what is the best budget printer for printing DVD discs

For ease of use the Canon i400 or if you can still get them the i865,photo quality printing on photo paper and to disc is a doddle,front loading.

It's not your budget range but worth it.

Hi Rick,
I have recently asked this question too and on the strength of the many answers have just ordered an Epson R200 from Comet for £69.95 inc delivery. It should be here on Thursday so i'll let you know how i get on with it.
Cheers,
Mike

Thankyou Charles and Mike.
The Epson is available at PC world for £84.00. The R200 was on my list to consider as was the Canon IP3000. There is also a Canon IP4000, but I can't remember what the advantages were. There was a HP model at about £99.00 that accepted various memory cards including XD cards that my digital camera uses, and I had not seen this slot available on a printer before, but I believe the Epson R300 also includes this facility. I would be interested in how you get on with the R200 Mike.
Thanks again Charles and Mike,
Rick.

P.S. Are you still using DVDLAB to author your DVDs Mike? A wonderful program once mastered.

Hi again Rick,
The Epson R300 does indeed have a card slot for pics but as i have no use for that facility i opted for the 200. If you need that then the R300 is online from about £85 inc delivery - very good value.
Other things to consider include the cost of the ink which is i believe significantly more for the Epson than the Canon. There are of course various cheaper inks available but i don't yet know about the quality of them. I'll let you know how i get on with the R200.
Yes i am still using DVD Lab and i still think it is wonderful. It did take a bit of learning but once learnt i believe it is so quick and easy to use and produces great results. I am using it with Adobe Premiere (and a DV500 card) but also with pinnacle Studio 9 Plus. Studio can be a nightmare in terms of reliability but as most problems are in the DVD authoring side i just use it to edit and create mpegs - then use DVD Lab for the authoring and burning. A great combination.
Cheers for now,
Mike

So Mike, are you pleased with the results the R200 is giving you?
Rick.

Hi Rick,
Well it arrived on time and was easy to set up. The Epson Print CD program that came with it is easy to use and design the graphics from and in my limited use of it i can honestly say i am very impressed. I have only done a couple of tests so far as i have a larger run project imminent (and genuine epson ink is VERY expensive - but Lynx seem to be doing a good alternative at a reasonable price - anyone tried that yet?). What i have done so far is confirm it works, is very easy to set up and the print quality on disk is very good.
Should have more news for you in about 2 weeks time.
Mike

Thanks Mike.

Hi Mike
If You search the net there is good Photoshop template for labelling, I`ve got one for a 900, but I`m not sure if it works on a R200.
The DVD logo, etc are in layers.

regards.

Peter

Hi again Rick,
To finally answer your question, yes i am VERY happy with the R200. I have run off a couple of different disks now and the quality is superb. It exceeded my expectations i am pleased to say.
Go get one! I doubt you will be disappointed.
Mike

Thanks Mike, it's good to hear you are so impressed with the printer, and at such great value.
Rick

Are there any online reviews that state the actual disk printing speed for inkjets?

I have a couple of Epson 900s and they're slooowwww..... 120 discs (plain text) takes a whole afternoon!

I heard the disc factory type auto loaders aren't that fast - just convenient - I'd appreciate comments from anyone with one.

Typically I need plain text - nothing fancy - but very quickly!

I've started using a £20 Dymo for some jobs (magic for discs and tapes) but other stuff is coming in now that demands an on-body index & titles.

The one we got does up to 100 discs an hour (depending on what your printing), but as you know from our chats by email ,they're dam expensive.

Gavin I'm fairly certain that the print time depends upon how complicated the design is which you're printing onto the disc. A basic text design will print quicker than a complicated photo.

We've got a Primera Signature 3 with autoloader (bought secondhand)which takes about 1.5 minutes to do a simple (mainly text) design. We also have an Epson R200 which I haven't actually timed, but I'm pretty certain it takes a similar time.

Along the same thread, can i just pose this quick question to Ian at Lynx. Hi Ian, i just recently purchased some Ritec printable DVD's from Lynx and was very happy with both the service and disks. Whilst on your website i noticed a sensibly priced replacement set of inks for the R200. Having read all sorts of horror stories about not using genuine inks i am looking for some feedback about the inks you sell. Will they give as good quality as the Epson? Will they clog the heads? Will they cause any other problems? Do you use these inks? I really would be grateful for any feedback you (or for that matter anyone else) can offer.
Thanks in advance,
Mike

Gavin,my Canon i865 will print full colour with fair amount of text in around a minute add on say 10 seconds for it getting ready,dry to a light touch when printed.

Can't fault it,well pleased with it.

Hi Mike, we use the ink yes, your invoice would have been printed with them

Most of the horror stories stem from the manufacturers themselves, they make their money from the sale of cartridges rather than the machines themselves, so get a little upset when people come along offering a cheaper alternative, on Epson and Canon's the cartridge only carries the ink and not the print head which is a much better design.

I also use the Epson 200 and find its performance well beyond my expectations for a printer at this price, both onto disc and photo glossy paper. On paper, the results are virtually indistinguishable from my Epson 1290 which cost a whole load more, but will print to A3.

Not changed the inks yet, but compatibles work out around 20 skwid a set I'm told. As soon as I've used them I'll report back.

stuart

R200 compatibles set is £8.99, not £20.

Hi Ian and thanks for your reply.
When i get 5 minutes i'll order a set of inks from you and try them out. I bought some ink from a computer fair recently for my Epson 760 and the heads have clogged regalarly since - hence my concern. I will be delighted if these inks are as good as you say and will report back to this forum with my findings once i get around to using them.
Cheers again Ian,
Mike

are there any compatibles for the canon pixma i4000??? i notice the lynxdv site has compatibles for other canon printers????

Last weekend I purchased an Epson r200 and am very pleased with the decision. I have printed out some test photos I intend to keep as a comparison to use when and if I purchase compatible cartridge replacements. I will be very interested to hear from both Mike and Stuart when/if you decide on compatibles and how you judge them to perform. If you have any tips with this printer re setup, then please pass them on. I tried using photoshop for ICM calibration, but to be honest I get better printing results from the humble program "Photoquicker" that Epson provide, than I did from trying to calibrate with ICM settings.
All the best
Rick.

Jezz,
the canon inks seem to last longer (my own experiences, based on owning several Epson, and recently S800, i865 and 4000 canon).

I used compatible inks on my last Epson and it became unusable very quickly so I've never used comps again. YMMV

If you shop about you can get proper Canon inks for around £5 each. The PPP paper is another matter........

Adam

I have an Epson 300, the good thing about this printer is the photo quality, the bad thing is the CD tray, they seem to get caught in the rollers, mine is about six months old and I am now on my third tray.

Hi again Rick,
So you finally took the plunge!
Amazingly i have only just used the first lot of ink. I purchased a bulk pack of 5 sets from Ian at Lyx for a very good price and installed the first yesterday. They installed no problem and once i had cleaned the heads a couple of times and checked by printing a check pattern all worked fine.
I have only printed onto photo paper and not disks since then (but will be doing today) but i was hard pressed to see any difference - i was VERY impressed.
I still think the printer is superb too and some recent disks i printed still make me smile when i look at them - superb quality.
Cheers,
Mike

Hello dvcam, I also have the Epson R300 and I am on my 2nd set of compatible ink carts from LynxDV and still printing photos/Printable DVD's with no problems/same quality as the original Epson Carts.

However, I am curious to know where you obtained your replacement CD trays from? Like you, I find my original tray does get chewed up a bit in the rollers and will probably need a replacement tray soon.

Many thanks

Hi John, call customer services 08701 637766, I spoke to Zac. Told him my problem, gave him my serial number, he said he would send one out (free) next day. That was a week ago, I called them again today asked what happened to the tray, was told there is a shortage of spare trays. I said in that case I will buy a 200 just for the tray and ink cartridges. He told me to hold the line and after about 3-4 mins came back on line and said I would receive one first class in the morning. I will inform this site if it arrives. I think the clear plastic guides should be some kind of metal.

post been and gone, guess what.....No tray, maybe in Sats post.

Well, Ive used up the standard supplied inks on my Epson 200 and have installed a set of Im Jet inks. There is a slight but noticable difference in the colour when printing, the Im Jet inks having a slightly green cast to them. This is easily fixed in photoshop though. Also I noticed that they didnt register as being totally full on the Epson monitor, but at the price you cant really complain.

Stuart

Tray just arrived, works but one of the plastic leader feeds is broken. I think I will stock a few spare trays.

A word of warning I have just bought an Epson R200
to replace another Epson, I forget the model it was more expensive and would do lot's of things as well as print dvd's, like roll paper. It stopped printing
because of compatable ink and it would have cost me around £60 to fit genuine ones so that I could have sent it back under guarantee and I could buy a R200 for £70 so I did and am very pleased with it, in fact it's better than the other for dvd's the slot is fixed for the tray, the other used to move to the side when printing if you weren't careful.
I don't think I shall be using compatables in this
one, mind you for the price the R200 is you could
probably afford to try compatables and if it cloggs, buy another printer!

DVCAM, Do you know if the tray for your R300 is the same as the R200, and to anybody else who has owned the R200 for a while, have you experienced the same wear to the tray?
I understand that if compatible ink cartridges are used after using original Epsons, you should clean the printheads a couple of times on installing compatibles. Given the scare stories about using compatible inks that clog up the print head, do these compatibles have a tech spec that gives information about the quality of the ink in relation to the printhead's ultra fine 3 picoliter ink droplets. I presume that means foreign bodies in the ink larger than 3 picoliters would clog the printhead?
Lastly, when inserting compatibles for the first time, did you change all 6 cartridges irrespective of how much ink was left in each of the originals?

Rick.

Rick,

I have had minor problems with my tray, it just says its not inserted, to reinsert and hit the button. Once I have done this it works fine. I have done runs of up to 50 discs once it has decided to get its act together.

I changed the epson original yellow as that ran out first. What I did notice however, was that once I put in a compatible, the other epson inks seemed to run out very much quicker.

No idea about the tech spec of inks.

stuart

To help with problems with the tray R200. Try lifting the end of the tray upwards slightly with your finger as it is feeding in , only slight pressure at an angle of not more than 10 degrees (at a guess). Don`t do this when both the green and the red leds are flashing The error being shown as tray or paper jam. only when it says "not ready".

Hi Rick,
So far i have been nothing but delighted with the R200. I purchased a stack of inkjet cartridges from Lynx which i replaced one at a time when they needed replacing.
Had one clog so far but that was ironically on an Epson original cartridge! About 4 runs through the cleaning cycle later it worked fine again but did destroy the finish on the disk it was printing. Damn there goes another 30p!!!
When changing the ink cartridges to the Lynx ones i ran the cleaning utility and check utility which worked fine and reported a full cartridge.
The print quality seems almost identical.
Very pleased!
Mike

Thanks Cinnabull, John and Mike. I'll assume the R200 doesn't have the same disc carriage problems that the R300 has, but I guess the carriages are the same. On the strength that mixing compatibles and originals doesn't seem to be a problem, I must order some inks. It would seem that Ian at Lynx is very competitive for Inks, so I will be putting my order in soon.
Thanks for all the advice and recommendations. I too am astonished by the professional look the Epson gives to printed discs, particularly when finished off with some satin fixative spray from Ghiant.
Rick

Can I be told more about the Ghiant spray. Is it better than the Halfords lacquer that was recommended on another forum ??.

You can find the spray here, this site is also a good place for ink, they do the full range of genuine Epson (no VAT)

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=61029&r=AW

Hope this helps - for what it's worth... here's my experience with an Epson R200 last week - I had a printing and duplication job for 550 discs.

My kit:
Epson R200 printer
Inkjet compatibles from LynxDV & Big Pockets
9-bay Opticopy Duplicator based on Pioneer 106s from Siren
Ritek 4x inkjet printable DVD-R discs from LynxDV
Halfords Clear Lacquer spray @ £5 a can

The label was a full-face faded-picture in the background type of thing with some text laid on top. The slightly pinkish colour-scheme used up light magenta faster than any other colour - needing replacements twice - the other 5 cartridges only had to be changed once. I was printing using the default settings for discs rather than the "supreme" quality option.

Only ONE disc label got smudged with a blob of pink ink - what surprised me was that this happened relatively early on in the run of 550 - the other discs all printed perfectly, having cleaned the rollers up from the splodge incident with some Clearasil kept over from my teenage years!
No discs were lost on the burning process which was done at 1 x speed from a disc image on the hard drive of the Opticopy duplicator.
I got through 2 cans of the lacquer spray to give the 550 discs 2 coats each to seal the label.

My verdict?
Yes the Epson has a few quirks, occasionally spitting its tray out or telling you it isn't loaded properly when it is... but, for me, that is more than balanced by the super quality of the print, the ease of setting up a label design with Epson's "Print CD" program, its acceptance of inkjet compatibles and its low price - currently £62 ex VAT at DABS. I guess we all have different expectations, but I think that the performance is very good for what is essentially a domestic unit to churn out 550 discs with only one failure.

If the printer had simply been bought for this project ALONE it would have worked out at around 11p to print each disc (£62 divided by 550) plus minimal ink cartridge costs and I'd have been reasonably happy with that arithmetic on a profitable project paid for by the client. In reality, the printer is clearly/hopefully still good for many more discs yet...

Incidently, the bottle-neck in my workflow was the Epson. It took around 3 and a half minutes to print each disc - about 10 minutes slower than it took the Opticopy duplicator to burn the 20-minutes of video content onto 9 discs!

DVCAM, Do you know if the tray for your R300 is the same as the R200,

sorry not to get back to you, have been very busy, got hold of a s/h pd170 and wanted to give it a full test and clean up.

Yes they are the same printer, the 300 has a card reader on the side (never used mine)
For the money and small runs I think its well worth the money.

Jonathon, many thanks for your comprehensive reply. Given the service you have put your R200 through, I am more relaxed about using compatibles. Just out of interest, with a mass production job like the one you described, did you print and spray the discs before or after burning them, and what was your method of spraying the discs to ensure an even coat and avoidance of over spray to the data side of the disc, given that you had 550 to do? A 300ml can of Ghaint satin fixative is about £6.00. What size is the can of lacquer from Halfords, and how does the finish compare to a "proper" fixative.

DVCAM, I looked at both the R300 and R200 when I was deciding which printer to buy, and understand that the "guts" of the two printers are the same. Given the R300 has a different body design, I was hoping that the disc holder might have been a different design to the R200, as I have read about the problem of the plastic feeder lugs breaking off from R300 owners, but have not seen this complaint from R200 owners. Incidently, my main reason for choosing the R200 over the R300 was down to physical size of the two units. As you don't use the card reader yourself, why did you opt for the R300? I know the difference in cost is about £10.00, and and if the two printers were the same size as the R200, I would have gone for the one that had a card reader (just because it's there!)
I hope the PD170 has passed muster, and will give you the excellent quality it is capable of.

Rick.

Can I be told more about the Ghiant spray. Is it better than the Halfords lacquer that was recommended on another forum ??.

I don't know about the Halfords lacquer Fergie, but I'm interested in finding out. The Ghiant range of fixatives are specifically marketed to be used with inkjet inks on photo paper and plastic (cd/dvd). I am unsure how the characteristics of an automotive lacquer designed to cover automotive paints would react with plastic and inkjet printer ink.
Ghiant sell three different finishes of fixative: gloss,matt and satin. I have only used the satin, and am very pleased with the results, but as I have yet to try the gloss or matt, I have nothing to compare my results with, be they Ghiant gloss and matt or Halfords "DIY" lacquer.

Look half way down the page for Ghiant fixatives:

http://www.ukshoptilludrop.co.uk/product.aspx?product=69100

Rick.

hi rbarry, I got the 300 for the card reason. I have a stand alone card reader on my desk top but thought if I get a card reader I might use that as well. As yet I have not used it.
Thats the second PD170 I have and I think they are great little cameras.
I paid £1500 cash, it looked tatty but worked fine with only 250 hours. Have cleaned it up and given it a good test, all`s well so far.

Hi Rick - my workflow was;

1. Print the discs first (I reckoned this was the most likely step where a problem could occur - although, as I said, I only wasted one)

2. Burn the discs

3. Spray the discs with 2 coats of the Halfords lacquer. Each coat is touch dry in around 5 minutes.

The lacquer comes in two sizes of can - I got the 500ml size... and there's currently a special offer on at my local Halfords: buy 2 cans @ £5.99 each and get a third free. The cans are silver and you'll find them in the same area as the spray paints. The can claims to provide "a durable high gloss protective finish". If you hold my DVDs up to the light you see the glue leaves a sort of crackle-glaze finish not unlike many of the commercially-replicated discs I have bought - this is probably more attractive than it sounds! I can't compare the finish to Ghiant as I've only used this spray. It's probably down to personal taste but people I've shown my discs to think it looks (and feels) really professional. You just have to try it. I think the smaller can - 3 or 400ml - comes in at £4.99.

You're right about the intricacies of avoiding getting the glue on the wrong side of the disc - my technique is going to sound a bit "Heath Robinson" but it works - my solution is to use a set of those cake-tin/drums that you often get packs of 25 discs wrapped in.

1. Take the empty cake-tin and wrap a length of paper or card around the lower half of the spindle, about half the height of the spindle.

2. You can then sit a "dud" disc, playing side UP to rest on the card.

3. Place your new disc, playing side DOWN, to make a snug fit on top of the dud - the remaining bit of spindle holds the 2 discs in place.

4. Spray from a distance of at least 15 inches. Go very gently on the trigger - you only need a hint of spray to cover the disc surface. You'll need a well ventilated place if you want to remain conscious... but hopefully not too draughty as the tiniest speck of dust will make a bee-line for the glue on your nice new label.

The cake-drum approach effectively lifts your disc off the ground so that the inevitable excess spray has more places to go, with the dud disc protecting the underside of your DVD.

I tried the determined-moist-finger test and found a single coat of lacquer wasn't quite enough to seal the inks - 2 or 3 coats do the trick.

By the way, there's more about spraying in a previous post I contributed to:
http://www.dvdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=003969#000000

Also, for a big run of discs there's always the ClearCoat service from Ian at LynxDV:
http://www.lynxdv.com/catalog/information.php?info_id=13 I could easily have used this for my run of 550 discs but the client was in a hurry and I didn't have much else on last week!

Re: Workflow:

I agree with Jonathan's logic regarding performing the step most likely to fail first - i.e. printing in his judgement.

However: I would recommend: print, spray, burn, verify.

Spraying the disc before burning, then allowing the verfication to run after burning, ensures the spray has not interfered with the recording process.

Smart thinking, Mooblie - that's how I'll do it next time!