Printing DVD's
 

I looked in the other section of DVInfo and looks like most do as I am doing and print direct to DVd with Epson 280 Printer.

I hate the look and its not very acurate, Has anoyone else found another way to print DVD's with success, if so with what?

Yeah, dont use colour printable disks at all. Ihate them personally, look home made, smudge if you touch them with even a slightly sweaty hand.

What do you use?

The Taiyo Yuden Watershield discs look good printed - better than the flat matt printables that are so common nowadays. Bit dearer though.

I think the Epson printed disk look look pretty darn good. My problem with the Epson printer is that the I would go through one every 6-months or so. As such, I finally bit the bullet and bought a Pimera Bravo SE. I really love the unattended printing, but I don't think the print quality is better than the Epson. I do agree that the watershield discs are nice (sample came with the printer), but I only use Verbatim media. I use to use a variety way back when but it always came back to bite me in the you know what. I have never had a problem delivering Verbatim media to a client.

Mike

Absolutely 100% the best dvds to use. I print them on a Canon pixma i4000 ( there are newer printers out there) and they give a stunning hi gloss professional finish which look as good as pro dvds..

Get the Watersheild. A bit more expensive but worth every penny and when clients see them they go "wow!"

My epson 280 is only a few months old and so many problems already. Now what you see on the screen is NOT what is going to print on the disk. I have a calibrated Eizo 24" monitor so it sure is not that. I deleted the printer and drivers and re installed it and it worked ok for a few disks, now right back to printing way too dark on DVD's I know they are cheap but when you have so many printers, deleting and reinstalling is not always a breeze, some times their are conflicts that have to be worked out. Just a pain.

For now I have came up with a nice clean design, Logo, Information etc and using only maroon and white with no picture. I figure this is better than a crappy looking well designed disk.

I may take the jump into something like the Bravo if nothing new comes out soon. Ideally I would like a stand alone DVD printer that works well for $300-$500. If I go more than that will probably get the duplicator too, or at least one that writes the DVD.

I've had an Epson R200 for two years and never had a problem - works well and the colors look exactly like they do on the screen, so maybe your printer is just a lemon. I primarily use a Disc Makers ElitePro duplicator, and the disks from that look exactly like the disks from the Epson.

Anyway, a strong endorsement here for the Taiyo Yuden Watershield disks. They are truly amazing. They're also available from Disc Makers as "Hydroshield" but that's just a rebranded TY disk.

Dymo's disk painter looks promising!

DYMO DiscPainter | Home

BHphoto do a video review of it here...

Dymo | DiscPainter CD/DVD Printer | 1738260 | B&H Photo Video

Lightscribe may be annoyingly slow, but I haven't had a single person that saw them and wasn't impressed.

Had an Epson and all the usual woes that went with it. Got to the stage it wanted taken out for dinner and a full new set of cartridges before it would even think about printing.

Got a Canon ip4500 and it is lightening quick in comparison and produces sharper prints from what I have seen so far.

Stuff never prints out the same way as it is on the screen. Afterall, a screen is lit (and even uses different primary colors). But overall, yes, it does seem darker. I just adjust for this by brightening up the image if need be. After a few prints, you should be able to guess and get good.

Might take a loook at silver printable discs. They give an entirely different look.

Hp D5360
 

I have good results with HP Photosmart D5360...

Lightscribe

http://www.mintyslippers.com/gallery/dvds.jpg

Those look nice! :)

yep, thanks to danny's suggestion to me a while ago, i realised Lightscribe were definitely for me..... no replacing of ink cartridges, and customers are WAY more impressed by them then my previous colour-printed ones... esp, when you call them something fancy like 'laser-etched gold discs' :)

Yup, no ink costs, no printer costs. Have 2 PC's so burn 2 disks at a time. Infact although the burn/print takes 30mins per disk I can do that while I edit. Resolution is also very VERY high. I have some small text on the disks thats nice and sharp. They also have the golden shimmer of the disk in them so looks shiney and we all like shiney.

Some guys like the full colour. I just dont like getting ink on my fingers.

Disks do cost more than normal ones, I have used the cheap ones (£24 for 100) and there pretty rubbish, easily scratch and very thin. Problem is you cant buy the decent HP ones in bulk.

Exactly. The gold tone was annoying at first, but then I realized that was part of what made them impressive looking (at least for wedding clients).

I burned a 46 disc school graduation this spring. That was some crazy lightscribe work there. Three computers all with lightscribe going and each disc taking about 35 minutes on medium to burn the lightscribe.

I've been using Verbatim's media and have been pretty happy with it. B&H even has them for the best price and in 50 packs.