Hi All,

I havent posted here for a few years now, but have come into some problems....

I have an Epson R200 printer and print directly onto my discs.
I have always bought relatively cheap blank DVD-Rs.
Sometimes silver ones and sometimes white ones.

I was searching the net the other week and discovered Verbatim "glossy" photo printable DVD-Rs.

They seemed too good to be true and after reading lots of reviews, I decided to try some, so I ordered 25 from SVP. They arrived the next day and looked amazing. I had read that some people had problems with the drying of the ink etc.
Anyway, after about 3 coasters, I managed to burn some movies and print them, WOW, they looked amazing !!!
I left them for about 48 hours and decided to give the ink a "light touch" to make sure it was dry and no, it smudged !!!, so I printed some more and decided to leave them for 1 week. After 1 week, I done the same test and they still smudged...
So, my conclusion, they look amazing but are not practable....

So, back to searching the net I went... and I found Taiyo Yuden "Watershield" glossy DVD-Rs. Again, I read the reviews and they sounded amazing... so I ordered 50 from SVP, they were exspensive, but thought they might be worth it. So far so good, they are amazing !!!! nice glossy finish, no coasters and the ink is dry !! Superb.

Anyway, now back to the silver DVD-Rs, Sorry for the long story...

I have always bought either Ridisc, Datasafe or Datawrite silver DVD-Rs, I quite like the look of the "holographic" effect and never had any problems with ink drying etc.
I recently bought some Ridisc DVD-Rs and they printed fine like they always do, I left some discs that I printed for about 3 - 4 days. I lightly "stroked" the disc with the back of my finger and I noticed it leaves a "mark", not a smudge mark, but a kind of light scratch mark. I cant been seen all the time, only in certain light angles... and this is now bugging me...

So, I was wondering if this is normal and if anyone else has noticed this, or any advise would be nice to see what silver discs you all use...
Maybe there is a silver disc with results like the "watershield" discs ???

I know you can buy the spray to protect discs, but im not really into that.

Any help / advise is appreciated...

TIA.

Lincon.

If you're using pigment inks in your Epson, disc printing will often be problematic. Use only dye-based inks on discs. The Verbatim glossy discs should be dry in a few minutes with the proper ink and printer settings.

Hi,
Thanks for reply.

Not 100% sure what you mean.

I use and have always used original Epson inks. I dont buy the cheap "compatable" inks...

As for printer settings, again not 100% sure what you mean.

I use the Epson "Print CD" program with the CD / DVD option (obviously) and always set the quality to "Photo".

Am I doing something wrong then ?

TIA

* * Moved from Blank Media forum to CD & DVD Printing and Labeling forum * *

Some Epson inks are pigment based, some are dye based. Printable discs tend to favor dye based inks, as pigment ink tends to lay on the surface and not absorb correctly. The R200 should be using the TO48xxx line of ink tanks, which are dye based, but there are pigment based inks available that can be used also. That's why I mentioned it.

Even the Epson dye inks can tend to smudge easily, you can see some smudge tests I did with Epson and Canon inks in the sticky thread found in this forum. Even so, the discs should feel dry within a few minutes, or you are either applying too much ink or the wrong ink type. Smudging should require some moisture, and shouldn't occur with a dry finger unless you press really hard. Still, most printable disc surfaces are fairly delicate.

As for silver printables, I only use the TY discs and can't speak to the others for ink fastness or appearance.