I also bought an r200 recently, but was wary about replacing ink with
cheaper ones. Have you had same results with ebay ink? Only someone
recently told me they had problems with clogging and slower drying ink
from
similar replacements.

SVP were doing a promotion recently where I stocked up on cheap ink from
JetTec - £8.99 for all the colours and two blacks Plus you could buy one,
get one free. It worked out at 64p a cartridge!

It's back to normal levels now - £3.13, but you can get a datasafe branded
BOGOF bundle (one black per bundle) for £7.71, which works out at about the
same price per cartridge. Can't comment on their quality as I've not had
any, so that's not a recommendation, but the JetTecs have been great.

Genuine ink costs £12 per cartridge so even using the current price of
JetTecs, when you're replacing your eighth cartridge, you've covered the
cost of a replacement R200 if the cheap ink knackers the one you have.

I'm using an R300, so the statistic moves: I have to be using my 10th
cartridge before the ink cost saving is bigger than the cost of a
replacement printer. I've actually used 19 so I've "replaced" the printer
twice, but the original is still going strong!

I wonder if she'll let me go to the pub with all the money I've saved...?

Incidentally, cheap inks tend to have a different colour profile to genuine
inks, but that's not a problem as long as you calibrate the printer.

Since we're talking about printing CDs/DVDs, I might mention that I
attempted to take the advice of someone who posted here and "fix" the
printing on the DVD with a car-finish clear spray paint. Although I
waited 24 hours for the printer ink to dry, the clear lacquer "puddled"
on the surface without giving an even cover.

I've used glossy inkjet ink fixative, which does a good job. The written
side of the disc needs to be on cling film before placing it on your
newspaper for spraying, because the spray gets under the edge of the disc
and may spoil the recording. It gets under the hub too, but that doesn't
matter so much.

In message , Asky
writes
Thanks for that, I'll give them a go, nothing to lose - the printer is
cheaper to replace than pay rip off prices for epson ink. Speaking of
your lacquer exercise, I would prefer to wait on the next due
development i.e. smudge free capable inkjet discs. "Necessity being
the mother of all inventions" and all that???

Using the disk blanks I mentioned, the ink seems smudge-free after about
5 minutes (I haven't tried handling before that).

The main reason I tried the clear-lacquer exercise is that I perceive
glossy finish as giving more vivid colours.

--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info