Thermal printing is nothing like lightscribe. This particular printer is low end for thermals and can only do a single color; it has a lower resolution than most inkjet printers, but has the advantage that water cannot damage the printing (personally, I've not run into a lot of people that dip their DVD's in water - if water damage is a concern, then a clear coat of an acrylic spray can usually resolve this for inkjet).

Thermal printing and Inkjet for that matter will last longer than lightscribe which has a tendency to fade when exposed to simple things like sunlight.

Be sure to check out the price of the thermal ribbons. I did some research on this about a year ago, and thermal ribbons were usually much more expensive than ink, even Epson ink.

--Scott

>>...much more expensive than ink, even Epson ink...

Now, *that's* saying something. :)

Using an R200 here; a little over 2 years; all works great, looks terrific, expensive ink.

That thermal printer is $139 (on B&H) , it's about the same price as buying an Epson R300 printer. The problem is I have a pretty new Canon Pixima printer that I am very happy with but it does not print CDs ( I should have thought about that before I bought it). So I guess I need to decide what to do.

Opt 1. Get a new, 2nd printer, then starting buying the inkjet printable cds (I usually use Tayio Yuden - they sell Inkjet printable cds, right?

Option 2. Try this thing out. However, it's not clear if I have to use their special Thermal printable DVDs. Ribbons are about $200 and come in three colors but only 1 color at a time can be used. A ribbon is supposed to be good for "200 areas" which would be at most, 50 disks if I printed on all 4 areas of a disk. What do you all think?

Taiyo Yuden does have inkjet printable to the hub DVD's. Likewise they have DVD's suitable for thermal printing (you cannot thermal print on regular DVD's or inkjet DVD's - you must buy media that's specifically for thermal printing.

Are you sure ribbons are $200 each? That works out to $4/disk for printing, which is way too high. I could believe $20 for ribbons which puts it into the 40cents per disk range - still much more expensive than inkjet.

Don't fool yourself into thinking you can easily do full color printing with this thermal printer - you have to change ribbons, which may not be easy to do and maintain the DVD alignment - plus, unless your print software supports layering the colors..... If you want to do full color thermal, get a 4 ribbon printer.

You can find an Epson R200 for under $100, with G&G ink that doesn't cost an arm and a leg - to me that's a no-brainer unless you specifically need something thermal offers that inkjet doesn't.

--Scott

You are right, the ribbons are $19.95. I don't know why I put $200 in there. Regardless, it sounds like the Inkjet printing with spray for protection is the way to go. Just any Acrylic spray from a hobby or craft shop?

Yes, a clear acrylic spray from a hobby place will be fine. Make sure that the DVD's are flat on a surface so that spray can't wander underneath. This is one situation where you don't want to burn all the way to the edge. You'll need to practice getting an even coat.