Thread: Primera Bravo

You are correct oh wise one. I've had a Bravo II since 2004. It runs on a different computer so I can be working on something else while it's printing discs at a workstation behind me. They may have improved, but mine is not especially fast. The output is really nice though on either white or silver blanks. They will however smear or get blotchy if they get the least bit wet. They make a water-resistant blank disc now too, but it will come as no surprise it's about 3x the price.

I find the cartridges drying up is an expensive pain (at over $40 each x 2), but I haven't had much trouble with the print head clogging. Usually installing new ink and running the head-cleaning utility a couple times is all you need. In my experience it's better to have it sit idle during the warmer, more humid, summer months than the dry winter months.

It's extremely irritating that Primera (or any other company for that matter) would still use CMY or CMYK on the same cartridge. At least mine has a separate black cartridge (or monochrome as they call it). So if you print a batch that uses a lot of a particular color, or a spot color for a logo - you are SOL once one of the three colors is gone. My software gives me the choice of using CMYK or just black for text. At least you can use up the black ink that way, and you get to set the ink density. So a little ink strategy will go a long way. The only thing worse than getting ripped off is throwing out a CMY cartridge that is still 2/3 full.


I've got several church clients that I sell a supply of printed blanks at a very reasonable cost. It helps keep my ink flowing and gives them a good looking CD for use with their recorder and/or duplicator (that I probably installed). It helps offset the cost of owning it a little bit and keeps the ink from drying out before it runs out.


There are solutions for clogged print heads, but I don't want to commit them to the written pixel, for fear of someone blaming me for junking their junk printer even further.

Thanks Dave. Is there a better alternative do you think? I mean what does everyone else do that does small scale concerts? It can't be cost effective to send them out to a production house I wouldn't think. <sigh>

It depends on what part of that you didn't like.

I gave it a lot of thought 6 years ago, and obviously thought it was the way to go for me. I don't know of anything else in the price-range that's any better.

They say the new ones are faster. Mine is about a minute per disc, and most of that is the robotic arm picking them up and setting them down. [I can cut that down by going to kiosk-mode, which drops the finished discs out the front rather than stacking them neatly on the side. Kiosk-mode also doubles the number of blanks from 25 to 50]

The print quality is really good.

Ink is just a necessary evil you have to figure into your operating costs. Incidentally I regularly get around 500 discs out of a new set of ($85) ink cartridges. So at that rate you're still about 35¢ for a good Ritek blank and ink for a disc with typical ink coverage. If you go water-resistant you're at about 72¢ for good T-Y blank and ink.

Blank Lightscribe discs gotta be costing you around 30¢ in bulk.


[Disregarding the cost of the Bravo] It's not much more per disc and the maintenance isn't bad at all.

Maintenance is my main concern as I would have to get the water resistant discs. It's almost always beer thirty up here and inevitably someone would smear the label. Basically everything sits completely idol and untouched from 1 May-5 Oct every year with the possible exception of one french horn-and it won't get touched much. I burn red book directly from Audition so I'm mostly looking for the labeling portion although it's just as easy to make a .gi of the red book too.

And I'd rather buy a microphone than a printer. Maybe that's the real holdup.

I'll add my .02. I too use the Bravo II. It can sit idle for months, cold or hot and for the past 3 years has not been an issue at all in the wonderful weather we have in Wisconsin. The issue is drying ink cartriges.

I've somewhat solved the problem by always printing in black on the disk. Make a good looking B & W image and you're fine printing on silver or white. Not perfect for all occasions but it works for me. If the the other stuff is colorful, the eye is very forgiving as long as your customer agrees. If not, pass on the cost.

I get about 300+ of graphic heavy B and White out of a black cartridge.

Phil

Thanks again Phil and Dave. Good info there.