I read the bad reviews on the Truevis printers also, got some constant bashers lurking around, But I talked to a guy who is running one 24 hrs a day, 3 shifts and LOVES his! I guess the early models had trouble but from what I have noticed, they have them ironed out.
I am going on 6 months with mine and this thing is like a tank! I am yet to print a bad print, (unless it was one I guessed wrong on a color) It has an awesome take up, the ink is bullet proof, you have to work to scratch the prints, as far as I am concerned it sips ink, is much easier to clean than the VP was and easily prints in half the time, the solid colors look no different than cut vinyl and the cutter in this thing is dead accurate, one thing I found is when you cut a laminated print with the crop marks, it is best to remove the media roll and slide the holders out of the way, I was off on a cut one time and caught the print bumping the hardware back there and now that I remove the media, I have not had another problem.
I have to admit, I was really worried about this printer, I read so much bad press on this I was wondering if Roland was slipping in the printer dept. but from what I have experienced so far I gotta say I am more than impressed with the TrueVis VG540! It just cranks out any job I throw at it and never bats an eye, the machine I am using is exactly what I was used to in my VP, only so much more, I love having banners that won't mark up just by flipping them over on the table, and this thing reads crop marks like a champ. I can only report what I am seeing here, I really look forward to printing any job, and I just printed a banner right before leaving for lunch, just loaded it on the take up and left, there it is, all ready to hem, I used to have to wait a whole day before I could even think about hemming a banner printed with my VP, not now, they have gone out the door same day, many times already.
Feel free to ask any questions you like, from my stand point I don't think you should be afraid of this printer at all.