DVD Printer

[Ron Kirby]

It's about time to purchase a new DVD printer. The ole epson is showing signs of age. I would like to upgrade to something a little better. There are alot of DVD printing systems and I'm looking at what some of you are using.
Sure would like some pros and cons of some of the systems currently on the market.
Thanks
Ron

[Rmarq]

Bravo II from Primera. Don't waste your money on this. Have had problems with the color ink cartridge, it is not "automatic"...sometimes it thinks it has picked up 2 discs and will stop the print cycle. It also has a business card insert, it only works with Primera discs ($1 per disc). The Ridata discs that I buy for $.20 per are a fraction smaller and don't fit tight.

Look elswhere.

[Jim_C]

We use 2 Primera Bravo Pros at work and I use a Primera Bravo II at home. One of the Bravo Pros at work has printed almost 20,000 DVDs and still going strong.

Every now and then you have to babysit them but for the most part all 3 of them work as required.

The only real gripe I have is that the ink indicator is not as accurate as I would like, but once use to it's offset, it works fine.

I use Verbatim 94854 DVD-R with no problems.

[ScorpioProd]

My Bravo II Autoprinter is great, I highly recommend it.

I've just passed 7,000 discs with it, works great.

As always, Taiyo Yuden DVD-Rs.

[kleima]

I have found that inkjet printers are just too slow.
I print labels with a color laser. Looks much better, and is MUCH faster, even with label application.

[ScorpioProd]

Yikes... Stick-on labels are a scary solution...

[jcupp]

I have found that inkjet printers are just too slow.
I print labels with a color laser. Looks much better, and is MUCH faster, even with label application.

Except that you have to stick the labels on rather than the robot methodically working through a stack of discs. I uses a Microboards GX2 and it prints the lables in zero time because it does it while the next disc is burning.

[EWallick]

I'm with the Primera Bravo II Autoprinter gang - I've passed 8500 on my printer and it is great! When you use the Taiyo Yuden Watershield DVD-Rs you'll not have a failure (I've never had one returned that wouldn't play).

Agreed, the ink monitoring is not is not as accurate as it probably could be and the ink is pricier than I wish it were but the looks of the DVD on the Watershield DVDs is great. I get lots of compliments on them!

Put 25 discs on and let 'er rip! I used to use the Epson "one at a time" but that tied me up doing nothing but printing.

If you have any quantity of DVDs to print you won't be sorry.

Ed

[Ron Kirby]

Ineresting, for some reason I thought for sure the majority of folks would favor the Microboards Print Factory III. There's no reason, just thought that was kinda the default printer used by alot of folks.
Ron

[wess]

Dido for the Bravo II. I taked to my local media supplier and he indicated to me that the microboards are great as long as you do not get the dual version (dvd burner and printer built into one together).

[Jim_C]

Except that you have to stick the labels on rather than the robot methodically working through a stack of discs. I uses a Microboards GX2 and it prints the lables in zero time because it does it while the next disc is burning.


Yea, not to mention the chance of the label throwing off the balance of the DVD.

The Bravos can have DVD recorders in them also so the above noted can be taken advantage of with them also.

Personally I just print with teh Bravos and dub with dup towers.

This may be obvious, but with the Primera Bravo line, the 'autoprinters' contain no drives and the 'duplicators' ...well... you can guess the rest...

:)

[Thom DC]

I have had good results with my Primera for large runs of repeat disc labels.
For smaller runs I use a Dymo DiscPainter and use glossy printable discs. Although it is a small lightweight unit, it still performs like my 20x more expensive Primera. I also find the fast design and print times for the DiscPainter to be real advantages.
As for using stickers of any sort to label discs I would avoid that idea like the plague. You are simply asking for trouble.

[ScorpioProd]

Personally I just print with teh Bravos and dub with dup towers.

Same here, that's what I do for my volume work. No time is lost when you are printing one batch while burning the next.

But if I didn't have as big volume, I'd probably go for a Bravo II with burner and printer in it, based on my success with the Bravo II Autoprinter.

And with TY WaterShield media, you'll see inkjet printed that look like silkscreen.

[kleima]

Well, I do thousands of discs like this, and haven't had any problems with the labels. And, I can tell you, it is much faster than my robotic duplicator. Now, if the printing was done while the disk was burning, that might be a little different, but my robotic duplicator doesn't do that. Plus, I burn with a ten disk tower, and there is no inkjet printer that I know of that can keep up with that. If I get an order for 1000 disks, I can literally have them done in one day, and ship them out the next, if I have to. You cannot do that with an inkjet printer at 3 min/disk. It would take more than a work week just to print them, or more than 2 days, if it is running 24 hours per day. This is not to mention the cost/disk, or the time that the machine sits there overnight, because it ran out of ink, or the disks you have to throw out because they are streaked because the ink is running low, or the ink wasted because you have to do a head cleaning because the printing is streaking from not having printed anything for a week. My costs with the laser label are about half the cost of the inkjet.
I used to do all my duplication & printing with a robotic system, and I used to have the same opinion as you all have expressed about my labels, but until some better/faster technology comes out, I will stick with color laser labels. :hey: BTW, the print quality beats any inkjet on the market, also. Not to mention that it will not smear if it gets wet.

[Jim_C]

Plus, I burn with a ten disk tower, and there is no inkjet printer that I know of that can keep up with that. .

If your DVD printer can't print 10(!) DVDs in the time it takes to dub and compare them then you need a new DVD printer.

And think of all the other things you could be doing besides peeling and sticking a thousand labels on DVDs.

Explain to me how you can have 1000 DVDs burnt in less than one day with one 10 DVD duplicator anyway.

[kleima]

It's not that I like sticking labels, just that it is currently the best solution I have found. It takes less than 10 minutes to burn 10 disks - about 7 for most of my titles. Please tell me the model of the printer that prints a disk with 100% coverage in full color, in less than 40 seconds. It must be a robotic printer, because I can stand there and put on labels as easy as standing there and put disks in the printer.

[kleima]

It takes about 16 hours, but we have fulfilled 1000 disks in one day before.

[ScorpioProd]

Whatever works for you, that's cool.

Personally, I do my burns with verification, so no way do they outpace my Bravo II autoprinter.

But I do have to mention, I'd put my TY WaterShield DVDs up for water and smear resistance against your stick on labels anytime. Same for the glossy silkscreen look as well.