How to tell if a DVD-R is thermal or inkjet printable?
 

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Remember to ask all new tech support questions in the forum! Thanks. :)

That's a great question. It's never come up that I can recall.

White inkjet media is obvious -- it's a layer of paper surface (not a sticky label!) on the top of the disc, meant for ink printing. A silver inkjet disc has a similar porous surface to it. It's something you can feel, and not necessarily see. Visually, silver thermal and silver inkjet can look similar. Maybe you have some discs to compare against?

Thermal media is glass slick, not porous. Prodisc used to have white-surface thermal discs, but I've not noticed any white thermal media in recent years (although I'll admit to having not looked for any, not having a thermal printer). Most thermal media has a silver surface, sometimes shiny, sometimes pearled/matte.

As to whether a thermal disc will mess up an inkjet printer, or if an inkjet disc will mess up a thermal printer -- I don't know, but I'd assume it's very likely. As an example, putting laser paper in an inkjet printer, or inkjet paper in a laser printer, never works well. The surfaces need to be optimized to hold the method of print.

Join the forum, it's free. Post your experiences, this is a great topic, would love to have your input. Tell us what happens.

You may also want to contact a quality high-volume blank DVD-R media vendor. I highly suggest Supermediastore or Meritline -- they have excellent support staff, and I'm sure they'd field your quick question. You might even be able to browser their sites, and find a disc similar to the ones you have.

Good luck! :)