Do a search on this forum. Dozens of posts with lots of opinions.

I use the R300. It does a great job. However, sometimes it claims there is a jam and you have to pull out and re-insert the DVD tray. And, it takes 3 and a half minutes to print one disc. This is fine if you are doing a few, but sucks after 100. I printed 50 today. It took 3 hours and I had to babysit it the whole time.

sn

Sounds like its time for beerandchips to get an automated one - assuming that it's worth a grand or two to buy an auto burn/print solution.

Assuming (of course) that your time is worth that much.

Dave

Actually, a babysitter to babysit the printer would only be like what, $3/hr?

I was also wondering about the R200. However, I got rid of my old Epson (I forget the model) because it was so ink hungry. Are these models any better as far as using up ink?

Mario

R200 is great.

I have a r320 which makes great prints, but I don't use it anymore as I use my Primera Bravo II instead. I think you will find some issues with the epson cdprint software as it does not allow you to be entirely free with your design, etc, but I do think it allows you to import files (which is what I do with surething with my bravo as I import from fireworks). Ink is great, but usage is relative depending on quality, bulk, etc. I have even used some of this ink off ebay that is made from some other company. I can't tell a difference in quality... but I haven't really been able to compare longterm results.

I like my R320. Use the G&G Epson generic from Meritline.com. Funny thing was the Epson cartridges supplied with the printer wigged out while they still had ink. The generics are doing good. I can get about 120+ discs printed per cartridge set. That's less than 4 cents/disk.

To use the supplied print program, just use Photoshop or something to create the bitmap/graphics. Then just import the bitmap. If the colors are vibrant, I just lighten the bitmap brightness (saves a lot of ink), add some slight blur if needed.

If I were to print a lot (hundreds), I would buy three of the cheapest R200 models and parallel the printing. I wouldn't spend the extra on the R320 for that.

Edited: sorry, I can't divide tonight. $40 per set of cartridges is around 30 cents per disk, not less than 4 cents. That was based on my first 150 disks with heavy graphics. I've gone through about 100 disks lately and my cartridges are at 50%.
Mileage may vary.

I have an R300. I was never crazy about it but I learned how to get acceptable results (not great). Is it worth it?

In my opinion NO. As was already pointed out you have to baby sit the printer and then there are the inevitable "jams" associated with all Epson printers eventually. I still don't understand why for example Canon doesn't sell theirs in the US to give the consumer more choices. Then you also have to spread them out all over the place to dry. If you are producing a lot of discs your house or shop can end up looking like Tower Records.

I use mine occasionally, but would rather use plain discs with small hand printed notations (I print well) and a really nice DVD jacket for better productions.

For cheap productions I print the discs (as long as they fit on a single disc) and stick them in a plastic CD case so the design shows through. Anything close to 2 hrs or more ALWAYS goes on TWO discs hand printed and put into a really nice DVD jacketed double DVD case.

On the other hand if you use Ritek G04 (like a lot of people) you can no longer get them in plain disks, only white ink jet printable so if you are convinced (as many of us are) that 4X media is better than 8X or 16X media then you will probably have to use Taiyo Yuden TYG01media if you want quality plain 4X media.

John

R200 works great here so far. We mainly use it for one-offs and demos. I prefer to leave the long runs for duplicators/replicators.

The salesman did tell us to fire it up and print at least once a week (here in the dry west at least) to keep it from drying out, and power off when not in use. He said sticking to that keeps them running well. One downside (depending on how you look at it) - replacement cartridges are about as much as the printer (at least what we paid for ours).

Well, I picked up an R220 and I only use it for small work - if I have more than 10 I probably will send it out to a dup house or something like that where I can do it more time effeciently.

Dave

I love my R200!

They make money selling Ink.

Normal paper type DVD/CD is good quality but try this for unsurpassed
(but heavy ink usage) quality:

Select manual load not sheet.
Change paper type from DVD/CD to Colorlife Photo Paper
then change quality to Photo RPM. Color mode Epson standard.

It WILL take 24 hours to dry.
Compare the results!

Then you also have to spread them out all over the place to dry.

Do you have a lot of color saturated areas?

I have a full cover photo on ALL my product discs, but I always reduce saturation to medium to make a good background for the text that I like customers to focus on. Dry in less than a minute, standard Epson ink (which is many times more expensive but at least the color is consistent).

I laminate my discs with an Accent laminator. They look as good as any pro discs I've seen. It seems strange, the laminator cost about ten times what the printer did.

When I first got this printer, I didn't need to babysit it while it printed discs but now I have to on every single disc. I don't know if a new tray would help. If it would and if they aren't too expensive, it wouldn't be too bad. Anyway, as things stand now, quality is terrific, convenience isn't.

Then you also have to spread them out all over the place to dry.

Do you have a lot of color saturated areas?
==========
Yes. Otherwise to my eye they look washed out. They don't dry that fast so I spread them out. Looks like a UFO hangar.

John

I laminate my discs with an Accent laminator
---------
Good grief. Those things are like $2500. I would like to see media with only the hub white and a program that will print that part only. Nice and simple. Dries fast. Low cost.

John

I still use the old Epson 960 and last set of refills lasted for 387 discs. I kind of figured they forgot to put the sponges into the cartridges.

JJK

I have an epson 900 from a year or two ago. It prints nice, however it is a pain to reach behind to load the cd tray...then it comes out the front. Are the newer ones any easier to use, or it's still a full pass through?

I also bought a primera signature printer (about $1000) for another site where we do many more each week. The prints are not as nice, but when combined with the loader mechanism, you can set it to do 50 and walk away (and get away from the mechanical noise!). Very nice.

thanks! Sean

I've got the Epson R310 with the memory card reader. That's handy, rather than having a separate memory card reader. We bought it to print of CD's of our music for our wedding. I printed about 70 cds plus covers. It was fairly quick. I was doing something else while they were printing and would just change the cd every minute or two.

But here's problem, the ink smudges! Even after a few months you can still pick up a disc and the ink will still smudge. That's with Verbatim discs too. A friend with the same printer has the same problem. Apart from that they're great. I've never had any bad prints from it.

I have no problem with smudges at all. Are you using "inkjet printable discs?"

JJK

No smudges here. I also remember someone on the board mentioned that after the disks dry, they spray spray them with CD/DVD lacquer. I haven't needed to do that yet.

Here is the discussion:
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=363484

Yes, but only Verbatim so far. I've got some TDK that I'll try sometime soon.

Then you also have to spread them out all over the place to dry.

What I do is place them in a cake box using the plastic washers that usually come with full spindles as separators. That way you can get 15-20 discs on a 50 disc spindle. Just don't use the cover while they're drying.