More ? on thermal printing

Erk wrote on 7/31/2003, 11:06 AM

I'm about to take the plunge and get an Epson 900 to print directly on Cds/DVDs. So I go to Wholesale Tape Supply wts-tape.com to look at printable CDs and I found this:

"CD-R's are also available with a variety of surfaces on the face or "printed" side of the disc. Shiny silver surfaces are called "thermal printable." They are designed for use with thermal CD printers resulting in a permanent imprint. They are best suited for black only or spot color printing. If you need full color CD imprint, you will need printable CD-R's with a matte silver or white surface. These are specifically designed for use with inkjet CD printers and produce a more colorful face design, but the ink is subject to fade or smear if exposed to moisture. "

Which raises a couple questions:

-which kind are folks using with the Epson 900? (the above implies "thermal printable" are different than the "matte silver or white") The salesman was not too helpful in clearing this up.

-"black only or spot color" I gather "spot color" is the same as say "2-color" printing or something, as opposed to "full color."

-Finally, if one goes the printable route, does the kind of disc one must buy increase the chance of player incompatibility (because they are not major brands, etc.)?

Thanks for your feedback.

G

Comments

jetdv wrote on 7/31/2003, 11:42 AM

White Printable Surface for the Epson printers. They are NOT thermal.

BillyBoy wrote on 7/31/2003, 1:37 PM

Interesting... for about the cost to refill my aging HP L4 laser printer with more toner I could pick up a new Epson 900 high resolution color printer. Hmm....

Reading the specs it apparently comes with a special little tray the blank CD/DVD sits it.

You do need "special" media that has been designed to accept the ink. The difference is they are generally white on the top surface. Do NOT attempt to print on "regular" DVD-CD media. The thermal printing method is older and more limited.

I only got 5 blank DVD's and almost out of labels.... help.... I'm tempted...

MadMikey wrote on 7/31/2003, 4:40 PM

I am using the Epson 960 to print CD/DVD discs. Works great. I use +R DVD and purchased them from yesmicro.com for 20 spindle $50.95. These are Verbatim 2.4X inkjet printable white surface. I'm sure they have -R's as well.

Mike

Jsnkc wrote on 7/31/2003, 5:00 PM

The epson printers use the Inkjet Printable discs, the CD's cost slightly more maybe a few cents a disc. The discs are not any less or more compatable based on the fact that they are inkjet printable. The bottom of the disc is still the same, it is just the top of the disc that is different. The Thermal printable discs are made for use only in thermal printers such as the Rimage Prism, or the Casio CW-50. These discs are usually the cheapest, but the thermal printers are usually a lot more expensive than the inkjet ones. Thermal printers are maily designed for fast throughput of discs with labels that are mainly text. We have a thermal printer, the rimage prism, we can print a disc with 5-10 lines of text in about 5 seconds. The same disc on a inkjet printer will take usually a minute to print.

And to Mike--You should check out the Princo 4X Inkjet Printable DVD-R's. You can get them for about $1.25 a disc and they actually do burn at 4X on the Pioneer Drives that are rated for 4X discs. I get mine from www.genesysdtp.com I have burned through thousands of them and they are very good quality discs.

MadMikey wrote on 8/1/2003, 9:42 AM

Jsnkc,

I'll remember that when I get my dual format burner. I checked the site and could not find any Princo 4X Inkjet in +R's.

Thanks,

Mike

Erk wrote on 8/1/2003, 9:54 AM

Thanks to all for the info. I'm now ready to take the plunge.

G

SVoBa wrote on 8/1/2003, 9:54 AM

It's not true that "... thermal printers are usually a lot more expensive than the inkjet ones."

I do own a Casio CW-50. It's a much more economical solution compared to the Epson printer.

--svb

mjdog wrote on 8/1/2003, 11:46 AM

This was discussed on the DVD Architect Forum around July 19 (see a post by "Bear"). I have a post-it note on my monitor about it, where I wrote that the Casio cd/dvd printer was on sale for $86 at Provantage.com. As I recall, it prints on regular (not white-top) DVDs or CDs, and it has a one color ribbon...probably comes with black, but the Provantage site sells other one-color ribbons. I assume that to get more than one color with this system, you would have to print the first color on the DVD, change ribbons, then print the second color.

thrillcat wrote on 8/2/2003, 1:33 AM

I just ordered an EZCD Inkjet printer today from Meritline.com. Got the top of the line printer for $330, and 100 Ritek Printable DVD-R for another $129. Not a bad deal in my book. Plus, the printer specs even list the average ink cost to print a disc as $.07. I would imagine that's about the same as the cost to print a label, except you don't have to pay for the label...

thrillcat wrote on 8/2/2003, 1:40 AM

Oh yeah, as I read the rest of the thread...they're 4x DVD-Rs, too.

Didn't realize the Epson was so cheap. Maybe I should reconsider...nah. It's paid for, screw it.

JJKizak wrote on 8/2/2003, 7:12 AM

I've been using the 960 for a while now and it does print fine. Some of the
bugs in the software (win2k sp4 and XP pro) that I get are due to using a
print server on a network. Epson says it will not work on a print server.
When The print cd software is activated XP pro sends sends a message that this
application has performed an illegal operation and will be terminated. It does
keep working if you ignore the message. The ink monitor akso does not work
on a print server or network. This is very bad with 7 cartridges. If one is empty you do not know which one to replace. You can't do it visibly. The same thing happens in the other two computers with Win2k. The other problem is you must use two hands to guide the tray into the machine to mantain alignment, one hand in the machine and one pushing.
If you happen to get the disc off of its alignment hole and slide it into the machine
its a disaster. I did it once being in a hurry and luckily nothing broke but it sure
made some funny noises. I have been using Epson printers since 1995 and the
ink monitor has never worked in Win95, win95osr2, win2kpro, winXP. Every time I
queried they said it was a Microsoft problem.
Other than that the printing quality is fine. I really wish they would talk to some SOFO
programmers to learn how to make software.

Epson Stylus Color ESCP 2, Epson Stylus Photo, Epson Stylus Color 1520, and
Epson Stylus Photo 960.

JJK

thrillcat wrote on 8/2/2003, 10:22 AM

I'll post a report on the EZCD when it shows up and I've had a chance to test it.

farss wrote on 8/2/2003, 4:54 PM

I've tried the Casio thermal printer and its not a bad little unit for the price.
According to Casio one ribbon does 40 impressions, guess they make their money on the ribbons. If you want to print more than one label on a CD its a pain aligning it.
The other trap is you really need CD/DVDs without screen priniting on them, anywhere there are screened images or lines the thermal ribbon doesn't have a flat surface to stick to.

I just had a look at the EZCD printer, its basically a modified Epson printer, the one I've seen in the flesh was a C70 printer. The Epson Stylus Photo 900 is a much later model printer, support directly by Epson in the US, at least and is about half the price.

I've a 900 and it works a treat, you have to take a little care loading the CD carrier but that's going to be the case with anything other than the printers designed for robotic systems which are rather expensive.

thrillcat wrote on 8/27/2003, 12:46 PM

Well, after two weeks of using my EZCD Printer Plus, I'm sending it back.

First thing I noticed, it doesn't print on regular paper worth a crap, so I'd have to keep my HP anyway. It looks like an old dot matrix printer.

Second, every time I print, I have to restart my computer. It crashes Windows Explorer. I've spent time on the phone with tech support, and nobody can figure it out.

Third, the software is terrible. It never remembers any of your size settings per project, and always starts with the defaults, so you have to manually reset the size settings every time you print.

Not worth it. I'll find something else, or wait.