TY "Watershield" Inkjet Printable Media!

 
A few years back (Feb of '04) I did some tests with various clear sprays trying to improve the appearance and durability of inkjet-printed CDR media.  While I eventually found a spray that seemed to work well without any notable negative impact on the CD, I abandoned the effort due to fumes and the logistics of clear-coating large batches of CDs.

Since then I've been trying to figure out how I can justify the expense of a color thermal printer, or a CD laminator over recording equipment.

Last week I surfed over to one of my media suppliers and found TY "Watershield" CD media.  2x the cost of standard inkjet media, but it was reported to have a high-gloss water resistant surface.

Reviews I could find on the www were positive - I bought a spindle of 50 to see what they're like.

I'm glad I did!  I'm quite impressed.  Print quality is fantastic!  I can take a freshly printed disk and run water over it with no running, smearing, or surface damage.  The surface is HIGH gloss and shows no scratching with normal, gentle handling.

A wet fingertip will stick, not slide, on the surface, but damage is very superficial and only visible if under light at just the right angle.  The surface also takes Sharpie markers very nicely.

The only negative comment I can make is that the printable surface does not run out to the very edge of the white background - You need to leave a 1mm (or so) white edge on disks with a full-color background, but given the quality of the print and the surface quality, this is a small concession.

This is going to be my default media from now on.

Should work well with my new Cousteau CD/MP3 player- good for 10 meters!



- OK, I'll apologize in advance. Just caught me in one of those moods.

FWIW, I've always used labels for CDs - provided you stick to brand names, there seems to be no problem (except in the odd case, such as in-car players).  I used Neato labels for many years, with no complaints and now we use labels from Apli.  For a number of reasons, we're currently evaluating labels from Data-Backer - both these latter seem to be without any problems.

The best thing we did was to purchase a colour Laser printer.  This has improved the appearance of the labels by a considerable factor.

These are WAY prettier than any label I've ever seen.

Thanks Zemlin - I've been waiting for this kind of thing for a while. The spray paint fixer method is gettin real old even though I can spill beers all over them and the cat can lick it off - no problem! 

Can you recommend an online shop - where do you get yours in other words.
Thanks,
Kyle

I usually buy from ACCA Recording Products  Pretty good prices, good service, reasonable shipping charges, and a good selection of products.

read this post and tried 'em out...i love 'em!  the color on them is so nice.  the only thing that i could find wrong with them is that i don't like that the middle is not clear, but white.

Yeah, the center spot is a bit of an odd size - not quite full face.  With everything else looking so good, I'll live with it!

Great price on watershield (in NA anyway)
www.printsavings.com about $16/spindle of 50!
Their rating as a seller is good - I haven't dealt with them before.

Apparently it's too good to be true.  Their price is now $40/spindle and my order was cancelled.   

I'm going to try these TY's with my Epson printer.

Graeme, I gave up on paper labels after I didcovered that many discs I labeled that way have developed a digital static noise.  Usually, I can just rip it with EAC and burn a new copy, but some are too far gone and are now a loss.

Apparently it's too good to be true.  Their price is now $40/spindle and my order was cancelled.   

I'm getting to the party a bit late for this topic, but after reading here about these discs a few months ago I finally had a reason to try them.  They are gorgeous when they come out of my Epson inkjet.  I got a spindle of 50 from www.tapeonline.com for $28.00 US.  They're based in Nashville, and I got very quick delivery on my order.  They stock other TY discs, as well as a wide variety of other recording media.  I'll certainly order from them again.