Epson Discproducer Standard 50 Disc Publisher

If you want to reliably publish CDs or DVDs without having to babysit your duplicator, then check out Epson's Discproducer Standard 50 Disc Publisher. Designed for unattended use and capable of holding 50 discs at a time, the Discproducer can burn and print labels on 15 CDs or 8 DVDs per hour. In so doing, the Discproducer utilizes one CD/DVD drive, a built-in inkjet printer, and a variety of different notable Epson-technologies.

Depending on the number of CDs or DVDs that you want to burn and label, the Discproducer has two different operating modes. Specifically, you can choose standard mode for larger production runs of up to 50 discs or low volume mode for up to 20 discs.

While you're deciding which operating mode to choose, you will also have the option of choosing two different print modes. You can either go with speed mode or quality mode. In speed mode, you can print labels more quickly and up to a resolution of 1440 x 720 dpi. In quality mode, the printer takes a little more time but prints at a resolution of up to 1440 x 1440 dpi. Plus, if you only need to print on discs and not burn them, you can do so in either of these modes. If you're only printing, speed mode produces 60 discs per hour and quality mode produces 40 discs per hour.

For printing and burning discs in these various modes, the Discproducer relies on a few notable Epson technologies and design innovations. The exterior is compact, rugged, features a dust-proof body, and contains a minimum of moving parts. Among those moving parts is a robotic arm that employs Epson's AcuGrip technology. That is to say, once the arm is centered over a disc, three powered fingers separate any discs that are stuck together and ensure that only one disc is placed inside the printer or the disc drives.

For printing, inside the Discproducer are MicroPiezo print heads for delivering uniform, stable ink droplets as well as six high-capacity, ink cartridges. Each cartridge contains a different color of ink and is connected to a sensor that will alert you when ink is low. While many other inkjet printers use only one black and one color cartridge, Epson's use of six different colors is meant to save you money. More specifically, with those other printers, if you deplete a given color, such as cyan in your color cartridge, you will unfortunately need to replace the entire cartridge. Even if you have a good bit of yellow or magenta left in the cartridge and still want to print in cyan, you will need to buy another cartridge. Epson's use of six cartridges allows you to replace only one color per cartridge when it is out so as to reduce waste and lower your operating costs.

Once you've connected the Discproducer to your computer via USB 2.0, Epson's Total Disc Maker Software will provide you with all the functions that you'll need for burning and printing your discs. You'll simply need to select the media format to burn to a disc, drag-and-drop your content, design the label to be printed, configure your run, and click "Publish."

When you start burning and printing, Epson's Data Monitor Software will keep you informed of the status of your job. It provides a bounty of relevant information, such as ink levels in each cartridge, whether the drives or printer are in use, the total time needed for a job, any errors, and what disc stackers are being used to hold blank or burned discs.

In total, Epson's Discproducer Disc Publisher is a fast, convenient, hands-off way to burn and label a multitude of discs.