Customer Rating: 
Summary: Is a tad bit inaccurate
Comment: Well, I go this printer because I do event videography and I needed a printer to print directly to DVDs and also print the DVD labels. I used to use my past roommate's printer, and it worked perfectly fine, besides the occasional DVD tray jams. So I went and bought my own printer. I took it out the box and followed the prep instructions, but since I have a mac, it took me longer than expected for the computer to recognize the printer.
After I got the drivers and programs installed, the printer worked just fine. But there are a couple issues I have with this printer. One is that it NEVER prints exactly the same way for 2 or more consecutive images...even when the images are the same, and have the same dimensions. For one print, it will start higer in the page, for another it will start lover, but the one that frustrates me the most is when it grabs the paper unevenly and prints DIAGONALLY. Sometimes it will print 8x10s at a 1-3 degree diagonal to the parallel of the page, which makes me mad because that in addition to not printing at the same startpoint makes it impossible for me to print double sided labels without something messing up.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Okay on printing directly on DVD/CD so far
Comment: When you're planning to print directly onto DVD/CD, open the cover and watch where you're pushing that DVD/CD tray into. There's this very fragile and thin piece of clear plastic at the leading end of the DVD/CD tray. If you insert the tray all the way to where the arrow is, the clear plastic actually sit completely under the roller. If you are not careful, over time you might bend or damage the clear plastic. This might the the cause of jam or error message (not totally sure). Watch where you're pushing that tray into after you loaded you DVD/CD. It might help if you leave your upward slightly before you push in. You definitely don't want to push the tray downward before pushing in, you will push that fragile clear plastic right into the roller. Hopefully, the DVD/CD tray will last long if you're careful.
After reading other reviews. I think Epson probably holding the license for printing directly onto DVD/CD in US. The reason I say that because Canon have this feature disable on US model which is enable in Europe or in Asia. I don't know about HP, but I assume the same.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent home color photo printer
Comment: I needed a a color photo printer that would function well on a number of types of media. Mostly I print on premium quality glossy photo paper. I strongly recommend Epson paper to keep total compatability with the Epson inks. 8x10 and 4x6 are my two formats. Both sizes come out very nice. I am careful to adjust printer settings for the paper I'm using and have no problems. Straight forward set up utilities. I would also recommend using Epson inks rather than an aftermarket brand. Just believe you should stick with the manufacturers supplies. I also print on matt finish papers and heavy weight inkjet paper. Both with great results. I would never put plain copy paper thru this machine. You would get an image but the quality would be junk and not because of the printer rather the paper.
I don't print straight from the memory card but my brother has this printer and does this all the time with excellent results. All my work is edited in Photoshop before printing. He does too but will print off the card before editing just to see the basic photos in 4x6. He says it simply spits out great little photos with no trouble at all.
I have not tried to burn a CD on this machine. Don't understand why you would but the utility is there.
I strongly recommend this printer as an economical, good quality home photo printer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful budget photo printer for the Amateur Photographer
Comment: I've had this printer for the past 3 weeks or so, and I am thoroughly impressed. I am an amateur photographer who insists on quality color and black and white photo prints. While, I could have spent a couple of hundred dollars more and have one with a more impressive printer, I am still a student and must live on a budget. I've been printing some of my recent photos with this and I couldn't be happier. They come out crisp and the colors are great! I have printed photos taken from scanned 35mm color slides as well as photos from my digital camera, and they have turned out great (both 4x6 and 8x10 prints). As a student, I also needed a printer that would work for document printing, and, again, I have no complaints. If you need a good all around printing and only do light to medium volumes of printing, this is a great option.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Difficult to load CDs and DVDs without error.
Comment: I bought the R340 to print CDs and DVDs only. If the disc loads correctly, the printer does a magnificent job, but as several other useres have noted, getting it to load is an arduous undertaking. The trick for proper loading is this: after you send the CD/DVD print file to the printer, the feed mechanism will push the tray back out about a quarter of an inch. You must quickly push it back in by hand, before the feeder grabs the tray again, or it will misfeed every time and generate an error condition. With a little practice, you get so that it will feed correctly maybe half the time.
A friend of mine has an R320 and he reports the same exact problem with his printer. Even though we both know what to do, it still misfeeds frequently. I'm sure Epson engineers could fix the internal software if they wanted to, but with no competetion in the CD/DVD printer market, there's no incentive to make it work right.
Another problem: the printer software allows disk image to be "whitened" on the computer screen so that the picture can be aligned with the disc's printable surface boundries. Whiting is there only as a visual aid to to the user, but if he forgets to turn the whiting off before printing, the image will be printed on the disc so light that it's almost invisible! (If this happens to you, just turn the whiting OFF, push the carrier tray back in, and print the disk again. The darker image will directly overlay the lighter one, but you must be VERY CAREFUL NOT TO MOVE THE DISC in between.) Again, this minor bug could be easily fixed in the software by automatically turning the whiting OFF any time the PRINT command is received, but Epson simply doesn't care if it works right or not.
All-in-all, I reluctantly put up with this printer's quirky behavior because when it finally DOES work right, the results are beautifully printed DVDs and CDs. There's a real opportunity here for another manufacturer to offer a CD/DVD printer that really does the job RIGHT, and steal the market away from an unresponsive Epson.
Summary: Is a tad bit inaccurate
Comment: Well, I go this printer because I do event videography and I needed a printer to print directly to DVDs and also print the DVD labels. I used to use my past roommate's printer, and it worked perfectly fine, besides the occasional DVD tray jams. So I went and bought my own printer. I took it out the box and followed the prep instructions, but since I have a mac, it took me longer than expected for the computer to recognize the printer.
After I got the drivers and programs installed, the printer worked just fine. But there are a couple issues I have with this printer. One is that it NEVER prints exactly the same way for 2 or more consecutive images...even when the images are the same, and have the same dimensions. For one print, it will start higer in the page, for another it will start lover, but the one that frustrates me the most is when it grabs the paper unevenly and prints DIAGONALLY. Sometimes it will print 8x10s at a 1-3 degree diagonal to the parallel of the page, which makes me mad because that in addition to not printing at the same startpoint makes it impossible for me to print double sided labels without something messing up.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Okay on printing directly on DVD/CD so far
Comment: When you're planning to print directly onto DVD/CD, open the cover and watch where you're pushing that DVD/CD tray into. There's this very fragile and thin piece of clear plastic at the leading end of the DVD/CD tray. If you insert the tray all the way to where the arrow is, the clear plastic actually sit completely under the roller. If you are not careful, over time you might bend or damage the clear plastic. This might the the cause of jam or error message (not totally sure). Watch where you're pushing that tray into after you loaded you DVD/CD. It might help if you leave your upward slightly before you push in. You definitely don't want to push the tray downward before pushing in, you will push that fragile clear plastic right into the roller. Hopefully, the DVD/CD tray will last long if you're careful.
After reading other reviews. I think Epson probably holding the license for printing directly onto DVD/CD in US. The reason I say that because Canon have this feature disable on US model which is enable in Europe or in Asia. I don't know about HP, but I assume the same.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent home color photo printer
Comment: I needed a a color photo printer that would function well on a number of types of media. Mostly I print on premium quality glossy photo paper. I strongly recommend Epson paper to keep total compatability with the Epson inks. 8x10 and 4x6 are my two formats. Both sizes come out very nice. I am careful to adjust printer settings for the paper I'm using and have no problems. Straight forward set up utilities. I would also recommend using Epson inks rather than an aftermarket brand. Just believe you should stick with the manufacturers supplies. I also print on matt finish papers and heavy weight inkjet paper. Both with great results. I would never put plain copy paper thru this machine. You would get an image but the quality would be junk and not because of the printer rather the paper.
I don't print straight from the memory card but my brother has this printer and does this all the time with excellent results. All my work is edited in Photoshop before printing. He does too but will print off the card before editing just to see the basic photos in 4x6. He says it simply spits out great little photos with no trouble at all.
I have not tried to burn a CD on this machine. Don't understand why you would but the utility is there.
I strongly recommend this printer as an economical, good quality home photo printer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful budget photo printer for the Amateur Photographer
Comment: I've had this printer for the past 3 weeks or so, and I am thoroughly impressed. I am an amateur photographer who insists on quality color and black and white photo prints. While, I could have spent a couple of hundred dollars more and have one with a more impressive printer, I am still a student and must live on a budget. I've been printing some of my recent photos with this and I couldn't be happier. They come out crisp and the colors are great! I have printed photos taken from scanned 35mm color slides as well as photos from my digital camera, and they have turned out great (both 4x6 and 8x10 prints). As a student, I also needed a printer that would work for document printing, and, again, I have no complaints. If you need a good all around printing and only do light to medium volumes of printing, this is a great option.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Difficult to load CDs and DVDs without error.
Comment: I bought the R340 to print CDs and DVDs only. If the disc loads correctly, the printer does a magnificent job, but as several other useres have noted, getting it to load is an arduous undertaking. The trick for proper loading is this: after you send the CD/DVD print file to the printer, the feed mechanism will push the tray back out about a quarter of an inch. You must quickly push it back in by hand, before the feeder grabs the tray again, or it will misfeed every time and generate an error condition. With a little practice, you get so that it will feed correctly maybe half the time.
A friend of mine has an R320 and he reports the same exact problem with his printer. Even though we both know what to do, it still misfeeds frequently. I'm sure Epson engineers could fix the internal software if they wanted to, but with no competetion in the CD/DVD printer market, there's no incentive to make it work right.
Another problem: the printer software allows disk image to be "whitened" on the computer screen so that the picture can be aligned with the disc's printable surface boundries. Whiting is there only as a visual aid to to the user, but if he forgets to turn the whiting off before printing, the image will be printed on the disc so light that it's almost invisible! (If this happens to you, just turn the whiting OFF, push the carrier tray back in, and print the disk again. The darker image will directly overlay the lighter one, but you must be VERY CAREFUL NOT TO MOVE THE DISC in between.) Again, this minor bug could be easily fixed in the software by automatically turning the whiting OFF any time the PRINT command is received, but Epson simply doesn't care if it works right or not.
All-in-all, I reluctantly put up with this printer's quirky behavior because when it finally DOES work right, the results are beautifully printed DVDs and CDs. There's a real opportunity here for another manufacturer to offer a CD/DVD printer that really does the job RIGHT, and steal the market away from an unresponsive Epson.