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View Full Version : Dymo's DiscPainter: Shock and Awe Disc Printing


Jason Dunn
10-20-2008, 03:00 PM
<p><img border="0" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1216355915.usr1.jpg" /></p><p>DYMO isn&rsquo;t just about printing shipping labels any longer: at CES 2008 I saw their <a href="http://global.dymo.com/enUS/DiscPainter/Default.html" target="_blank">DiscPainter</a> product, which is a dedicated disc printer. It doesn't print labels; instead, it prints directly on CDs and DVDs designed for printing. I have a DYMO LabelWriter 330, and it saves me a bunch of time, so I was interested in checking out this new product. Since my Epson R1800 prints on discs - but is a bit of a hassle to set up for disc printing - I was curious if this $249 product (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dymo-DiscPainter-Color-Printer-1738260/dp/B000OSLHFK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=office-products&amp;qid=1216356373&amp;sr=8-1" target="_blank">available from Amazon.com</a>) brought anything new to the game so I requested one for review. Unpacking the nicely-designed box, I found the usual: a quick start guide, a software CD, a registration card, three glossy and water-resistant optimized-for-printing blank CDs, an ink cartridge, the power adaptor and power cable, a USB cable, and the printer itself. The software install was uneventful, though I was disappointed to see both a Vista UAC (User Account Control) prompt and the installation of Quicktime without my permission. I find Quicktime to be poorly designed, intrusive software that I only install if I absolutely have to. Even after the install I'm unsure of exactly why Quicktime was required.<MORE /></p><p>The printer itself looks great; it's small and unobtrusive, easily fitting <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224039617.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">underneath my monitor on a monitor stand</a>. The design is modern and sleek, and the printer is will spit out a disc in three minutes when it's set to the highest quality mode. Where the hardware design falls down is print quality; the prints just don't look as good as I thought they would based on the marketing materials. It's a bit confusing actually, because when I saw this product at CES, the promotional materials said it did 1200 dpi printing, so I was expecting great quality prints. Instead, the disc prints I did were quite grainy. When I asked the Dymo PR person about this, I was informed that the printer&nbsp;was&nbsp;no longer&nbsp;marketed as having 1200 dpi print quality, with 600 dpi being the new quality number, and that I must have had an older box that referenced the 1200 dpi printing. If that's the case, I have to wonder why the <a href="http://global.dymo.com/enUS/DiscPainter/default.html" target="_blank">DYMO product page still references 1200 dpi-quality printing</a>.</p><p>Regardless of what I was being told, the proof is in the product: <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224107037.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">here's what a&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">1200dpi</span> best-quality print looks like</a>. Notice the lack of uniform blocks of colour; every photo has speckles and colour banding. This looks worse than what a 600 dpi laser printer could do, yet amazingly the <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224107267.usr1.jpg" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: line-through;">600dpi</span> normal print manages to look even worse</a>. Since it seemed to have a hard time with photos, what about some semi-abstract line art? While it <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224107350.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">looks a bit better</a>, visible lines are everywhere throughout the image. In fact, it looks like what an inkjet printer with clogged print heads spits out. The Dymo PR rep I was dealing with sent me a new ink cartridge, but the results were no better; using one of the <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224107511.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">included default templates</a> gave me an image <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224107472.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">riddled by streaks</a>. I wasn't impressed.</p><p>The included software, <a href="http://global.dymo.com/enUS/DiscPainterInfo/SoftwareFeatures.html" target="_blank">Discus for Dymo</a>, offers some neat features such as <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224108033.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">automatic collage creation</a>&nbsp;and the ability to <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224108127.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">save a disc design to an image file</a>, but for the most part I found the software unintuitive and <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224108315.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">strangely restrictive</a>. Perhaps the fact that it looks like it's a Mac application is a hint as to its origins and why I find it unintuitive. There's also a software component that loads with Windows to monitor the printer status, but having it running all the time only uses up memory - there's really no reason why you'd need to have it running all the time. I can't blame DYMO too much for this though; Epson does the same thing.</p><p>So what can you print with the DYMO DiscPainter? Almost every full-colour image I tried turned out looking quite bad, yet <a href="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1224040229.usr1.jpg" target="_blank">sometimes the images would turn out OK</a>. I consider this sample a rare exception though and not the rule. Plain, text-based discs print just fine, and they look good enough.&nbsp;But does someone drop $250 on a product that's only good at printing discs with a bit of text on them? I doubt it. DYMO shows all these great-looking, full-colour discs in all their marketing materials for this product, yet the product itself seems woefully unable to measure up to the marketing hype. No matter what I tried with the DYMO DiscPainter, the results were inferior to what a sub-$100 Epson printer can accomplish - which is exactly what I recommend someone purchase if they're looking for a basic disc-printing solution. The DYMO DiscPainter simply doesn't deliver results good enough to justify its cost. If this were a $79 printer I'd be more forgiving, but at $249 it's in the range of prosumer printers. DYMO can do better, and so can you - take a pass on this product.</p><p><em>Jason Dunn owns and operates <a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/" target="_blank">Thoughts Media Inc.</a>, a company dedicated to creating the best in online communities. He enjoys <a href="http://photos.jasondunn.com/" target="_blank">photography</a>, mobile devices, <a href="http://www.jasondunn.com/" target="_blank">blogging</a>, digital media content creation/editing, and pretty much all technology. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with his lovely wife, and his sometimes obedient dog. He likes things that print on other things.</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1240336793.usr1.gif" /></p><p><p><strong>Do you enjoy using new hardware,&nbsp;<a class="iAs" href="http://www.digitalhomethoughts.com/news/show/93798/dell-s-inspiron-mini-10-reviewed.html" target="_blank">software</a>&nbsp;and accessories, then sharing your experience with others? Then join us on the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/reviewteam.php" target="_blank">Thoughts Media Review Team</a>! We're looking for individuals who find it fun to test new gear and give their honest opinions about the experience. It's a volunteer role with some great perks. Interested?&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thoughtsmedia.com/reviewteam.php" target="_blank">Then click here for more information.</a></strong></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com//ppct/auto/1240336793.usr1.gif" /></p></p>