Well thank you for the fast replies.

I have never heard of the water shield discs before. I have tried looking for a retailer in canada... and that would be why. I guess they aren't popular up here yet. I've only found online purchasing so far.

I initially used memorex discs. They print great, but with one printed over a week ago, I can still wet my finger and smear the ink. Not cool.

I am still a little weary about the smearing on the water shield discs. The video that was linked about washing them under a sink had a lot of cuts in it. It could have easily been doctored.

I just filmed that. The cuts were to spare every one laughing at my zooms. I could post the uncut footage for you if you really want.

i have never had a smearing problem, my discs seem dry within minutes, although i had not intentionally gotten them wet until today. when I open a new spindle, the discs are somewhat stuck together, they have to be separated. I print the discs, and put them directly on a spindle, stacking them. weeks later, they are just like new blank discs, sort of stuck, but no problems.

Josh, I'll take you word for it. I have yet to find any bad press on the water shield discs, so it seems like your right on the money.

Is Taiyo Yuden the only company that makes water proof discs?

No, I had found another a few years or so back but they wanted a ridiculous price near $10 per media. I think it was made by Primera but they seem to push their Disk laminator these days.

I just printed a colorful ritek ridata disc, and took it to the sink the moment it came from the printer. I washed it, I would say 50% of the ink washed off, but none smeared. disc two, the moment it came from the printer, I rubbed hard on the disc with a paper towel. there is possibly some light scratches, no ink on the paper towel. I am printing 4 identical discs. I will wash one in an hour, and one in 24 hours. I will post a picture of all four when the last one is washed. these discs are NOT waterproof, they are 40 cent hub printable discs

I've got one of the disc laminators. It was really expensive, but having totally waterproof DVDs with an extra layer of pretty hard plastic protection is worth the expense IMHO.

That is pretty good. I had used Fujifilm Printables before the Taiyo's and they smeared by just rubbing a finger on them.

Disks did not smear or get stuck together after being stacked right after printing, the Taiyo Yuden's are dry out of the gate for me. It might be worth noting that I print with slightly less ink then default. The colors look the same to me after printing and I nearly double the amount of disks I can print before needing to replace the cartridges.

I have 5 discs, coasters left over from a previous experiment. the one in the center is untouched sample (small speck on upper left was a spot on the disc before I printed). The upper left disc was removed from the printer the moment it finished printing, and was ran under hot water, while I rubbed hard. upper right disc, was same water and rubbing, one hour after printing. lower left disc, 24 hours after printing. the lower right disc was taken directly from printer, and rubbed very hard with a paper towel. there are tell-tale scuff marks on the latter. all discs are ritek ridata hub printable, printed using the epson printer. I figure my cost at about 50 cents per disc, including ink. water definitely affects the color of the discs, but normal handling has not yet caused me a noticeable problem. I always stack them immediately after printing, with no sticking. this thread made me curious as to how my discs held up, so I performed my self test :)

ok, I finally found some Taiyo Yuden Watershield dvds in Canada. Available online only, but whatever, I got them now.

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not only are they glossy which makes the dvd's look like a photo that has been cut into a circle, but very little smearing. I wet my finger and rubbed it right out of the printer, and it smeared about a mm. (the other's smeared as far as I rubbed) but it also says to let the ink set for 24 hrs, so I will give it that, and do a full test with water and rubbing then.

I must say though, just the quality of the print was impressive. I also realized that these are the only -R printable DVD's I've come across so far. (in canada) They seem to be rare. I can't even test the memorex dvds... dvd player doesn't read them. Nice.

So... I will get back to you all in 24 hours and post some pictures. Let's see how well they hold up.

Try reducing the ammount of ink used by one step. Its usually in the advanced printing options. With these DVDs it still gives a very rich color but for me there is no smearing right out of the gate :)

thanks for the tip. I will try it.

Ok, so I let the ink dry for 24 hours like it says.

I rubbed it with dry paper towel: Leaves minute scratches that can only be seen at certain angles with certain light
I put the DVD under the tap: Nothing! Water just ran right off. (memorex ones washed half the ink off)
I patted the soaked DVD with a paper towel: Nothing, just took the water off.
I rubbed the soaked DVD with a paper towel: took the water off, and left scratches. It didn't take ink off. It is more scuffed than scratched I would say. I can live with it.

So. Watershield rocks! Who is going to soak and rub their dvds? If there is a spill, it is fine, and ink doesn't seem to come off. I love em.


Thank you to everybody that helped.

So here are the results....

The pic with two side by side are the Watershield on the left, with the memorex on the right, both after testing.

Just the watershield was rubbed with a dry paper towel, run under the tap, patted dry and rubbed dry. No ink removed, scuffing occurred.

Just the Memorex: The right half was run under the tap, half the ink came off. The bottom right quarter was patted dry, more ink came off, then the same bottom right quarter was rubbed dry which made even more ink come off. At the center of the bottom, I wet my finger and ran it along once... leaving a nice smear. The ink also scratches off easily.

The Watershield held at certain angles, the scuffs can be seen. To the neaked eye, they are a lot more apparent.



The vivid print quality of the watershield really doesn't show through in these pictures. Trust me, it is 1000 times better. The glossy really makes them pop. And besides that, they are -R. Best all around in my books.

I just purchased and received yesterday 100 of the Watershield DVDs, and also purchased a Primera Bravo SE Publisher. I've had heaps of people telling me this will produce excellent results and I'm looking forward to testing it out soon. I'm glad others here have had great results with the watershields.