burned an album I bought off ZUNE (you can burn zune tracks if they are purchased not rented which this album was). I then went online to download material for the cd printing itself (I won't get more specific than that obviously).

Needless to say I was truly impressed with the cd printing. I had burned the disc first than printed it. The particular design I had for the disc was mostly text with limited visual information so the printing only took about 2 minutes or so. Is that an average time for cd/dvd printing? I'm assuming if you have a lot of multicolored artwork on it the printing would take longer.

So I guess my question is for dvd printing is the process exactly the same then? Burn first then print? I think that was what the manual said.

Also I guess one thing I'm gunning for here is recommendations for printable brands. Please note I generally don't like to buy bulky things online. Does Verbatim offer quality printable discs for cdr and/or dvdr?

One other thing for do it yourself disc scanning is it better to place a disc label at the edge of the flatbed or more toward the middle? Would it be better to place it in the middle so you can edit the picture more easily for placement on the label layout?

[Brainiac]

Good idea to burn first, then print. That's my workflow. If you print first and then burn, the ink may run because of the rotation of the disc, if the disc is not fully dry.
Verbatim printable matte discs work great for me. Taiyo Yuden Watershields are most excellent, also. I get my Verbatims from Sam's Club in 100 disk cases.

Brainiac

[yoda313]

Thanks Braniac. I'll keep verbatim in mind next time I'm out shopping for blanks.

[ttyner]

I've been piting on CD/DVDs for a couple of years now and Think it's a great idea. I also bought a R280 about two months ago and am well pleased.
I agree with Brainiac about the Verbatim disks. I buy mine at Micro Center when they are on sale. They cost about 26 cents each.

I think it is a good idea to always place objects in the center of the scanner plate.

[stiltman]

Make sure you save your cover art in something besides Epson's software.
Once in there, you can never get it out. So when you get fed up with that printer and switch to a canon or HP, you'll still have all your original cover art.

[Brainiac]

I NEVER use Epson's CD printing software. It's way too basic. Instead, I use SureThing CD Labeler Deluxe 5.

Brainiac

[jman98]

I have used printable Verbatim discs in the past and they were inferior in every way to Taiyo Yuden's Watershield discs. The problem with the Watershield discs is that they are only available for CD-R and DVD-R and that's it. If for some reason you want to use DVD+R or any DL media, you can't use them. It takes a lot longer in my experience for the Verbatim discs to fully dry than the Watershield discs. I have not tried what are called 'glossy white" Verbatim discs but only the inkjet printable discs. Maybe the glossy white compares favorably to Watershield but Watershield is so good I have no reason to try the Verbatims.

I use Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker to print my discs and I'm happy with it.

[yoda313]

Thanks for the info everyone.