Hi all,

I am looking to get a new printer. My Canon I320 died on me during the move from Connecticut to Georgia. I am interested in the Epson R200 but there is a problem. My wife really wants a scanner as well. Is there an all in one printer that will print to DVD's and print photos and scan? I have searched around but can't seem to find one. Any ideas?

Not sure about other printers, but I bought an R200 this week strictly for doing DVD/CD printing, and it is great. Quality is really good. Good luck.

Gidday there!

I have the Epson Photo R310 (same as R200 but with memory card and USB port) for printing on DVD/CD's. I have had it for over a year now and the only problem I have had is that occassionaly the "Clicker" to stop tray doesn't "Click" and have to push down to stop.

I use generic ink brands and still get excellent quality results after aprox. 2500 discs + covers! Never been in for service either. (So much for "don't use generic Inks")

Have had a look around but can't seem to find any Multifunctions that also print on disc, so you might have to settle for buying 1 of each
But with prices so cheap I can't really see a problem with that.

Wow... you've printed a lot of discs Dodgey_Wombat. Any tips, after printing that many, that you can offer?

A large proportion of those discs have been "made up" for people's home recorded movie collections.
I capture frames using either WinDVD or PowerDVD then edit (don't laugh! ) with Paint! Tried many others but too many options when all ya want to do is a simple cut and paste mostly. I generally use the supplied Epson PrintCD program to finalise editing and print. I know there's got to be a better way to do it but there are just so many programs out there and I have gotten comfortable doing it this way.
Have come across Surething CD Labeller Deluxe and am Trialing now!
As far as the printer goes I can safely say that the Epson Stylus Photo R310 is the best printer I have had the luxury to use. Though the price of cartridges is a big downer ($20 Aus for genuine or $10 generic each - Takes 6) Generic is definitely the way to go with pretty much no difference in quality (don't know about photos though) and maybe a 15% maximum loss in pages per cartridge. Have saved myself the price of nearly 2 new printers so far!

When printing covers I use genuine Epson Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper ($25 Pack 100) which makes a huge difference in both the quality of the printout and wear on print heads. Also actually uses less ink than on normal paper.
Hope this helps a few people with their decisions on printers and printing!

Generic inks are known to work well for CD/DVD printing, but once you get out the photo paper and print the high resolution prints, you will know why the original inks are better. (And I must say, the photo print quality is astounding!)

I can say that if you only want the printer for CD/DVD printing, then the R200 is a good choice. My own R200 was quite inexpensive and has served me well. (Of course an ink refill with the original Epson inks is the same as the cost of the printer! )

Since the R200 is so inexpensive if you are using the 3rd party inks, it would be easy to justify the cost of the scanner. I generally frown on combo units, because if the combo printer/scanner unit breaks, then you have to replace a printer and a scanner. Also if you want to upgrade the printer, you will also be getting rid of a perfectly good scanner.

you guys are right. I'll buy one of each. Thanks.

Dodgey Wombat, where is a good place to buy the "Generic" print cartridges for these printers? Any place you recommend?

EDIT: BTW, how do the printed CD's hold up over time now that you've had your printer for a while? Just curious.

I live in Country Victoria (Aus) and generic cartridges are available nearly everywhere now (When first bought, was hard even to find Epson Brand! ) Basically every ink store has them and I have even gotten "Leading Edge" Office supplies to get them in for me (Calidad Brand, which have found are about $12 but definitely the best of the generics as does not interfere with status monitor and last a little longer)

If you happen to live elsewhere in Aus though, it might be a bit different. Went for holiday in Queensland before Xmas and they are WAY behind the 8ball. Few have even Epson brand yet, and a lot will say "generic, you're joking". Hardware is a hell of a lot dearer too can get a new 16x Dual-Layer Pioneer DVD burner here for $110 Cheapest could find up there (after a lot of haggling) was $160.

Swap meets are also an excellent source, down here they stock "Ink-Tank" brand which are fine for the $9 each or $50 set you pay for them. Don't last as long and have interfered with status monitor though.

As far as longevity, I just pulled out the first few I ever printed and they look as good as the day I printed them (Would be close to a year by now maybe more bought it pretty much the week they came out!)

Don't print photo's with it as yet but in all honesty with such a massive price difference there would have to be a rather noticable quality drop to justify the expense of Epson brand, though if I were in full-time business would justify the cost somewhere, as is always good to give the best results possible to customers.

One thing to point out is this status monitor problem with most generics I have used so far. EVERY time you go to print, a box will come up saying that "the ink cartridges used are not epson, do you wish to continue?". Calidad brand is the only one so far that does not have this problem. There is probably a way to turn it off in the status monitor settings, but I have totally un-installed the status monitor as the R310 has one on the printer which is good enough for me.

Happy (and cheap) printing!!!!

Pricing on the R200 and R310? Im in the US, just curious what they run for you.

Also i assume that the software that comes with the printer will allow you to set up the image, or are there settings in a NERO program or MEDIAFACE type of program to print to disks that is better? (If you aren't editing frames from the Movie in Paint)

Thanks

The R200 and R310 come with a program called "Epson Print CD". It works great, but you can use any program you want. You just chose CD/DVD as the type of paper source.

Back to the original question guys!

It seems I was a bit hasty in saying that there are no multi-functions that print on discs!

There is in fact one that I have seen. And it is the "Canon PIXMA MP780", it is a printer, scanner, photocopier, fax machine and CD/DVD printer in one. In Australia it has a RRP of $599.

Here is a URL for further info!

Canon PIXMA MP780 Specs

Here are some Epson compatible cartridges for the R200/R300 if you live in the US anyway. I haven't used up the original Epsons yet buy for the price I'm hoping they will be good for labels, which is what I bought the printer for anyway. I got the R200 since it does what I need it to do and was considerably cheaper at the time. I am quite happy with the quality.

Canon makes some all in ones that i think can be modded to acept the disc trays, but you will have to do some research on the subject. Then you will either have to buy or make a CD/DVD tray and that may be diffcult.