Taiyo Yuden has been recognized as one of the leading manufacturers of DVD recordable blank discs.  Taiyo Yuden has many types of specialized surfaces including thermal printable, white thermal printable, white ink jet printable, silver inkjet printable and Everest printable surfaces.  It’s not suprising that Taiyo Yuden would introduce a new type of inkjet printable surface called “watershield”.

Taiyo Yuden’s Watershield DVD surface offers a glossy label finish, water-resistant, fade-resistant, hub printable and works in just about any inkjet DVD printer. Unlike some other “water-resistant” printable disc surfaces Watershield is spun applied during the manufacturing process and not applied later as a sticky label.  This creates better disc integrity as the surface is evenly applied.  Typically an applied label is not centered thus creating an unbalanced disc in the recording and playback mode.  There is also serious concern about the “glue” that holds the label to the disc and if it causes damage to the disc over time.  There have not been any tests on data longevity with sticker based labels (and worse the manufacturers like to deny that the surface can be peeled off). The only other glossy surface spun applied surface is Verbatim.  It does not have the same properties as Taiyo Yuden Watershield which includes fast drying.  All the other “water-resistant” surfaces are labels.  One surface has a matte appearance and the other has a shiny surface like TY but a badly centered label which has been applied over a finish coat that makes it look bumpy with light reflecting off it.

Taiyo Yuden Watershield DVD-R media looks almost like a thermal re-transfer print at a lower price point. At least as far as Rimage thermal re-transfer technology goes.  Teac’s P-55 thermal re-transfer printer/ dye-sublimation printer has greater yields on the consumables so the price is comparable. The difference is in the cost of the inkjet printer vs. a thermal re-transfer printer which typially costs 5 times the amount.

Many manufacturers recommend Taiyo Yuden and specifically Watershield with more advanced printer systems from Epson and HP.   As a matter of fact Epson’s Discproducer recommendations are Watershield only.  The Discproducer can print on other inkjet printable surfaces but the publisher really shines with Taiyo Yuden.

so if you are looking for a high quality ink jet printable surface then look no farther then Taiyo Yuden Watershield DVD and CD-R media.

According to CENS.COM Prodisc has filed for corporate restructuring with the Taiwan Government.  With 8.6 Billion dollars in Liability, Prodisc, Taiwan’s 3rd largest manufacturer will stop making optical discs.  Although not unexpected Prodisc continues to blame Philips for it’s woes.  Philips has had to seize assets of Prodisc because of Prodisc’s refusal to pay royalties that it has felt are too high. As most people know Philips royalties were for CD-R production and not DVD but the conflict between the two companies spilled out into a public display of mutual dislike.  By forcing the situation Prodisc left little choice for Philips.  This leaves CMC and Ritek as the last major disc manufacturers in Taiwan.