CD/DVD printer?

[hingyfan]

My Epson R200 prints nicely onto DVDs and CDs made for that purpose. However getting the thing to work is living heck. The problem is this add-on drawer that jams every time. I have to push the thing through and now it wont even work that way. I think i was quoted a price of $50 from epson for a new drawer but as far as I am concerned it never worked correctly, certainly not smoothly.
I have cut down on my printing but do a lot of these CDs for my band (any requests?) and picture DVDs and the like.

So who has a good direct to disk printer, not a label maker? I would love one used for jut that purpose but anything has t obe better than this, although the results are nice.
suggestions please!

[Paddy]

From a brief hunt online, the only printer manufacturer who makes CD printers for the US market is Epson. Depending on where you go, the reasons given are either Canon didn't want to pay Philips for the licensing to include this feature in their US and Canadian printers (but did elsewhere in the world) or that Canon and Epson have some sort of marketing agreement on this feature. Somehow I'm inclined to believe that the former is true rather than the latter...

Anyway, it limits your choices considerably and there are many, many complaints about the Epson jamming and not feeding properly.

Some people have bought Canon Pixma IP6000/5000 series printers from the UK, which do have the direct-to-CD printing enabled, and they are generally very happy with them.

BUT - there appears to be an easier solution:

http://aricsblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/cano...-to-enable.html

http://pixma-faq.periastron.com/ (instructions for a number of Canon models)

I own two Canon printers and am very happy with both. One is a multi-function, the other is a photo printer. I don't think either of my models print CDs in other countries though!

[hingyfan]

Thanks but that  Canon is almost twice as much as my R200 and people are also complaining about it, even with the mods. When we hit the big time i'll buy a CD duper/printer. Of course big time means the company takes care of all that.  Meanwhile i took a scissors to the tray and it's working a little better.

[hingyfan]

Ok, your answer gave me an idea which lead to an idea.
First of all, i bought a new tray off ebay. It was adverstised as a new type without the pesky thin plastic guides. Then i clipped those pesky guides off my tray and worked fine. Well almost, i still have to push it through but the guides are not there to get hung up. So thanks!

[Xairbusdriver]

Unfortunately, the advances in electronics doesn't always include advances in the mechanical stuff connected to the computer. Even the cables can cause problems because of out-of-tolerance plastic parts. I have an R220 that randomly decides the CD carrier is not positioned correctly, then it spits it out the back. If I'm fast enough, I can sometimes catch the error and stick back in the front and continue. When I'm not fast enough, it is usually when I have shut down the DC Print program that it uses and I have to start over from scratch and cycle the printer OFF/ON while not forgetting to close the CD carrier holder/feeder thingy. For local stuff, it's sometimes easier to simply use stick on labels. And non-printable disks are cheaper, anyway.

Sorry I can't help, but a CD duplicator/printer may cost more than the R200/220 and won't be usable for any other kind of printing. Then there are the "Light Scribe" 'printers' but they're not to easy to read (no color, basically shades of gray?) and the disks are as, if not more, expensive as the ink-jet versions!

[hingyfan]

Yeah that Epson is quite a torture device. The results are great though, especially with silver matte discs.
I would never go back to labels. I used to love them but then I realize just about every disc i put on on had gone bad. The label dries up and ruins the top of the disc, which not many realize is a very thin coating with the info on the other side. It didnt help that i would play them in my car stereo, which has the heater blowing right through it. And in the summer, the AC makes the discs skip! It's either sweat or listen to the radio.

[Paddy]

Or get an iPod.