Trying to figure out which printable surface is better, the Verbatims or the Taiyo Yudens. Any pics showing the difference or opinions would be greatly appreciated.

N3X6;
Have printed disks professionally with my Epson, and tried many different brands of diskc. I now use only the T-Y. The last two bundles, of 500 each, all burned and printed without a single problem. I tend to buy from meritline (when on sale or with free shipping) but don't restrict myself to just them. Always looking for a better deal!! Go to Pricewatch.com to compare prices. And don't forget the standbys like Tiger and Newegg.

Replimaster

Also check supermediastores.com. They have good sales on TY too.

I have had great success with the TY and Verbs (MCC004) regarding printable surfaces, supermedia.com had the verbs with free shipping last week, deal might still there.

so far, i have tried 70+ MCC004 verbatims, and i'm a little bit disappointed:

#1. out of those 70+ burns, 6 or 7 turned out to be coasters; the burn failed on me at 99%! i have used 450+ "regular" 16x MCC004 verbatims (ie. not the hub-printable ones) and had NOT ONE SINGLE coaster!!! both were CMC-made and MIT.
#2. the printable surface is so smooth or glossy that even after 5 days of drying time, the ink would still smear! compare this to the el-cheapo 16x TDK printables (CMC MAG E01 or TDK003-000), they are fine to the touch only 5 minutes later. clear coating the MCC004 is a *must* for me, and i use rustoleum clear cloat ("non yellowing, UV-resistant") from home depot.

my next batch to try would be the TYs and/or Prodiscs from rima.com. anyone tried the prodiscs R04-04 already?

CKA