These DVD-R's sound amazing - but are they worth the price?

[Sean Kiely]

I've been using Verbatim 16x DVD-R's for a while now, and they are fairly dependable. Fairly, as in there have been a couple of unusable damaged discs at the top of a spindle or two , a couple that wouldn't play on some clients DVD players for whatever reason, and I've noticed that the slightest scratch can make them jump all over the place in DVD players.

I really want to provide my clients with the very best quality discs, and that's partly because it means less timewasting for me in the long run. So I'm prepared to go the extra distance to get results.

I've done a load of research and found two brands of DVD-R's that sound a little more promising.

First Possibility - Taiyo Yuden Water Shield White Inkjet Hub Printable 16X DVD-R's. OK, everyone so far likes them a lot.

- versus -

Second Possibility - Verbatim UltraLife Gold Archival Grade 8X DVD-R - They sound very good... but they're twice the price - $86.99 for 50. Has anyone used them here, or have any opinions? Check them out here...

http://www.supermediastore.com/verba...-grade-8x.html


Any thoughts folks?

[Giroud Francois]

i use ritek G05 (8x full printable) that cost around $20 for 50 and got no problems with.
i found crazy to pay 4 times this price for the same use/result.
1 or 2 bad DVD on top of a cake is not a problem at this price, you just use them for aligning the printer head.
The watershield stuff is nice (give a shiny look) but is very expensive.
It seems it takes forever to dry.

[Jim Day]

I've been using the TY Watershield DVDs since they were announced and have burned approximately 500 DVDs with them. As far as I know, I haven't had a single bad disc (I say "as far as I know" because I don't test every one, but have never had one returned to me as faulty). The printed result is outstanding and I have to disagree with a previous post about them taking a long time to dry. I have found them "almost" dry to the touch as soon as I take them out of the printer--definitely completely dry within 5 minutes.

[Don Bloom]

What Jim said!
The TYs are awesome looking and since I've been using them not 1 bad disc. Never had one with the Verbatims I was using either but the TYs look absolutley amazing after printing.
As for drying time, I did a complex full face print the other day and with in 1 hour at most probably less because I was busy and not really checking, they were dry. I take them from the printer and put them into the case but don't close it, just stack them. So far so good. Now if I could just pronounce the name right ;-O
Don

[Giroud Francois]

ok , some says 5 min, others says about 1 hour.
for my primera system, even 3 min is too long , since DVD are stacking up in the output tray.
for manual print, i think this is not an issue.
Altough, i find them overpriced.

[Don Bloom]

There's a difference between dry an hard to the touch dry. Dry, almost immediate. Hard to the touch dry, I'll say 1 or 2 minutes for text only but for a full face full color print it's going to take a bit longer no matter what UNLESS you have a thermal dryer.
As for pricing, I guess it depends on how you value your work. For me an extra 10 or even 20 cents per disc is fine as long as the finished product looks like it should. Just my feeling.
Don

[Giroud Francois]

I agree, but using a spray give me the same (if not better) result for less money (but more work).
if that would be only for a couple of DVD (like wedding guys are doing probably) it would be ok.
I usually burn DVD per pack of 100, so event few cents convert easilly in considerable expense (or profit loss).
So currently going from a standard DVD-R at 50c to a watershield a 1$ is not really a good business for me.

[Don Bloom]

Yes I agree. However I know here in the States the TYs are not a dollar a piece but perhaps they are in Switzerland?
I used to use spray as well and found the effort far surpassed the effort to purchase the ever so slightly more watershield TYs without have to spend lots of time spraying. I have also found over the years that anything more than about 20 or 30 DVDs get shipped out to a production house. Primera or not I'd rather let someone burn and print them. My time is far to valuable to sit there and burn and print 100 or more pieces. Heck I could play 9 holes of golf in that time ;-)
Don

[Michael Nistler]

Ditto here, TY is definitely the way to go for me - two thumbs up. I suppose if I really had to keep my Cost Of Goods Sold way down, I'd have to resort to the lowest media prices. But for many of us, the customer is paying for our camera work and editing so the media cost is not significant.

Then there's the quality of the substrate and media itself. I wonder how the life of cheaper DVDs compares to the TY. And the last thing I'd do would be to spay anything on a DVD I'd give to the customer. You chemists certainly know what your doing mixing DVDs with laquers, etc. but I'm not smart enough to take those risks. I certainly would never place an adhesive label on a DVD (see links below). And since DVDs have a thin lacquer coating (about 6-7 microns, i.e., 0.24-0.28 thousandths of an inch), I certainly don't want to do anything might compromise something like a customer's priceless wedding video long after I've removed the media from my NLE. I echo the quote at the bottom of this article:
http://www.computervideo.net/sep03-1.html
"But, right now, buying no-name blank DVDs at the cheapest possible price is a recipe for future disc failure, and makes no sense at all."


http://www.clir.org/PUBS/reports/pub121/sec3.html
http://www.wnylc.net/pdf/star-watch/...ewsletter1.pdf

Warm Regards, Michael

[Tim Polster]

Hey, I have some user questions about the TY Watershields.

When I use these discs in my Bravo II, the reds seems to over saturate over time, does anybody else notice this?

What I mean is the disc will come out, looks a certain way, then over a couple of days the image will become more contrasty and the reds will deepen and stand out more.

I like the look of these discs but find the color reproduction to be wacked compared to other printable media. - strong red cast and blue blacks.

I would like to hear your experiences.

BTW, they are $.63 each at Meritline.

[Michael Nistler]

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

<clip>
When I use these discs in my Bravo II, the reds seems to over saturate over time, does anybody else notice this?
What I mean is the disc will come out, looks a certain way, then over a couple of days the image will become more contrasty and the reds will deepen and stand out more.
I like the look of these discs but find the color reproduction to be wacked compared to other printable media. - strong red cast and blue blacks.
<clip>

Hi Tim,

Hmm, I use a Canon iP6700 and haven't noticed this issue looking at reds in fonts, clothing, background, etc. I use the default Canon settings:

Print/Document: sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Color Handling: Let Printer Determine Colors
Print Quality: Standard
Color Intensite: Auto
Rendering Intent: Relative Colorimetric

Regards, Michael

[Giroud Francois]

depends the ink.
canon usually has 2 black ink cartridge.
some printers are using composite black (Cyan, magenta and yellow mixed) that can give a blueish or greenish black and some black inks (most of time refilled cartridge) are printing greenish black over printable DVD while printing black over paper.

[Michael Nistler]

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

Hey, I have some user questions about the TY Watershields.

When I use these discs in my Bravo II, the reds seems to over saturate over time, does anybody else notice this?

What I mean is the disc will come out, looks a certain way, then over a couple of days the image will become more contrasty and the reds will deepen and stand out more.

I like the look of these discs but find the color reproduction to be wacked compared to other printable media. - strong red cast and blue blacks.

I would like to hear your experiences.

BTW, they are $.63 each at Meritline.

Hi Tim,

Sounds like you might want to try adjusting your saturation setting.

http://server.iad.liveperson.net/hc/...63&action=view

Regards, Michael

[Tim Polster]

Hey Micheal,

I have the saturation on 50% which the people at Primera have said it where it should be.

After bringing this up to Primera I was told there is a update of the Watershield discs in the works to improve the print output.


If you use a Primera,

So when you print a photo of a person, does the disc look exactly the same two or three days after as compared to right out of the printer?

Also, do the colors on people print the same as when you use a "normal" printable DVD?

[Tom Bostick]

Originally Posted by Tim Polster

Hey, I have some user questions about the TY Watershields.

When I use these discs in my Bravo II, the reds seems to over saturate over time, does anybody else notice this?

What I mean is the disc will come out, looks a certain way, then over a couple of days the image will become more contrasty and the reds will deepen and stand out more.

I like the look of these discs but find the color reproduction to be wacked compared to other printable media. - strong red cast and blue blacks.

I would like to hear your experiences.

BTW, they are $.63 each at Meritline.

I've been using these taiyo yuden dvds

Amazon.com: Taiyo Yuden Watershield GLOSSY White Inkjet Hub 16X DVD-R's 100-Pak: Electronics

 

Amazon.com: Taiyo Yuden Watershield GLOSSY White Inkjet Hub 16X DVD-R's 100-Pak: Electronics

with an epson stylus photo r2880

And I've also noticed a very annoying color shift with reds and oranges.

I see it immediately though.

Ive also narrowed it down to being the discs, because when I print the exact same image onto photo paper there is no color shift.

Anyone have any ideas?