Don't use the Epson 200 for anything but the DVD discs themselves. If you have a different printer, use that for your inserts. Hopefully, it will not be an Epson for this. The ink for the Epson 200 is too much to waste on inserts. I use an older canon for my inserts and I can use that real cheap, fill it yourself with a syringe, type of black ink. Also, experiment with the printer settings, otherwise your printer may eat up too much black ink. But the cartridges for the 200R are too expensive for these inserts.

Check out meritline.com - they have specials all the time. I grabbed an entire set of Epson cartridges (including 2 black) for $29. As far as the "void the warranty" argument, a brand new R200 is going to cost about $10 more than a whole set of Epson cartridges, so you really have nothing to lose.

I am presently using my first order of merit line generics. No problems on about 50 disks.

What's the overall verdict on this printer? I have a Canon with multiple tanks that just had a head problem so it only prints black and white. Thought about replacing it with the R200 simply because it had the CD print capability.

I would use the CD print from time to time but it would mostly be for regular printing and photos.

Stick with the Canon line?

You might also try adjusting the saturation levels in the printer software. Use either a preset for lesser quality paper or adjust the saturation manually. It does sound like you are getting too much ink on there if it is not dry after days of waiting. On good paper, the extra saturation might not be getting you a lot higher quality than less ink. If I recall correctly, you can save your printer settings as a custom preset for future use.

Epson's response:

_____________

Thank you for contacting the Epson Connection.

Unfortunately, there are no steps we can provide to alter the stickiness of
your prints. You may want to try a Matte finish paper to combat this.

Are these the first cartridges installed to the printer? The first time
ink cartridges are installed in the printer, some of the ink is used to
prime the system. Ink is distributed through the print head and into the
nozzles to prepare it for printing. You should however, receive more
printouts from any consecutive ink cartridges that are installed. To help
preserve the life of the ink cartridges we suggest that you turn the
printer off when it is not in use, as this will cap the nozzles and ensure
the printer performs the necessary initializing once it is powered on
again.

RE Cost of Epson for inserts.

It looks like I'm gonna get around 30 or so inserts printed per tank of black ink. My other printer is an HP 940C, it sucked up a black cartridge in 30 or so inserts as well, only that cartridge costs twice as much as the Epson does. Cartridge 15 black goes for 30 retail

It would be way cheaper to send out this insert to get printed in a 500 run from a print house once you factor in the ink costs

To Boomhower. The R200 is fantastic for DVD/CD printing, considering it's initial cost. I didn't like the way the regular picture and normal type printing was set up. The text printing that goes on the discs, looks really good and has a lot of options. What little I saw of the regular printing set up, looked like it was missing some good options, it still may produce good pictures, but the ink costs so much more than the cheap replacements I can get for my Canon, that I use the Canon for pictures and inserts and the R200 for the discs only. My old Canon (a cheapie) is a two year old S-300, which uses 3 color tanks and 1 black. (easy to use syringe ink, if you want.)

I use an R300, but they are basically the same machine. I had a problem with my first, and Epson's customer service was amazing. Without proof of purchase, they replaced the machine.

My ONLY gripe with the R200/300 is that it will not print anything if one of the cartridges is out. Even if you're only printing B/W, if your Light Cyan is spent, it won't print anything. I don't know if that's because it incorporates all colors in "B/W" printing, or it's a glitch in the system. Other than that, I've had this machine for over a year now and ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT.

when it comes to setting things like margins and such, the epson print driver blows the h.p. print driver away... no comparison when it comes to flexibility, but yeah, once one ink tank is gone, you are dead in the water.

i have never had or seen a sticky dvd insert problem with epson printers, so it's probably a paper incompatability issue.

tomshardware.com ran some ink useage tests on the epson printers, they beat the competition hands down, but i sure don't see it! not a good choice for printing more than a 100 or so inserts.

I'm using Meritline Glossy DVD inserts and they are way to sticky to >use in DVD cases<

Exactly what I found. I switched to glossy Neato inserts, and have had no sticky problems

Greg

I printed a few up as a last shot effort using premium glossy photo paper as the paper source

After 5 days of drying they seem to be able to be used

So if you have any product left, use premium glossy photo paper and let them dry for a week

I was ready to trash the 5 packs of paper I bought, now I guess they can be used for stuff that can wait a week

I only use the R300 for discs. I'm on my 2'nd R300 btw. I used 3 sets of epson carts. then 2 sets of generic on my first R300. After 2 sets of generic carts the heads got so clogged that I at one point I burned 50% of the ink in all the carts just to clean the heads. Tossed that one out and bought a new R300 and only use Epson Genuin bought at Sam's Club.

I stopped using Meritline Glossing DVD inserts. They sweat under the plastic case. I use the matt version and I am very happy. I use a HP 6100 all-in-one for the inserts. I print using the "normal" setting using "auto" paper select. There is a slight amount of banding but with my graphics (swirling, 3d montage style) it's barely noticable. the payoff is I get buttloads of inserts per tank and the print time is like 2.5 mins per sheet. There is no color shift to magenta like the epson R300 and each tank has it's own print heads, so it never needs cleaning. Again the ink is really affordable at Sams Club.

Lately I have printed 200 dvds and if I remember correctly I've only burned thru 1/2 the ink. It's demo season.

I cut and insert the HP printed inserts after about 10-15 mins with no smearing problems.

I don't really sweat having super high rez DVD cover inserts because the plastic case is going to blur it anyway. BTW, I'm a real stickler for still image graphic quality.

Jack

just last weekend i had to tear apart my epson stylus photo 800... it had been flooding black ink onto the printable dvd surface, wrecking the print job.

the fix was easy, tho, all i had to do was to pull the print head out thru the top and wipe the face of it off good with rubbing alchohol... it was an act of desperation, but i sure didn't want to buy another printer! so far it's worked flawlessly, some of you guys with clogged print heads should try it if you are mechanically inclined.

not all printers use permanent print heads... i believe that the print heads on h.p.'s are part of the ink cartridge(??), so they get thrown away with the cartridge.

From somebody who designs the printers for a living:

The more expensive the printer, the lower the cost/page for ink.
If you print a lot of inserts, buy a $1000 printer for them. and they'll cost you a lot less each for ink. An hp BUSINESS inkjet will have the lowest cost per color page of ANY printer you can buy. It won't be $49 though.

You have to do the math on what the cheapest option is. You can get cost/page data from manufacturers for business printers. For consumer printers (like the R200) PC magazine doesn't do too badly in calculating it, though they frequently don't know what they're doing.

Use the R200/300's only for printing on disks if you care about ink costs.

Ink and media (it's not paper if it's glossy) are designed to work together by the manufacturer. A given ink may not dry at all on a medium it's not intended for. Ever. You'll have to experiment with the media and ink you use to see what works. Your mileage may vary.

From another post, a reply from Epson:
snip .... we suggest that you turn the
printer off when it is not in use, as this will cap the nozzles and ensure
the printer performs the necessary initializing once it is powered on
again.

BS. It caps the nozzles when it's not printing. Only turn it off after it has had plenty of time to cap them. If you pull the plug when the nozzles are not capped they will definitlely clog and it doesn't take very long either.

About using OEM ink vs. refilling.

If the printer has separate ink tanks from the printheads you really are taking a risk using non-OEM ink. In the worst case it can be like mixing the 2 epoxy tubes - the entire ink transport path (which includes long tubes in some printers) can be ruined. It's NOT marketing bs. The ink, media, and printer are very highly engineered to work together and give consistent high quality prints. By me and my 300 closest friends. On the other hand the printers are so cheap now it may not be a significant financial worry for you.

Some printers combine the printhead and the ink tank so you get a new printhead with new ink. Refilling those is much less risky as you "mostly" only risk ruining the printhead with non-OEM ink. Again, your mileage will vary. A low probabiliity risk is chemical attack by the ink on the plastic parts of the printer causing mechanical failures. This can and does happen. A big part of ink and printer design is ensuring the chemical compatibilty of the plastics in the printer with the chemicals in the ink. I've personally been burned badly by this (as a design manager, not a user).

So, if you're happy with the image quality (and mess) you get with refilling, go for it. With $79 printers it hardly matters if the printer is damaged.

Thanks for the valuable info. Confirms my decision to buy the R200 from Sam's Club tonight for $79 and do away with stick on disk labels.
Randy

yep - i had the same problem...

As i think someone mentioned, just use the Meritline Matte Finish inserts.
Once you put it under the plastic, you kinda of get that "glossy" look you
wanted in the first place.