Best "glossy" printable dvd-r's?

[thamfactor]

Hey Yall, i recently bought some cheap "sidney" ceramic top discs that feel smoothier (a bit glossy), but when i print on them, the ink takes ages to dry, and when it does, the image is pixelated and looks smudgy under light.

My printer is a Canon Pixma IP5000 btw. I have seen Ridata 8X speed Printables with glossyish tops printed on and they look awesome, i was wondering if anyone knows if these ridata's will look just a good coming from my canon ip5000, or alternatively if theres something even better out there

thanks in advance!!!!

[dicer]

Ridata (RiTEK) are probably the best you can get for glossy looking printables. The next best that i've used are 16x tdk printable, it's a bit smoother than their old 8x/4x printables, but not as smooth as ritek...

[thamfactor]

Anyone know if RiDATA printables would be compatible with canon pixma ip5000s (i dont want the ink being wet for ages and coming out smudgy) ??? I figure it should seeing canon is farely competitive in prinitng but i unno.....

thanks in advance

[thamfactor]

so nobody knows bout ridata printables compatibility with printers?

[FreqNasty]

Every printable I have used with the Canon Pixma IP5000 has turned out really good. If the Ridata printable surface is like other taiwanese discs such as Prodisc, Imation and Gigastorage then they will look great. It feels more like a satin finish than a shiny gloss though. TDK are meant to be the only ones who produce a true glossy printable at this point in time.

[thamfactor]

thanks FreqNasty for ur help, but what do you mean by satin finish? The Ridata one i saw that was printed on wasn't exactly shiny, but it felt more plastic, more smoother then regular matte (princo etc.)

[JayC30]

That sounds like a satin finish.

[stevenhal]

It sounds like you are using an inkjet printer on DVDs with a thermal printable surface which usually have a shinier surface than inkjet printable DVDs, which accounts for the ink taking so long to dry.

[thamfactor]

I'll add that the shiny ones i used are advertised to be printable. They also do look better then matte. I don't mind so much waiting for them to dry, it's more to do with wen it drys up ugly lol. The regular printables with the matte finish (princo), remind me of my sega megadrive.

So, even the satin or glossy TDKs,Prodisc, Imation and Gigastorage will take a while to dry?

[ghetocowboy]

hahaha, what you have is the thermal printable, not inkjet printable. Make sure you get inkjet printable. What you need is powdery top, not shiny surface, TDK just launch phototop surface disc, nice ink absorption too. And Verbatim, nice quality with nice printing surface. And if you want cheap price, get prodisc

[thamfactor]

The Sidney's are def. printable, just crappy lol. The ink stays on it (ages to dry), the only complaint i have is i can't get high quality pics on it. The black ink is also smudgy when under light. The printable Princo's are matte surface, so the image quality isn't great. I like the Ridata printables (not sure which model they are), because i've seen the result and it looks good (not like original but far closer then matte). I wouldn't know what the official name for discs like this is, i had to just touch the discs until i found a smooth one.

I've read the article about the TDK's and i'd get them if they were available near me, they sound kewl. Has anyone personally had experience with printing on "Ridata Printables" (non-matte) finish???

Also, it wouldn't be because of my printer that im not getting good dvd disc prints? (Canon Pixma IP5000)

[thamfactor]

about thermal printable, are thermal printers the ones used for original dvd's? If so, there's no point advertising that because not many people have them at home. The wrapping definantly said printable on it, but i can't remember if it said thermal or not. Do companies use that to attract buyers by saying it's printable when it's only thermal printable?

[thamfactor]

Wa does everyone mean by satin finish?

[JayC30]

Satin is somewhere in the middle between matt and gloss.

[stevenhal]

One thing you need to understand is that thermal printers do not use ink. They use color ribbons that are thermally applied to the surface of the CD/DVD with heat. A thermal printable CD/DVD has a special surface that allows the ribbon to adhere. Ink cannot be absorbed into this kind of surface and will not dry properly and will most likely smudge. If you are using an inkjet printer you need a CD/DVD with a surface that absorbs ink, which is why you need to make sure that the printable CD/DVD has an inkjet printable surface.

[thamfactor]

Ok well, i went out and got the ridatas, about 50 cents each australian. After changing the settings around, I got a decent result, better then my other disks. No damp ink, But, i've discovered they're really bad with finger prints. Especially with black, all the prints show up lol. I don't think i'll ever get realistic results, i guess i have to try the photo glossy TDK's i've heard about.

Anyone out there that has personally used the TDKs, and does the packaging clearly distinguish them as the photo printables?

[thamfactor]

Oh, and i'll add, I hear the Verbatim Photo Printables are as good quality as the TDKs. Anyone out there used either of these to print on???

thanks in advance?

[FreqNasty]

The Verbatim photo printables won't be as good as the TDK glossy discs as they still use a matte surface, albeit a bright white one. The TDK's are clearly distinguished as glossy photo printables except I haven't seen them here in Australia for sale yet. If you put them next to glossy photo paper you'll see it's the same texture as that. Also, they don't come in bulk spindle packs, just individual cases and 10 packs I believe.
Even though the satin discs are prone to smudging if you touch them too soon after printing i still think they provide deeper and better colors (the blacks are noticable deeper) with less grain than the matt discs. If you need to handle them soon after printing then there is a special spray you can buy that is applied to the printable surface before printing. This prevents the discs from getting fingerprint smudges.

There is nothing wrong with the Canon Pixma 5000 printer. It's as good an inkjet printer as any for printing on paper and discs. Just use the dark setting for disc printing or else they come out looking too faded.

[ghetocowboy]

"Ceramic Surface, takes ages to dry"
sounds like you have the white thermal printable, it will not work on Inkjet
I agree with FregNasty, TDK has the photo finish surface on their printable disc, very nice printing surface. The verbatim Inkjet is a bit grainy. If you buy TDK, buy the -R because the +R is CMC, -R is TTG02, which is also CMC made, but burnt better than TDK CMC

[pace282]

I have the Canon i865 and the Ritek/Ridata dvd's are by far the best i have used in Australia. When they moved from G04 to G05 they used a new coating on the top with a more uniform outer and inner ring. The G04 has a kind of wavy ring thats hard to print to the edge of. Most of the time i only print a plain black text label on. They produce the best results ive found. But the quality of the G05 vs its printable surface is the problem if you want a fancy nice looking lable with suspect data on the dvd then they are fine. But i use TY and MCC dvd's now as the data on them is far more important than the lable looking nice.

www.jpldisplays.com.au Have the best range ive found and chances are if you ask them about the TDK glossy discs they might be able to find them for you.