hi all,

i'm looking at buying either a 50 or 100 spindle pack of printable DVD-R media for both wedding videos & long term data storage.

which DVD-R media do you think is best for this? i'd like something of decent quality. it can be either 4x or 8x, either is fine. i was looking at Orion Brand DVD-R as it recommended by a sales man but would like some other opinions.

Thanks...

I prefer Ritek Ridata G05 Hub Printable media. 8X -R. Available for around 40 cents a disc at sources like Meritline.

I read an article that there were some problems with Ritek DVD-R media. I'm not sure whether it was for all Ritek DVD-R media though. Anyone know of this?

I've read articles to the contrary, but personal experience is the best judge. I've burned around 200+ Ritek 4X printables and have yet to get a coaster. The combination of the Ritek disks & the LaCie d2 FW drive has been hard to beat.

Ritek 2x and 1x media was worthless. When they moved to 4X, the company seemed to "get it" and decided that quality was the only way to stay in the game. You can review media for yourself at Videohelp.com.

I read an article that there were some problems with Ritek DVD-R media. I'm not sure whether it was for all Ritek DVD-R media though. Anyone know of this?

I think there were some minor problems with certain batches of the G04 media. But almost all of there media is the new issue G05 so none of this is a concern.

Just thought I'd chime in here. A while back I bought two 50-disc spindles of Ritek G04 printables. My decision was based on its reputation. With my Pioneer DVR-108 and Toast 5, I've had an unacceptable amount of coasters. I may check out the G05 when the batch is used up, but I'm still confused as to the reason of my misfortune.

What is the best inexpensive printer to print directly on DVDs?

There are many people on here using the Epson R200 to print on DVD's. The quality is quite good, however, ink prices (as always) might drive you through the roof.

There are a couple of other options as well, such as monotone printers: http://www.primera.com/signaturez1.html

This is about the same price as the Epson however so I would highly recommend the full printer over just a monotone unit.

As I posted in another thread, I bought an Epson R200 at BJs warehouse for $78.00 just a month ago. It had the ink cartrages all ready in it and it is easy to use and does a great job. The software is easy too and you basically drop and image on the CD shape on the screen, set your inner and outer ring size, and print. It has a text generator in the software, but it is not the best. It does work fine but positioning is limited. It is either horizontal, verticle, or circular, but a little difficult to position the circular. You could of course work in another program like Photoshop and then you just import the image. I imported a picture and then put the text over it, on a little DVD photo project.

The printer uses 6 individual ink tanks, of a pretty decent size, and I expect to get many DVDs out of one set. If you were to try and buy replacements at a retail store they would probably cost you an arm and a leg, but they are available at ebay for a very resonable price. I'm putting this ebay seller ID for you---inkjetking99. This seller offers two complete sets of tanks (12 pcs) for $39 and the shipping is free. Their rating is 99.9%. I am going to order from them when I need ink.

I bought two 50-disc spindles of Prodisc 8X white top printable DVDs, at about $35.00/100 and have had no coasters out of the several dozen used.

If you are going to print hundreds of CDs or DVDs at a time then this is probably not the way to go, but 1-50 maybe it is the way to go in order to save money in the long run.

I hope that this helped and if you would like a sample of the printing just let me know.

Mike

Mike,

That was very helpful. Thanks for sharing about the printer, and where to buy replacement ink cartridges.

Best Regards,
Pete