PC Magazine Reviews the Primera Signature Z1 CD/DVD Printer

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcmag.com/review/0%2C2491%2Cs%3D1567&a%3D136336%2C00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcmag.com/review/0%2C2491%2Cs%3D1567&a%3D136336%2C00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The Signature Z1 CD/DVD Printer ($139.95 direct) from Primera Technology is the sort of product that most people can find useful. The only question is whether they can justify the price. As the name suggests, the Z1 prints on CDs and DVDs. If you create many discs, whether they're filled with photos, music, or data backups, the Z1 can make labeling them a lot easier."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/0,1311,i=88774,00.jpg" /><br /><br />This printer looks quite interesting - I've always hated the cheesy-looking labels I've done up for projects (and been concerned about disc imbalance from those labels), so the thought of having something reasonably professional looking is intriguing! Anyone tried one of these yet?

[Philip Colmer]

The biggest drawback with this product, although you'd be hard pushed to tell from the product photo, is that you can only use one colour.

In fact, I'm beginning to think the disc contained within the product photo isn't possible. You can print in black, red, blue or green - and you can only use ONE ribbon per disc.

I appreciate that this product will allow you to print onto any disc whereas alternative printers require special media, but I think that a single colour is too restrictive.

--Philip

[Jason Dunn]

"One shortcoming compared with, say, printing from an Epson photo printer that prints on CDs, is that the Z1 uses a single-color ribbon, similar to that of a typewriter, so you're limited to printing only one color at a time. On the other hand, the Epson printers need special printable discs. The Z1 uses thermal transfer technology to transfer the wax- and resin-based ink on the ribbon directly onto a standard disc's lacquer coating. And at least you get a choice of black, blue, red, and green for the $20 ribbon. Primera says the ribbons are good for as many as 200 discs if you print in one print area per disc, or as few as 50 if you print in all four."

I took that to mean that you could do four-colour printing, but you'd have to change out the cartridge four times. But maybe not...?

[Philip Colmer]

"Primera says the ribbons are good for as many as 200 discs if you print in one print area per disc, or as few as 50 if you print in all four."

I took that to mean that you could do four-colour printing, but you'd have to change out the cartridge four times. But maybe not...?
I don't think so, but I am willing to be told otherwise. I've looked at the manual for the printer and there is nothing in there about changing the ribbon during printing if you've used complex colour.

The printer has a resolution of 200dpi so if they somehow did allow you to print colour through ribbon mixing, I don't think it would be very high quality. The printer uses thermal transfer so you won't be able to see one layer beneath another unless there are gaps and with that resolution, the gaps are not going to be as fine as an inkjet photo printer.

Another restriction of the printer that became apparent when I read the manual was that the printer doesn't allow you to print just anywhere on the disc surface. It only supports four print areas - the top & bottom section are 24mm x 60mm and the left & right areas are 24mm x 40mm.

This printer clearly has a market but if you are looking for a means of doing full colour full surface printing, this isn't it.

--Philip

[gai-jin]

I have an epson Photo R300, which prints on CD's as well as regular stuff. I love it, except for the fact that it suffers from being an ink jet. You really need to give the cds a short time to 'dry', make sure you don't print over or under the edges of the print area at all (or that ink will smear off, never dry), and be sure you NEVER get the disc wet, or your label will be nothing more than a smear.

Other than that, it looks professional, turns out great, and I can print the whole surface area of the disk in photo quality images.

Gai-jin

[Jason Dunn]

I have an epson Photo R300, which prints on CD's as well as regular stuff...

You need to buy special CDs though, right? That's the thing that's kept me away from solutions like that.

[Mojo Jojo]

What ever happened to those HP drives that would create an image onto the cd/dvd itself?

I can't recall the name but esentially you recorded data on one side, flipped the cd/dvd and then it 'burned' an image onto the other side. The result was monochrome-like of course, and yes you needed special media BUT the image was 'burnt' to a special layer under the plastic. Much like the data side.

To me that looked promising for long term storage reasons where the cd-label adhesives would effect the cd/dvd, imbalance issues if the label was off center, as well as removing fear of labels coming off in the player itself (lost a car radio that way).


EDIT: Found the info...

Here is the product I was thinking about. I haven't heard anything about this in awhile so I am not sure where it stands. Looked promising to me.

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0%2Caid%2C114592%2Ctk%2Cwb030804x%2C00.asp

[Jon Childs]

I have an epson Photo R300, which prints on CD's as well as regular stuff...

You need to buy special CDs though, right? That's the thing that's kept me away from solutions like that.


I have an Epson 960, and they output is very nice. The special CD/DVDs haven't been much of an issue (Verbatim makes them among others). The only issue I have is that it is a pain in the rear to configure the printer to print on the disk. Since I only do one or two a month I always seem to foget the procedure and have to go looking for the manual. And you need to snap on a piece which seems to have a way of getting lost in my office. It would be much nicer if you didn't have to reconfigure the printer to do this. If I had to do it again, just because of the inconvienence factor I probably would have bought a cheaper inkjet and a second one something like this just for disks, assuming there is a multi-color one available somewhere.