Sign up Login
Home Forums Articles Galleries Members Galleries Master Your Vision Galleries 5Contest Categories 5Winners Galleries 5ANPAT Galleries 5 The Winners Editor's Choice Portfolios Recent Photos Search Contest Info Help News Newsletter Join us Renew Membership About us Retrieve password Contact us Contests Vouchers Wiki Apps THE NIKONIAN™ For the press Fundraising Search Help!
More5

Accessories Reviews

Epson Discproducer Disc Publisher (PP-100) Review

Martin Turner (Martin Turner)


Keywords: epson, discproducer, printer, paper, non_nikon

previous page Page 1/2 show all pages

The Epson Discproducer is a commercial strength CD-R and DVD-R Robot, which fully automates the task of copying CDs and DVDs from a master file held on computer and producing a set of copies, printed on the surface with whatever artwork you designed to suit.

As such, this is a boon to anyone who relies on CD or DVD distribution for their business. However, the system is not Mac compatible at present, and, like much Epson equipment, relies on the installation of Epson's proprietary software for making the disk copies and reproducing the artwork, rather than working directly from industry standard software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign or QuarkXpress.

Setup
We did not discover that the review copy would be PC only until after it had arrived and we had unpacked it. Almost an hour spent searching online and through the documentation eventually made it clear that there were no Mac drivers. This created a problem, because all of our office PCs are 'locked down', so that only administrators with multiple levels of permissions could install it. Having located such an individual, we watched in interest while he installed the drivers and Epson software, which all in all took about 20 minutes.

The device connects by USB, but you will almost certainly want a long cable or a dedicated computer, because, sat beside me on the desk, it was noisy in operation, or even when it was merely switched on waiting for data.

Like all 'robots' which I have used for disk copying, the Discproducer has a place (two in this case) to put in a pile of 25 or 50 blank CDs or DVDs, and a collector. Populating it with a pile of suitable blank printable CDs — after removing the numerous bits of sticky designed to stop things rattling around while in transit — meant that it was now ready for use.

inside

The Discproducer inside


Operation
Epson's software is, to say the least, finnicky. To be absolutely fair, disc robots are a a fairly esoteric branch of computer hardware, and other units I've worked with also used their own proprietary software rather than connecting well to the gear that the user already has. After a brief time to familiarise ourselves, we found it was a fairly simple matter to set the machine churning out DVDs. The digital reproduction was absolutely fine, and the print was crisp — as crisp as any we've seen on an inkjet Discproducer. Our experience in the past has been that inkjet nozzles tend to clog up if used only rarely, a problem which particularly besets equipment which is used occasionally for large runs. I have no reason to believe that this is the case with this unit, as we didn't have it long enough, beyond the fact that I've seen this happen before both on disk robots and on other Epson printers.

Everything happens behind the plastic-windowed door, so you don't get to watch the little arm coming out in the way that it does on other models. The overall impression, both in terms of look and sound is of having a small microwave on your desk.



Features
The model we reviewed was the standard disk burning and disk printing model. Note that you can only print on inkjet printable disks, which are marginally more expensive than the plain variety, though they are easy enough to locate these days. As a point worth noting, I only buy this type now anyway as you can write on them with a fountain pen, unlike the standard kind from which the writing rubs off no matter what you write on them with. Our model was not networked or networkable, which is a pity for such a high ticket piece of equipment, but there is a network model available, as well as a printer model which only prints.

(1 Vote )
previous page Page 1/2 show all pages

Originally written on December 29, 2010

Last updated on March 27, 2015

Martin Turner Martin Turner (Martin Turner)

Expert professional PJ & PR photographer Ribbon awarded for his valuable contributions to the Articles section and the Wiki

Zaventem, Belgium
Moderator, 4986 posts

0 comments

previous page Page 1/2 show all pages

G