Let me try to make myself a little bit clear.So far I have labelled all my CD's DVD's with Sharpie and stored them in a paper sleeve. Now I want to make them look like the "rented" ones if possible.

For the best look (you can't get the commercial look without having your DVDs commercially done which can be quite expensive), buy a good CD/DVD Printer. Buy DVDs with white printable surfaces and plenty of ink.

Stick on lables are good for a few disks, but for that many, it will be way too much work. A good DVD/CD printer and printable disks will look much more professional. For the cases, you can find cases online and the labels for those cases are readily available usually with templates.

Dave T2

I use the Epson R280 printer with original Epson ink to print DVD tops.
Before that it was the Espon R200.
These printers work well for small jobs, up to 100 or so.
For larger runs I use Duplium.
They have a Canadian operation in the Toronto area and are in Texas as well, Dallas I think.
They do good work at a reasonable cost if you can get the wholesale rate.

buy a good CD/DVD Printer

I've got a Canon and ma very happy with it's printing capabilities.


Buy DVDs with white printable surfaces ...

I highly recommend the Taiyo Yden watershield discs.
The difference between this version and the matte finish is amazing!!




I tell people to NEVER use stick-on labels for DVDs.
I've heard of all kinds of problems after the label starts peeling off while it's in the drive/player :-(

Mike

I also use the Epson R280, but with a continuous ink system from www.printonadime.com and have printed over 100 discs with only a little troubleshooting. I had an R200 but it never successfully fed a DVD into the printer ...

Of course using 3rd party ink voids the Epson warranty. It costs about 1/4 of what it would cost with official ink. I'm using a dye-based ink and it survives minor exposure to liquids. You can see the DVD designs at www.mindtography.com (created with the Surething label design software from original art).

Chip

Printing that many discs on an inkjet printer is insane. Besides taking forever, Epson printers aren't built well enough to handle it. In fact, they aren't built well at all. After you get to around 80 and the printer starts to screw over the discs, you will then enter Epson frustration mode. My Canon is better built, but you have to hack American models into thinking they are Radio Free Europe models in order to make it print discs. As we say in the US - "munopuly iz gud".

Send them out and spend the money. Don't buy Epson printers unless you like baby sitting.

John

I use the Epson R 380 and it works GREAT I have printed around 1000 DVD's on it and never had any trouble. I dont use the DVD design software that came with it anymore ( it is fine) but I found Surething Labeler Deluxe 5

http://www.surething.com/ST/Category.asp?CatCode=ST5_HOME

It is a very good label program and does all that i need fairly easy to use to.

Do NOT get an Epson printer. This has been discussed in many, many threads in this forum. Here is a link to one of my posts in a long discussion, similar to this one, where I link to external reviews (at Amazon.com) of various disc printers, where the Epson R260 gets absolutely horrible marks compared to Canon and HP. The R200 was apparently a pretty good printer, but the Epson R260 is absolutely evil. It is by far the worst printer I have ever owned, and I used to run a desktop publishing company where printer companies gave us their printers to test, so I am talking about experience with a huge number of printers.

Here's the link:

Needed DVD Face printer . . but . .

John, maybe it is just me but I have had 3 epson printers the latest of which is the R 380 and have never had any trouble with it. i did have some trouble with the R200 after about a year of use it kinda had a hard time fully ejecting the CD/DVD print tray but it still printed very well. never had a r260 and i am not sure if they still make the 380 but all in all my experience has been great. I have yet to try either the HP or the Canon I have a HP laserjet LOVE IT.

Paul B

John -- the much cheaper 3rd party ink source that I referenced handles your objection to ink cost. I am still running on the initial set of 4 oz bottles that came with the printer/continuous ink system bundle. (The same folks sell reusable waste ink containers too.)

Amazon has demonstrated that they cook the numbers, so I wouldn't call them an unimpeachable source for statistics. We proved that they bend the reviews toward products they sell (books in the clearly proven case).

Obviously if a person wants a robust printing system for small to medium quantity runs, they can invest in a more expensive system. I paid $129 for an R280 and a CIS with 6x 4 oz ink bottles. I have run over 100 discs through it. My main problem has been an ink clog from letting the thing sit too long between printings. Oh yeah, and buy those medical rubber gloves to keep the ink off your skin.

[I also recommend a "rest break" for the printer every 5-10 discs. I alternate burning DVDs and printing rather than trying to burn dozens an hour. ]

I printed around $2,000 worth of work on this $129 system. If every year I have to toss the thing in the trash (keeping the ink system), it has paid for itself quickly. Just to reiterate -- for the Epson, buy 3rd party ink. Buy from someone that will support you in keeping things working.

My Epson R 200 is still chugging along 4 years later. The same original feed tray and except for the ink that came with it, it's been Meritline cheapie's ever since. (about $25. or less, per) I probably have not exceeded 1000 discs yet, but I should be close. I keep thinking .... it's got to break down soon, but like the energizer bunny.........

Let me be clear on the problems with the Epson R260:

1. The printer tray will not eject. Espon sent me a new tray, but this didn't fix the problem.

2. After any sort of glitch or problem -- and these are frequent -- the printer goes into some sort of reset cycle where it dumps somewhere between 20 to 25% of the entire ink supply. This is not an exaggeration; it is a completely accurate statement. At an average $80 for six cartridges, this means that any jam or other malfunction that causes this reset costs me $20. If the cartridges are already a little low, and I'm in the middle of printing several dozen discs, it also puts my whole job in jeopardy of not being done, if I don't happen to have new cartridges on the shelf.

The one good thing is that it produces beautiful results. However, it requires a lot of handholding and also breath-holding. I always feel like I'm walking on eggshells when I get near this beast.

I have two HP P1000 printers that I've owned for eight years and an HP 855C that I've owned for over a decade, and also and HP LaserJet II which HP gave me back in 1988. They have worked flawlessly for all these years.

The difference between those and the Epson R260 is stark.

Again, go back to the link I gave in the previous thread and read the reviews on Amazon. This is not just some problem with one faulty unit or with me being cranky.

The venerable Epson R200 was apparently a very good printer.

However, the Epson R260 stinks.

John,

I'm not a big Epson fan either, having noted the ink dump problem. I often wondered why my 380 ink level was notably smaller after every power on, for instance, and as you say, the darn thing dumps after every disc misfeed, of which there were plenty. However, I did manage to get a lot of discs out of my 200 and that 380, both of which still live. The 380 does jam quite frequently now on DVDs, but still is a great photo printer. The 200 tray is worn out, however.

Fast forward (or rewind, depending on how you look at it) - to about a month ago. I went to replace my Canon point and shoot digital cam that died, and the camera store was running a special that included basically a free printer with certain cameras. One of the choices was an Epson All-In-One, the 595. Since I needed to replace ink in the 380, and since I got not only free ink, but a free scanner/printer in the bargain, I bit.

The CD tray and mechanism is SO much more robust and positive feeling than the older units. It feels quite solid when the tray is inserted, unlke the older units that give the feeling that the tray is going to fall out at any moment (the famous hanging over the edge tray that you sometimes had to lift up to get to feed properly). I've printed about 70 CDs and DVDs on it so far without a hiccup, and it just really feels a lot more solid. So far, the ink usage seems to be less as well. I've got my fingers crossed that this will be a longer term solution.

If I were doing a lot more commercially, I would look long and hard at something different, but so far I feel that Epson has improved this portion of the printer substantially. FINGERS CROSSED.

I think the original question about printers precludes sending them out to a commercial printer. As I understood it, they were not all the same titles, but many different titles.

We also have a commercial grade printer here at the TV station that does great printing, but it's really pricy. If anyone is interested, I can look up the model number next time I'm over that end of the building.

Tom

I use a Primera Bravo II Disc Publisher. Worth every penny. It can do 50 discs at a time with the optional kiosk tray. 400 DVD's is 8 runs. They also have a lower-end Bravo SE which does up to 20 discs at a time.

These both perform totally automated burning and printing using robotic arms. So you literally add a stack of blanks and walk away for the day (or overnight) and come back when they are done.

~jr

"I'm not a big Epson fan either, having noted the ink dump problem. I often wondered why my 380 ink level was notably smaller after every power on, for instance, and as you say, the darn thing dumps after every disc"

I took my R380, stuck it under the front wheel of my truck, and stepped on the gas..... sent a picture of to Epson.

Went and bought an HP..... I'm a much happier person now.

I have been using my Epson 960 for years now with no problems. I use the same plastic holder which prints within .005" of the outside edge of the disc on hub Verbatim printables. I also use the Epson R1800 for photos small and large (13 x 19) which blow away anything I have seen. I also have an ancient Epson photo (first model) and it still is working. No jamming, no excessive ink usage, no repairs. I gave my 1995 Epson Stylus Color printer to my guru buddy and he uses it. He did say though that when the ink runs out he will by a new printer as it's cheaper than buying the ink.
JJK

I took my R380, stuck it under the front wheel of my truck, and stepped on the gas..... sent a picture of to Epson.Oooh ... just imagining that visual makes me feel a lot better. I have several M-80s from my childhood. They are almost 50 years old and may not work, but it would be interesting to see what they could do to this sucker.

I've been using an Epson Stylus Photo 900 for over 5 years now. As Epson.au would not import these I imported 5 from the USA myself and bought a number of 240 to 110V transformers to run them. Printed 1,000s of DVDs, CDs, slicks and booklets with one of them. In that time I've lost track of how many Canon and HP printers have gone to landfill where I work part time.
This Epson printer was one of the very first printers to print CDs so it might well be a unique model.

If you want to print DVDs that look like a store bought one then a thermal transfer printer will give you exactly that and you don't need inkjet printable media. The downside is the cost of the printer and the film. Also I've heard these printers do heat the disk up quite a bit so you need to be careful about the media you use.

Bob.

I also have the Primera Bravo II printer. I use it with the watershield discs and the results are very, very good. No baby sitting the print job, except to remove the 50 printed ones and put another stack of 50 in ready for printing. I've found the print life of the cartridge to be pretty good also.

I have had several models from Epson, by choice I have stayed with them. The R200 was a very solid printer and one of the first generation of their print to disc printers. The R220 was descent and I will admit that the R260 has not been impressive. I have zero complaints with the RX 595 and the new models from Epson now has a completely new print to disc mechanism (no more tray).

Keep in mind when you only spend $100ish on a printer and if your able to get two years out of it, it really does not owe you anything. IMO.

Chad

As I've mentioned on several other similar threads, we've gone through 5 Epson pigment-ink printers over the past 8 years or so, though none that printed to disk. A couple of C80's, then a C84, a C86, and finally a C88. GoodWill has them now, though I felt a bit guilty donating them.

Each of the printers would work great--for a while. Then nozzle plugs would begin, and gradually got more frequent. I assume it was the pigment ink. I loved how the printer could monitor remaining ink levels. I hated that the head was not a user-serviceable item.

We have used HP, too, but I intensely dislike how HP seems to want to "take over" the PC. Just a simple print driver, please.

Now we have a couple of Canon IP3000s and love them. Just four tanks to replace, and even the official Canon ink (much more fade-resistant than generic) is just $10 a cartridge. We, too, have done the "Euro" mod so they print beautifully to Watershield DVD and CD blanks.

To each his own, but no more Epson for us, thanks. Maybe they've gotten better, I don't know.

We have used HP, too, but I intensely dislike how HP seems to want to "take over" the PC. Just a simple print driver, please.For many of the HP printers (not all, unfortunately) you can download a "corporate driver" which is much closer to bare bones. See for instance:

What is the difference between the corporate driver and the home user driver?

You have to scroll about 2/3 down the page to get to this heading.