I've been using Iron-On labels. Sometimes the dvd sticks to the bottom of the iron, but not usually.

Yep I agree use Taiyo Yuden media. I even use peel and stick labels ( bulk permanent in thousand pack with slip sheet between each 25 recommended for above ) using two standard HP printers for labeling only .

I burn with three 7 x dvd-cd duplication towers and not one reported problem.

Ok
I borrowed a Epson R300 and man that thing sucks for discs.
The tray gets jammed
sometimes it does not even pull in the tray and then a reset has to be done. If you do not reset it will act as if it's going to print it but 20 mins later it's still just sitting there doing nothing UNTIL THE RESET!

I ruined 2 discs one had black blotches on it
1 stopped half way and it said tray jammed
the 3rd came out ok but it did say tray jam, luckily it completed printing the dvd
so 1 out of 3 sucks!

so let me ask epson users this.
Do you have these tray problems

Now for my next Q for everyone...
What about Dymos Disc painter
http://global.dymo.com/enUS/DiscPainter/default.html?WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=Yahoo

one other note guys
the epson r300 leaves alot of dots on verbatims glossy dvds
leaving a bit unpleasing.

My canon prints neato glossy labels perfectly

I'm a bit concerned about the dymos 600 dpi print quality
sure it looks nice but how do the discs look.

I think I'll look at what vendors have a return policy if I'm not happy with the dymo.

Any thoughts on Epsons ink dithering. I also had the printer set to best quality with a manaul attempt at reducing the cyan since the epson prints more bluish. If the epson does this with all dvd's (perhaps it's a verbatim problem) I don't want to use it.

Dont get me wrong from arms length the dvd looks fair. The glossy label looks much better however.

Auggy

Interesting idea--I've never seen this before.

Some pluses:

(1) compact

(2) printed design always centered on disk.

Some minuses:

(3) Dymo? Will this product be around in 5 years?

(4) Special ink--limited availability, probably expensive

(5) how do they keep ink droplets from splattering at high disk rotation speed?


I've admittedly never seen a demo of this product, but for now I'll still with my trusty Canon IP3000 printers. One thing, though: I have to pass my disks twice through the Canon printer to build up to maximum color density. From the sound of it, this Dymo printer can do it on one pass. Good thing, too-- the FAQ says it can't repeat the printing in sync.

auggy, I have the R340. Yes, the printer can be tricky about the tray. You get the hang of it after a while, but sometimes it goes wierd on you. Also, after a while the bottom of my tray got a depression worn into to from the metal feed roller on the bottom and then it got REALLY finick. A new tray ($15 on ebay) and its back to itself.

If I had it to do all over again, I would try one of the Canons that will take the third party disk trays.

"Ok
I borrowed a Epson R300 and man that thing sucks for discs.
The tray gets jammed"
===================================
R320... similar experiences.

guys,
I have reservations of the Dymo at 275.00

Perhaps A canon is the right choice?

I did see that I have to replace a roller???

So I have to buy the tray for the right model printer and the roller replacement? Makes me a bit worried to take my printer pieces off.

This Epson certainly on this glossy verbatim does not look so hot, in comparison to my bjc8200 on gloss paper or labels.

My fear is that I invest in the canon and I see dithering as well.
Do you canon guys who are printing to disc get the dots as well.

If I print a image on photo or high resolution (canon) paper the dots are nearly impossible to see.
So do dics come out that clean? Perhaps my 8200 is a superior printer compared to the 100.00 printing units?

Aug

Ok after reading the 5 (so called) easy steps to making the canon print to cd's, I find it too troubling that so many people have posted problems. Even people who own the very models they state work have problems with blinking light and nothing happens or NO tray in the system, or something.

I'm very leary of this at this point and thus I tend to favor the r380 or the dymo at this time.

I hate the R300 LOL so obviously I am favoring the dymo.

Perhaps I'll have to be the guinne pig for us forum guys here and share the results with everyone (for the low low cost of only 5 dollars per person).

Anyhow,
If anyone has anything to share about the canons not being a pain I would appreciate it.
My guess is, if this R300 has a hard time printing to Cd then it's likely Canons inkjets will too.

Aug

Re the Epson and dots: You should use the "best photo quality" setting or whatever (I'm printing on TY DVDs). You can't print photo quality with some printers on some glossy papers non-photo papers. Neither my Canon nor my Epson will print photo quality on glossy papers or card stock. So I print DVD wraps on photo paper instead. My HP, however, prints photo quality on glossy paper no problem. It has to do with the ink formulation and how fast the ink is laid down by the print head. Note that I am talkin about non-photo paper glossy papers here.

I used to run the same R300 Epson with the same results your having. I switched to the R260 and never looked back. They have a different tray that never gets stuck and I run 7 of these printers when I duplicate discs. I just finished duplicating and printing 400 DVD's for a client and with all the printers running I was done at the end of a 2.5 hour movie. The color is great, the coverage excellent! Since I have switched to these printers I have run thousands of discs essentially without any issues what so ever...

I've got an Epsom R800 and a Canon iP5300.

The Epsom inks are waterproof... except the black. That means you have to design without using the photo black (or any dark colours that might use the photo black). When I switched to TY Watershields, the Epsom also put really nasty roller marks all along the top surface.

And this is why I have the Canon. ;-)

All the Canon inks are waterproof and there's no scratching of the disc surface. I think the print quality is a tad better too, although it's a close call.

With the combination of the Canon inks and the Watershield discs, I can run a disc under a tap and rub (the disc!) hard. Nothing happens. They do feel slightly sticky to the touch if you have wet hands and will scratch, but the finished discs look highly professional, have no label issues and are much easier to produce than faffing about with spray.

I have never had one complaint about Epson ink dissolving under fingers. I never ever handle the disc by touching the inked surface, I always handle it by the edges. After 24 hrs. the disc is totally set. I never asked the customers if they ran water over it to check it though.I also never ran water over my income tax forms either. I use the Epson 960 and it performs flawlessly and there are no dots and lines.
JJK

I've used HP, Epson, and Canon. I disliked the way the HP software tried to take over the PC. The Epson pigment ink printers lasted about a year each, then the nozzles would begin to clog, and that's not a user replacement item (it is with the Canons). The pigment inks were great, though.

The two Canon IP3000 printers are 4-color units, using non-chipped cartridges, so I can easily refill if I want to. There is no dithering that I can see. If you see lines it means you need to do a printer test and probably a clean cycle.

The printers were bought on eBay for maybe $100 each last year and have RISEN in value since Canon brought out the newer ink cartridges for the newer machines. The CD tray mechanism works beautifully and I can run my disks through a second time for more-saturated colors if I wish without any misregistration with the first pass. The tray and roller assembly needed to turn this USA model into a CD printer cost maybe $30 on eBay.

I don't run my disks under water, but the waterfastness criterion is important in that a moist finger can smudge a disk that isn't waterfast.

But this is not a life-and-death issue. Get a printer, then tell us how it works out.

I may have overstated the point, that being that on a disc, black from an Epson R800 will easily smudge when touched with a damp finger, for example if you've been drinking something cold, regardless of the length of drying time. Your tax forms will run too, whatever the heck that has got to do with it. ;-)

In my experience, the end user doesn't expect that to happen with a printed disc, they assume it'll behave like a commercial product.

A TY Watershield disc printed with Canon inks can be handled with wet hands and nothing will run or smudge.

The ink for the Dymo Disc Painter costs 40 cents per disk.

That's more than even the best Taiyo Yuden DVD!

How hard could it be to build a basic robotic duplicator & printer to be sold for $500?

Any manufacturer that pulled this off would make an immense amount of money in a very short time.

What happened to cheap manufacturing? Paralysis by analysis?

Today we see a duplicator containing a drive that costs a few tens of dollars hooked up to a printing mechanism that costs a few tens of dollars, and a simple arm picking up and moving the discs that apparently costs onethousandsixhundred dollars.

My main point is that if you are dissolving the ink with your fingers you are improperly handling the disc, also leaving a water/smudge fingerprint on the laser side of the disc with possble malfunction.
JJK

it is true that the ink for the dymo is expensive however at 1200 dpi it does do 8 passes on the nozzle which means great saturation.

I feel like someone needs to test this thing and since the few reports I've read state it prints as beautiful as a pressed disc my desire is to try it from amazon. If I don't like it I'll return it no cost (just pay the shipping). If It's as good as some claim I'll keep it.

As for .40 a disc thats still not bad considering if I need 100 I'll have em screened from a graphics house. Wedding jobs that I've done have been 2-6 discs. Perhaps there are some wedding where they want 30??? I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

LOL "I've never run water on my tax forms either"...hahahaha

>My main point is that if you are dissolving the ink with your fingers you are improperly handling the disc, also leaving a water/smudge fingerprint on the laser side of the disc with possble malfunction.<

But just watch the average person handle a disc, they pinch it between finger and thumb, they put the playing surface down on a table, they stand their coffee cup on it, use it as a temporary plate and eat chocolate from it and so on.

Clients send me discs all the time, both with photos and videos on them, and usually I have to wash them under a tap before putting them in my drive. The chocolate example actually happened.

So while I fully understand and appreciate what you're saying, insomuch as with proper handling one shouldn't really need to touch either surface of the disc, but that's not how discs are treated by the average end user.

My goodness... you all get detailed in your explanations! Most times that's great... but in this case... I think our friend needs a simple answer (many of you mirror my thoughts)

I used to label DVDs. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! I went out and bought an HP PhotoSmart D5160 for under $100 and bought TY 8x (non-value) DVD-Rs. Now, I ink directly on the white face of the disk, insert them into a thin, CLEAR DVD case, and I'm done (why waste ink and time and effort making an insert for an opaque case??? Especially if you are not mass marketing the disk??) I don't worry about the high-gloss or waterproofing types of disks... you'll go nuts thinking about that. It sounds like you don't need all that crap anyway (granted, it does have its place).

But... I still had shoddy results UNTIL I REALIZED my burner SUCKED. It came preinstalled in my kick-ass Dell workstation, but just didn't handle burning after a year. I bought a Sony 18x Multiformat burner and am SO HAPPY with my life. I now NEVER worry about a disk that's not compatable. My problem was solved for under $200 (printer, disks, cases, and burner).

Please, if anyone is reading this post who is still putting labels on CDs or DVDs, just stop now. I don't care if you just bought 1,000 labels. It's like delivering your project on VHS. Honestly, it is (IMHO).