Protecting Printed DVDs
 

So I've seen a lot of options on these forums on how to print on DVDs. The lightscribe is only 2 tone. I don't have enough money for thermal. Labels suck. So, I went with inkjet printing directly onto the disc.

Again I looked for options on how to protect DVDs after they've been printed on using an inkjet printer. The one I would like to try is using an acrylic spray to seal and coat the dvd, thus protecting it from water.

Here's my question:

Anybody had any problems with the dvd after doing this? Besides if you spray too much and it coats the information side of the disc. I mean, does the spray screw up the dvd player? When the DVD gets hot is it still in one piece? The sprays are usually flammable.

Thanks for any help.


BTW I used an epson RX595 printer. Prints great, good with scratches, but if my finger is wet at all, the picture smudges pretty bad.

I suggest the Tokyo Yuden Water Shield DVDs. They are only slightly more expensive than a printable DVD and hold up to water and do not smear nearly as easily. I highly recomend them.

I've used Krylon Matte Finish spray on a couple of ink-jet printed DVD's with good effect. Just laid them on a flat surface and gave a couple of light coats, allowing the previous coat to dry, then rotating the disc before spraying to help even out the final thickness.

In my mind, the biggest problem will be getting an even coating. DVD's spin at a fairly high rate, so if you don't coat them evenly, you can unbalance them, causing vibration during play.

In the end, I decided it was too much trouble for anything but the most critical work. If a client uses one of my DVD's as a coaster, then they deserve a smeared label.

Martin

I just got a spindle of the Water Shields.....haven't tried them yet, but I'm happy to hear a good word about them....

Just did a quick demo of them. This should make you feel better.

http://www.simplethoughtproductions....vd-smear-test/

<In my best Darth Vader voice>, "Impressive"

Feel even better then you did before? :-p

Well...my only other wish was that they would make a +R version....
I think right now they only have -Rs.....

You are correct as far as I can tell. Granted I have always used -R as it has never failed me for all the numerous people that I have shipped DVDs to from the get go in mid 2003.

I've had good luck with the -Rs myself...
I've just had better luck with the +Rs when bitsetting is enabled....

Well, I think we are starting to get off topic now... :)

Indeed. For the topic though, I think the Water Shield DVDs are the best answer. When you have this available I cant see wanting to get a clear lacker spay can and having to carefully coat each DVD when you can just print and go. I imagine the costs are about equal when it is worked out. I am not 100% sure on the cost of the clear coat cans though.

I use ritek ridat 8x dvd-r, I print on an epson R260, using CIS and the aftermarket ink. my discs are about 40 cents each. I read this article, and decided to test my ink. i ran warm water over it, and rubbed it with my fingers. a tiny amount of ink came off. I then grabbed the lemony fresh dish detergent, and squirted on enough to do a sink full of dishes, and rubbed that in. I saw a little color in with the lather. after rinsing it all off, and approximately a minute under the faucet total, I dried it with a paper towel, pushing hard. after it dried, it did appear mildly faded compared to an unwashed disc. it is completely readable, all colors appear ok. the disc in my test was printed about 6 months ago. I have not ever noticed any smearing, and I performed this test from curiosity after reading this thread. if anyone wants me to take pictures or anything, I can redo the test.

What is CIS? Googling seems to be a Continuous Ink System?

Could you try doing it with a DVD a few minutes after printing. My biggest problem was the smearing that could happen for the 48 hours before mailing out my disks. The one I did a test on was about an hour old but I have had a similar experience with disk only a few minutes old.

your google is correct, it saves me a fortune in ink.
I use a robot to burn my discs, and I prefer the discs to be dry, my concern was having discs stick together. also, I keep burning the same discs, on demand. I print them up weeks in advance, then burn them. That is what suits my needs. I will print two discs, wait 24 hours, and do a test, if that is where your problem is. I am curious myself, and it could help me avoid problems.

Well, the Taiyo Yuden seem to be dried instantly. I just printed out two disks and have stacked them on top of one another and will leave them for the night, will let you know how they turn out tomorrow. I think these disks could solve your problem.

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.

I guess one thing to tell customers, If it gets wet, dont worry, put it in a drying rack so the water can run off and let it air dry, or only pat it dry, as the rubbing seems to cause scratches in the shiny cover.

So,

I've finally used a full spindle of the Taiyo Yuden watershield discs and I have come to a conclusion. Before, I thought I was just using crummy discs and that is why every so often the burn would fail, but, the same happens with these discs.

I still have failed burning sessions with taiyo yuden discs. They are not perfect, but darn close. Plus, I think my disc drive just likes to fail every 8th burn just because, no matter what brand of disc.

I know I'm late coming into this thread but wanting to give my 2 cents worth. I've been printing on discs for several years now. I used to use regular printables and sprayed them with clear acrylic. That did seem to work pretty good, but it was really a hassle, especially if you have 50-100 discs to do. First, you need a large area to spray them on because you have to let them dry for about 24 hours before the stickiness disappears from them. You also have to be careful when spraying that some of the spray doesn't find its way to the data side of the disc (either from under the edges or the center hole). That said, the spray did protect the printing from smearing.

Then a year ago I discovered the Watershields and have stuck exclusively with them ever since. I've burned almost 300 of them (and just ordered another 100) and they always look fabulous. I also highly recommend them.

Some people think that they aren't worth the extra money, because "who is going to wet the service of their discs"? Although I guess the discs could get wet from accidental spills or being caught in the rain, but I want to protect also against sweating fingers.

Spraying discs
 

I would like to caution anyone using clear acrylic spray paint to coat their discs to make them more protected from damage. Any solvent based substance can damage discs (especially DVDs). Although the damage might not be apparent at first, the paint can cause data corruption issues after several months have past. Yes spray painting your discs doesn't always ruin your discs. Under the right conditions and with a light hand it can be done but the tolerances between success and disaster are quite slim.
I have found that any high quality glossy printable disc works great with my DiscPainter. The colors come out vibrant, clear and do not smudge. I have not noticed any scratching issues with my DiscPainter printed discs. Between the printable base layer that the printable discs come with and the printed label layer the DP lays down my discs seem to be well protected from normal use scratching.

You have something wrong with your burner, or computer that you are using to do the burning.

I've burned over a thousand 16x DVD-R and have only lost what I can count on a single hand. I've lost others due to foreign matter getting on the disk before burning and blocking the laser... those i do throw out.

As for failure in the burning process... nope.

TY Watershield - Utter Failure
 

So many have said that the TY watershield discs are almost as great as sliced bread.

For me, it was more like burnt toast.

At work we are required to have discs that will not smudge, etc. Our supplier started supplying said CDs. Unfortunately I still have not heard back as to what they are exactly using for media and what they are using to print them. What caught my eye, besides the fact that I could place it under running water and not cause ink run, was that the ink liiked like it was below the glossy surface.

So, I went digging and found the TY watershied discs. The place I normally purchase from had them. So I ordered 50. I finally got around to printing on one. I then saved it to so a friend. Several days later, while at the restaurant, I described what it was and what it was supposed to be able to do. I then took a paper napkin, soaked it in water and lightly rubbed the disc. The ink ran like it was water. There was no problem at all removing the ink from the surface and I didn't even have to try.

So much for watershield and so much for the paperwork that came with the spool saying that it was compatible with all inkjet printers. :mad:

I used up the rest of them, but they are stored in hanging folder type sleeves, so the odds of getting wet are slim.

Remember the look of the ink under the glossy surface? Not these. The ink definately looks like it is on TOP of the surface.

The printer in this case is the Epson R1800. Actually, I did it on the R800. But both printers use the same ink cartridges. But the results of later printings on the R1800 didn't make a difference.

I have no idea what it takes to make these discs work with the Epson printer.

I can't find a web site for TY to try and contact them.

An interesting thread, but throughout it,
 

I found no mention of what I think may be a possible culprit for the cause of smearing: the make-up and/or chemical composition of the ink.

No, I don't work for Epson, (and I'm not defending them/their marketing of ink), and I know absolutely nothing about the chemical composition of inks, AND I have no idea what makes a "high-quality" ink, but it seems to me that it could be a factor in smearing, drying, adhesion, or removability, don't you think?

I totally agree. But, according to the paper that came with the TY spool, the discs are supposed to be compatible with all inkjet printers. Is it possible to test their media with all the possible inks? Probably not. But, they should test with printers that can print on CDs/DVDs, which will reduce the number of items to test.

Again, because I have not been able to contact TY, all of this is speculation.

[QUOTE=Michael Brown;873201]So many have said that the TY watershield discs are almost as great as sliced bread.

For me, it was more like burnt toast.

Are you sure you have the authentic TY discs? I read somewhere there are fakes floating around that are very low quality. Authentic TY is always made in Japan, not Taiwan or China.

AFAIK they are. Obtained them from Rima.com. They sell all kinds of TY media. The 16x normal ink jet are.