Electronics : Epson Stylus Photo R280 Photo Printer

Rating: - Best DVD Printer for the Price
Like others I only use this printer for printing DVD and CD labels on HP DVD-R 4.7GB 16x Inkjet-Printable 100 Spindle (DMJPW045) media. I'm fairly impressed with the printer, though the software packs a whole lot of utilities that I didn't really want and couldn't find a way to opt out of. But the main program, Epson PrintCD is really nice. It has a clean interface and works for just about everything I want it to do. If I want to get fancy, I could use another program, but, so far, I haven't found anything it wouldn't do. I've uploaded a couple of pictures that might help you decide on whether you want this printer or another. One last caveat, since I only use it for printing DVD's I turn it off when it's not in use. If you turn it on, and the little feeder tray is in the CD (upper) position, instead of the normal paper-feed (lower) position, you'll get a path error on start up. So be sure the tray isn't left in the CD position.

All-in-all a pretty good printer with a decent program. I think it's going to give good service for quite a while.

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Rating: - Why To Not Buy A Epson R-280
If you are going to buy a printer I would suggest that you not buy the Epson R280. I like Epson printers and would suggest a R200,R220,R300 anything in the older models. The older models perform better the ink is alot cheaper and the R280 is a ink sucking monster. I have had one several months and have to buy ink on a regular basis and I don't print that much. I get about 20 CD labels per set on ink???? And right now I installed a new set and it will not read one of the cartridges. I still have the warrenty on it but I think I'll put it in the closet and find me a 200,220 or anything but the 280. Don't make the mistake I made.

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Rating: - Does not recongize ink cartiridges after 5 pages
Junk. Keeps telling me that Yellow and Black cartridges are not recognized/empty. Replaced them and they worked for 5 pages in about 1 week. Then empty again. I am not buying new ink again, I can get a new Canon for what this thing has cost me in ink.

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Rating: - Blah Printer
We had been using our awesome work horse of a printer, the Epson 220 for a long time now and it finally went kaput! As a replacement we bought the 280 and all I have to say is, disappointing! Not only is it insanely loud when loading the paper it has POOR print quality, especially text.

We print a lot of stationery and the quality is sub-par for sure. Envelope printing was also "bleedy" looking and unclear.

We have no problem feeding 80lb cover paper through the machine, which is great, 100lb gets a little tricky. The 220 had severe paper feeding issues, especially towards the end.

If you are looking for a machine to print high quality, text or artwork this is NOT the printer for you. save yourself the money and trouble and go with a canon or some other printer, not the 280!

Inks are absurdly expensive and Epson makes it very difficult to purchase third party inks.

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Rating: - What a jalopy! But great CD/DVD & photo prints.
I got this unit set up, printed a test page, a very good photo, and 3 very good DVDs using the included Epson Print CD software, then the next time I powered on all 3 panel lights started flashing.

The ink cartridge carriage whizzed around and sounded like it was printing on nothing. The software said my new ink cartrige was empty, and wouldn't relent until I actually broke out a new cartridge. Then it said another cartridge was empty. Fool me once! So I read through the manual, tried various fixes, nothing worked.

I called Epson support (the number for R280 support is in the back of the manual) and they had me unplug, restore the trays to normal printing position, then plug in and hold down the Power and Paper Out buttons simultaneously for 6 seconds to power on. This seemed to make it happy. I was able to go back to printing DVD's.

There's no reason to think that the unit won't flip out again, but if the system reset works reliably, then I would say this is worth it. The R280 is by far the BEST VALUE for a home-use CD/DVD print system I have found, assuming you can get it to work. If you're into cool electronic gadgets that require regular troubleshooting (like most Windows users), this is your printer!