Not sure that this is the best forum for this question, so I apologize to the moderator in advance if this is posted to the wrong forum.

Anyway, are there any opinions on the Epson inkjet CD/DVD capable printers? Office Depot is having a great sale on the R200 at <$100 although I have seen the R300 for <$150. Which is a better printer for printing CD/DVD labels? I am currently using stick on labels and the color laser printer at work to do it with no problems, but would like to be self sufficient since I am thinking about changing jobs. Price is an object, but for someone on a budget (<$300) what would be a good printer that you recommend if you don't think these 2 are any good?

Thanks

i use the 200 for my dvds and dvd covers. couldn't be happier with the quality. my understanding is that there is no difference in print quality between the 200 and 300. the difference is that the 300 accepts media cards.

I have been thinking about getting one of these. my ocal sam's Club has them for 89.00 the only thing been holding me back is I am concerned about how much the ink is going to end up costing me. I believe the spec's say you can do about 25? Cd labels per refill?

what has been your expirience with the cost of ink and how long it lasts clbg571?

Cost of the real Epson ink is very high. Might as well buy a printer, use the ink and then sell the printer on Ebay I get my ink from megatoners.com Costs about 24 bucks for all 6

I've got the Epson R800. The unit is pricey $300+, but quality is outstanding. I've printed a couple of hundred DVD and CDs with it, tons of photos and misc documents and still haven't had to replace a couple of the 8 tanks.

This is my 3rd Epson printer in 9 years, quality units. Each one was still going strong, I only upgraded to take advantage of better quality through advances in technology, oh and the ability to print on CD/DVD.

i use the printer only for my dvds (hub printables) and dvd covers (glossy photo inserts). i've printed about 220 or so and i'm on my third cartride of black and second on the colors. the ink adds up in cost. but, i definately recommend using compatible inks instead of epson as aanaravs stated. i bought several sets of a combo deal from meritline (all six colors plus an extra black cartridge) on sale for $28. but, now it costs $40/set.

Haven't you guys had any problems with clogged heads because of compatible cartridges? I've recently bought an R200, but it seems the Epson ink cartridges are almost as expensive as the printer itself (or should we say the printer is for free when you buy 6 ink tanks? ). Anyway, I'm a bit afraid of compatibles, since I've heard some horror stories about clogged / damaged heads and the like... opinions, anyone?

Hi Filipe,

It is probably more likely you could get a clogged printhead with generic inks, but not necessarily. Not all inks are created equal. Some people use these inks for quite a long time and no problem. Others use them, and very soon have bad print quality and/or dead printer. Sometimes you can manually clean the printhead and recover it. MANY other things can contribute to clogged heads too (temperature, time between uses, humidity, etc..) and same thing can happen even if you're using Epson ink.

There's just so many brands you could buy. There's alot that goes into the design of those printer inks. Needless to say, not all companies get it done as good as others.

Personally, at how cheap some of these printers are, I would take the risk of using generics (especially if you print high volume). Buy you're ink at some major retail store rather than a mom & pop type store. At least that way, you have LESS of a chance of buying some really crappy ink.

Thanks to all who responded.

Just a little more info. I really do not plan to do much photo printing with this printer at all (although the "boss" may change that depending on how well it prints photos as well). Mainly I'm looking at a dedicating it to CD/DVD printing.

I have some further questions:

Can anyone confirm that the real world R200 CD/DVD print quality is the same as the R300 (comparing specs doesn't always mean that the real world use results in the same quality as the specs promise)?

Just for curiosity, is the R800 really better than either model above or is it more of an office quality product meant for the higher demand of a small business, but prints the same quality?

TIA

my buddy has the r300 and when printing the same graphic using the same print settings, we couldn't tell the difference in quality to the naked eye.

The R300 is the same printer engine as the R200. The only real difference between them is the R300 you can plug in your memory cards right into the printer, and print your photos without use of a computer. The R200, you have to get the photos or whatever to the PC first, then print them. There should'nt be any difference between them in print quality.


As far as the R800, or other more expensive printers, the big difference is ink supply. Business class printers can usually print far more pages before ink must be replaced. The ink carts might be more expensive, but usually cost per page is lower than a home inkjet printer. The printer engine is usually more heavy duty also, designed to print higher volume before failure.

Personally, I would never use third party inks. However, my printer (Epson Stylus Photo 1280) is one of the more costly models as it can print up to 13"x19" - tabloid size, so I do not want to risk damaging it.

I have also read many reviews about (cheaper) third party inks resulting in fading and color shifts after a short period of time. So if your willing to risk having your dvd's shift to a yellow brown after a short time, go ahead.

Another thing to keep in mind, different manufacturers use different formulas for their inks. When switching ink tanks, some ink is usually left in the print head. When these different ink-formulas are mixed, it can result in thickening. This is what causes the clogged print heads. So, in theory, as long as you stick with the same brand/manufacturer of inks, you should have a happy printer. This of course does not protect from cheap inks that have poor quality control, and could give the same result - clogged print heads.

Good Luck!

well I broke down and bought a R200 today after seeing how well it works first hand from a friend who has one> I also found out something else the ink on these disc will apparently "smear" even after they are supposed to have dried. my friend learned a trick from a guy who films weddings and makes disks for his customers and he uses the R200. he takes clear laquer spray and lightly sprays the disks after they dry and this seals them. he even demontrates how he can drop the disk in a container of water and the ink wont be affected.

I also found 52X silver top inject printable verbatim CDR's at the local sam's club for 11.24 for a 50 pack. going to order the taiyo yuden 8X DVD+R printable disk's from Rima.com and try them out.

i haven't tried it yet, but a lot of people who do spray their discs, recommend krylon crystal clear spray. not to be confused with their satin spray.

yeah that is the one krylon crystal clear spray. that is the can of spray my freind showed me.

Thanks for all the good info.

Since it was brought up and is nice to know (I did not know about the ink smearing issue), I have a couple more questions that stray from the original topic, is Krylon's satin spray no-good for sealing printed CD's/DVD's? What would one use when one wanted a satin finish?

I printed a few disks to see how it works. after letting them dry for about 15 min I checked them there was no ink smearing. I also tried the krylon crystal clear spray it is easy to apply and is basically invisable it does not leave a "shiney" appearence at all.

Last week I was talking with an EPSON engineer about the R200/R300 printers and he said 95% of the ones returned to Epson had faults related to the CD/DVD print tray.
So keep it clean and make sure the ink doesn`t get into the electronics and cause bother. But all in all I agree they are good printers along with the compatible carts..
The new Canon PIXMA i3000 looks good too and is even better value , but the carts. are smaller so probably won`t last as long . Anybody tried one ?.

i also use the r200 the r 300 just has like special slots for like phot cards withch i didnt feel like paying extra for also i picked mine up for 85 dollars

my friend who has the r200 said eh had alot of trouble getting the first CD printed. he said he had to fidle with the cd tray to get it lined up just right in order for it to work. when I did it I just lined up the arrows and it slid right in and printed easy as can be.