To all Ritek expert/veteran/mass users!

[Espen]

Oki this question is to all you who use lots of Ritek. Is there any Ritek brand you should aim for and is there any particular Riteks you should avoid?

I realy have a hard time to decide which Ritek brand i should go for. Datasafe, Ridata, Ridisc, Ritek landscape branded(orange top), Ritek overprint(Red top) or Ritek Printable(white top). Is there any different between these Riteks brands? If all have the same price which should I choose?

I ask those questions becaus I have read alot of coments about trouble with Ritek G04 and I won't be happy buying 100 pack with bad Riteks.

I have tested some Ridata, Ritek overprint and Ritek 4x branded. All worked just find, but some of them had scratches and some showed dark spots in the dye and that can never be a good sign!

So I thought I was going to test Ritek landscape branded(orange tops) now, but then I read some comments, that those is bad and cheap Riteks with low quality, could that be true?

So here I'm having no clue which Riteks to choose . Hope some experienced Ritek user can help me out!

[SunMaster]

Hehe.

I mailed Ritek earlier today asking about there was (supposed to be) a difference in quality between the various Ritek brand names such as Ritek, RiData, RiDisc and Arita. I'm eagerly awaiting a response - because I'd love to know.

Personally I have great experience with Datasafe media.

[iooi]

I have only ever used the Ritek Printables 1to4X(white top) and have never had any issues with them.
I do keep wondering about the other Riteks but like you i am unsure and lothed to change from something that works just to save a few pence... Added to that i have a Epson 900 and need printable disks so it becomes a no brainer....

[Stas]

I use RIDATA Ritek 1-4x 50-pack -R disks from Meritline. They are just perfect. Media code RITEKG04 with silver surface with no text on it.

Not the same with Ritek DVD-RW 2X. Media code RITEKW01. They work extremly slow on my Plextor 708A and don't work on my Sony standalone player (HT S800).

I didn't try other ritek media, but I'm sure that +R with media code RICOHJPN01 are the same quality as Memorex +R (RICOHJPN01) which I use with 100% success.

[GT Music]

Sense January of this year I've been using RITEK 4X / SILVER DVD-R MEDIA / 120 MIN, 4.7GB, VER 2.0 4X CERTIFIED / PART# DVDR-S4.7GB-4X I get them from QTC Computer Systems, Inc. Santa Ana, CA 714-285-0907 10:00am - 5:00pm Web site is www.qtccdr.com only a few coaster and that was because I was using DVD X Copy, now I use Nero 6. All is quite well now

[stiltman]

All I've used are the Orange tops. No coasters to date. I buy them from PCclub for $20 for a 25pack
http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=A3458853

[powaking]

Up until recently I've used the Arita discs. 4x but burns great at 8x. 2 coasters but totally my fault. Otherwise flawless burns. Same media code as the +R 4x Ritek (RiData RICOHJPN01-02) from Meritline which work flawless as well. Newegg had the Arita's for $89 for 100 at one time but both Newegg and Meritline are out of stock and have been for quite some time now.

[budz]

I use the "ORANGE TOP" RITEKS like Stiltman does. I just got 2 more spindles from PCCLUB. I've burned a 100 of them with "NO COASTERS".

Although some people think these "ORANGE TOP" RITEKS are grade B media. It works well for me and I'll continue to use them. "Shrugs shoulders", Don't know why some say it's grade B media". Go figure!
Check this thread:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=213799

Long live "ORANGE TOP" RITEK!

[richdvd]

Don't know why some say it's grade B media"

What do you classify it as then?
I would say that TY and Japanese Maxell are slightly ahead of Riteks in terms of quality.

[budz]

richdvd wrote:

What do you classify it as then?
I would say that TY and Japanese Maxell are slightly ahead of Riteks in terms of quality.

I asked you specifically in the other thread, https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=213799,
how do you know RITEK G04 media is grade B? You didn't answer me. I'm assuming you are just saying it's GRADE B media because of what you've read on this forum site or on others. You say RITEK G04 is GRADE B media and yet other forum sites I belong to say the opposite. It's what you read on these forum sites that tell you this or that brand is GRADE A OR B MEDIA. You fail to tell me why RITEK G04 is GRADE B media. All you're doing is saying RITEK G04 is GRADE B media and that doesn't mean shit to me. I use whatever discs that work for me. As for classifying this media I don't classify any brand of media. Yuh know to me it's whatever dvd media that can work for you is what matters the most. I use MAXELL, TDK, CHEAP ASS PRINCO from COMPUSA, & IMATION. So if you can answer my question with some intelligence & documented proof that the PCCLUB RITEK G04 media is GRADE B, then perhaps I'll stop asking the same question to you.

Long live "ORANGE TOP RITEK"

[richdvd]

I'm assuming you are just saying it's GRADE B media because of what you've read on this forum site or on others.

Sort of yes,,and based upon the fact that I haven't had good luck with Ritek.

You fail to tell me why RITEK G04 is GRADE B media.

Tell me why you think Ritek is Grade A media..is it because you have burned 100 with no coasters? I have burnt over 100 CMCs without any coasters, does that make them Grade A?

All you're doing is saying RITEK G04 is GRADE B media and that doesn't mean shit to me

If it doesn't mean shit to you....stop whining about it then

Long live "ORANGE TOP RITEK"

I will stick with Maxells anyday

[BJ_M]

up to about 15,000 riteks now .. no problems

printable version only

[budz]

richdvd wrote:

Tell me why you think Ritek is Grade A media..is it because you have burned 100 with no coasters? I have burnt over 100 CMCs without any coasters, does that make them Grade A?

As I've stated many times before whatever dvd media works for you is all that matters. There are so many variables in authoring, compressing & burning dvds as well as what brands of media one may use. I have never said or implied RITEK G04 is GRADE A media. Read my post again. All I've asked is how would you know RITEK G04 from PCCLUB is GRADE B MEDIA. Your answer was because the RITEK hasn't worked for you, then don't bash it and say it's GRADE B MEDIA. As I've already stated in my last posting I don't classify dvd media that I purchase. I buy what works for me.

LMfao here I thought you would have some intelligent documented proof that RITEK G04 from PCCLUB is GRADE B media. All you've based it on is that it doesn't work for you but CMC does. For me CMC is crappy media that doesn't work well with my PLEXTOR 708A. Remember that dvd media that will work for you may not work for others. That's why we have this great forum to help each other out when problems arise in burning dvds. I'm done with this thread, you just don't get the freeking picture richdvd

RICHDVD YOU'RE THE ONE WHINING HERE BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T GIVE ME A INTELLIGENT AND DOCUMENTED PROOF

[richdvd]

time for bed little boy...

[FulciLives]

Well I voted for OTHER since I don't use Ritek media.

For me the best is Taiyo Yuden DVD-R or Maxell DVD-R

Nothing else beats those two as per my opinion.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

I don't document proof for people, because I frankly don't care. Those that demand "proof" have already made up their minds. Which is fine. You use what you find to be best for YOU.

But in the grander scheme of things, RITEK is a second-class citizen, especially to the likes of TY, MCC and MXL. Few others too. Remember, ALLLLLL of Ritek, all of the RITEKG04 media ID. As well as RITEKG03 media ID. The 01 and 02 codes were junk, worse than PRINCO.

You can see my information at www.nomorecoasters.com ... which lists RITEK in the SECOND CLASS MEDIA list. And rightly so.

G04: On the orange-topped discs, I had a near 99% success rate. That was months and months ago. The purple tops had 100% success rate. The shiny silver had about 70% success rate. The inkjet white had about a 90-95% success rate. The matte silver had about a 60-80% success rate, depending on where I bought them. A recent orange-top had a lower 85-90% success rate.

G03: The shiny silver had about a 50-90% success rate. The ARITA greens had about a 95-100% success rate.

Average all that out. It falls in the SECOND CLASS rating. Do a cost analysis. Buy the time you factor in the cost per disc after excluding the coasters, you almost could have bought better media.

When you get somebody like BJ_M saying 15K with no problems, I'd say he's an anomaly. Find out what software he has, what drives he uses, how fast it is burned, etc. Where discs are bought, which kind, etc. Maybe you can match it. He's found his cherry spot and lovin' it. I can already gues the inkjet discs has something to do with it. Those were pretty good.

There is sparse information out there regarding different grades in the media, and it's believable because of how the tech supply industry works. Overprints are screw-ups or leftovers. Are they bad? Well, maybe, maybe not. Got to test.

If I ever go back to RITEK again (unlikely), it will be ONLY for green G03 and for orange G04.

My info for your browsing pleasure.

[SunMaster]

Well, there are numerous kprobe scan which shows that e.g. TY on average is better than e.g. Ritek, no doubt about it. And based on that I can't disagree that Ritek is a "2nd class citizen", maybe especially viewed in light of what appears to be a recent quality control problem. However, there's something called "good enough".

I have my own definition of a coaster, as I believe many others have. When I burn a dvd in my 2500 I do a rpm test with dvdinfopro. It has to make an excellent curve, with no errors and no big speed drops, when rpm'd in the 2500, it has to make the same excellent curve in the Plextor 116a, and it has to playback with no skipping in my Daewoo player.

Maybe I've been lucky with my media, but I don't have problems with the ritek I've been using (I use only + media, so ricohjpn01 and ritek r03 for me). I did have lots of problems with Princos. Based on my own definition of a coaster I've made zero coasters with ritek made + media.

Would I had much better p1/p2 scans if I were using mxl and ty media ? Probably. Would it matter ? Not at all. The longevity of *current* dvd media is still to be established (real life, not by theories).

[Hawseman]

My definition of a good disk is one that burns successfully and plays fully in my three standalones. I have also established my personal Kprobe test results that I know will not give me playback problems.

Die should not be the "only" decision in how good media is. I too have had good Ritek G04's and more so, not-so-good ones. The issue with the bad Riteks, I think, has been wobble issues. The end of the disk was useless.

A lot of member posts here suggest that those who use Ritek keep burns to 4gb or less to eliminate problems. How can you classify this media as "Grade A". I have used most of 2-50 spindles of Ritek G04's (silver tops and Ridata printables). Neither will play well past 4gb. I am on my 2nd 50 spindle of Maxell printables and 3rd 10 pack of yellow tops that always play a 4.38gb burn.

I feel I was robbed of 15gb (3 full disks worth) out of my Ritek spindles and that's unacceptable for user-classified "Grade A" media. Especially since my Maxell's and MCC's have flawless FULL burn capacity everytime.

Burning successfully doesn't constitute excellent media either. Members who burn 500+ disks for personal backups generally have a little less credibility in my eyes. I find it hard to believe these have all been truly tested.....and by tested, I mean watched on multiple players. Not just skipped around, but watched fully (full capacity burns). To keep my originals pristene, my family only watches backups...and when the playback pixelates, skips and/or freeze, you bet yer azz I hear about it (tough customers).

I don't consider myself a media expert...but I've used enough brands/ID's to draw my own conclusions with my 2 burners/3 standalones. Riteks are generally not in the same class of Maxell, TY or MCC.

If they work for you...that's great...I have no issues with them in my newest standalone either.

I am in full agreement with LordSmurf in his classification at www.nomorecoasters.com. Ritek is top of B grade media.

If that's not enough proof...I can post some Kprobe scans burned from both my Liteon and Pioneer.

[Espen]

I'm sure Maxell, Ty and MCC have better quality and Ritek, but hey the price is twice or even more. Is it worth that?

I would say no. If you buy dvd-r that are Ritek brande(purpel), then you now these are high quality and real Riteks. I wouldn't say these are b-grad even thoe they aren't as good as The luxury brands. However the cheap RitekG04 is absolutly B-grade depent on the variy of quality......

[BJ_M]

in answer to the question of what do i use to burn 15,000 riteks with :
6 x pioneer 105's
2 x pioneer 106's

also have
4 x pioneer 104's but not used
1 x pioneer s201 (authoring media only)
(plus many other burners throughout the company - all pioneer) ,
all cd burners are plextor..

all 104's , 105's have hacked firmware, 106's are stock ..

i burn 1, 2 , 4 or 6 at a time -- all 105's and 106's are on firewire ..
burn speed x2 or x4

feed drives are all raided system , ide or scsi ... all dual cpu xeon systems.
the ONLY software used is a special version of prassi for duplicators...
(we may also use Gear mastering edition in the near future as it can make DDP images)

i dont get failed burns except if its something goofy ive done -- spot checks of media show no errors ..

and we get a very very high compatibility ..

authoring only done with scenarist or maestro and burns are ONLY from image files with extra padding and size added to the project for maximuim compatibility.

projects are checked with with two different applications for authoring errors.

i work with a number of replicators who also use riteks .. in fact one has used over a 100,000++ of them with extremly low failed burns .. I pointed out lordsmurfs guide calling them 2nd class and the repsonse was laughter ... they wouldnt touch anything else -- basicly because of consistancy ... and price .... and happy customeers ..

we all do agree there are better media -- but the price is not worth it , and we get no better compatibility or less burn errors -- they are just better made disks in some respects..

if you search around the net -- you will see on several pro sites, studios and the like .. riteks are listed as the preferable brand ... so its not just me saying that ... you will also see a lot using TY ... they are very very good disks also -- but dont print as well and/or are hard to buy in a printable version in large bulk (at least from my suppliers) ..


i ussually buy around 500-1000 disks at a time, once a month or so ..

[lordsmurf]

Well, all I have to say to that is that it's a shame we can't all match your success with RITEK. Maybe you get preferential treatment from where you order. Where do you get yours from anyway?

The inkjet and purple branded are some of the best ones, so again, that may lend to your success.

[Coopervid]

This discussion here is missing the most important factor. The burner used together with the Ritek G03 and G04 discs. While my burns on the Pioneer DVR-105 show great results you will find a lot of problems with burns e.g. on NEC burners (1300, 2500). But obviously not limited to the NECs. I'm talking from experience and own a NEC1300A myself. The results with the Ritek G03 and G04 are MUCH worse than when burned on the Pioneer. Look at BJ_M's post and you know why he will happily stick with the Riteks.
When buying a burner you should always consider what is the best deal in the long run. Cost of burner +cost of media to have good results. Get a cheap burner and most likely you have to buy more expensive media to have comparable results.
So far - all Riteks I have bought - matte, shiny silver, printable - same results. Good on the Pioneer, borderline on the NEC and even sometimes some power calibration errors on the NEC and unable to burn them.

P.S.: I also agree with the list at www.nomorecoasters.com. Ritek is top of B grade media.

[Steen4]

To all interested:
Here is a link which I posted a while ago (in another forum discussion) to the results of longevity testing done with various media. It is easy to confuse compatibility with reliability (no coasters, therefore no problems), but there are important differences beyond the initial burn. Just take a look (especially at the Ritek data):

http://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/cd_quality.shtml

[disturbed1]

if you search around the net -- you will see on several pro sites, studios and the like .. riteks are listed as the preferable brand ... so its not just me saying that ... you will also see a lot using TY ... they are very very good disks also -- but dont print as well and/or are hard to buy in a printable version in large bulk (at least from my suppliers) ..


i ussually buy around 500-1000 disks at a time, once a month or so ..

This is one area I have to say I have a difference of oppinion. Either our quality standards are a bit higher, or my vendor is recieving different batches of media than your vendor. I've compared Ritek batches from Meritline, Rima, and Super Media Store, and smaller samples (100-200) from Shop4tech and Newegg. There weren't any differences, all had 25% unusuable, and 50% unsatisfied error reports. Unusuable means read errors (unrecoverable blocks), unsatisfied means a high error rate through KProbe compared to other media. And forget burning G04s with my LF-D311s and my A03. Instant bad blocks after the 3.5 gig mark with 90% of the discs.


Of course, you are using the inkjet printable Riteks, while I was using the matte/silver topped Riteks. These could come from different production lines?

I would go even as far as saying it's my setup/procedure. But when other media (Taiyo Yuden and Prodisc) are flawless, I don't believe this is the case. Different burners? I use 4 Pioneer A05s, among others. The A05s do have a lower error reading compared to my other drives, but they still don't qualify as usable. I use Primo DVD to burn. The image(s) are on a SCSI 10K UW160 drive (29160 controller) each A05 is on it's own bus as Master (built in 8 channel IDE ASUS CUBX MB) Celeron 1000 1gig ram Win 2KPro, no other drives in the towers. CPU reaches 15% while burning to all 4 at once. Don't see the bottlekneck?

Just trying figure out what's different between what you're doing to get great results with Ritek, while I haven't wanted to touch one since my last bad batch late last year.

I don't use any hacked firmwares. All stock 1.33s. Had the same results with 1.30. The LF-D's are at A128 (newest), A03 2.00, Toshiba 1033.


@Steen4, those are for CD media. Which Ritek has always had crap CD media

[mr. anderson]

Which Ritek has always had crap CD media

and DVD are junk 2!
maybe class C, i think

[Hawseman]

.......and burns are ONLY from image files with extra padding and size added to the project for maximuim compatibility.
......

I think what your saying here makes my point....compatibility should not be comprimised in the outer edge....I find that true with (most) Riteks and NOT true with Maxells. Media with -any- compatibility issues cannot be classed with ones that don't....

This is not saying that Ritek is bad. My <4.1gb burns are terrific. To me the quality of the Ritek burns are better than the Maxell up to 4gb (on my Pioneer A06U, about equal on my Liteon 451S). Consider me anal...but when I pay for 4.38gb, I want 4.38gb of usable space.

As far as selling my burned product (which I do not)...I would buy Ritek and trim my burns 250kb or so....much better bottom line. I pay about $60US for Maxell printables. That's 10 more than Ridata...which is pretty expensive considering I only gain about 15gb per 50 disks. And that would only be if I burned to full capacity everytime...which I do not.

[SunMaster]

This is so odd. I have no problems believing people have problems with Ritek, yet my own results are perfect (and I do know about problems, I'll never ever buy Princo again). I burn everything to "the brim" too, I'm mostly archiving DVD videos. There simply IS no problems after 3.5gig or 4gig or whatever "limit", I do know what it's like becase my Princos had/have that problem. As someone else posted, people overlooked the burner in this thread, which is true. I'll post a Norwegian link, where a guy nicked OC-Freak has posted his findings of a LOT of burning. What he has done is test a lot of media in a multitude of burners (he posted somewhere he has 12 burners)

http://forum.hardware.no/index.php?showtopic=164498

Translation table :

Søppel = Trash (unreadable)
Dårlig = Poor (playback problems)
OK = OK
Bra = Good
Meget bra = Very Good

There's definatly things to pick up in that post, for example that some media is excellent in one burner, but is a poor combination with another burner. And vice verse. There's no "one size fits all", with the exception of TY. You'll also see some burners generally get along well with more media than others, but not all.

I have used Traxdata dvd+r 4x branded [ricohjpn01] and now use Datasafe inket printable dvd+r 8x [Ritek R03]. None of those are cheap, and knock wood - they are EXCELLENT - no exceptions so far (but only burnt a few hundreds so far - I believe people like smurf have burnt orders of magnitude more) . I personally don't believe anything with Ritek dye is of the same quality. As I posted in another message, I did send Ritek an email asking if the quality of their various brands was supposed to be equal. I'm really curious if they'll ever reply and if they do what their response will be.

[BJ_M]

well ive had very good luck with ritek ... but i am willing to try a 1000 or so of TY inkjet printable based on everyone's experiance ...... IF i can find a good price AND they ship to canada or are canada supplier for bulk (500 pieces min.) ..

there seems to be a wide for and against .. if you look back on this forum people were swearing on thier mothers grave FOR ritek over and over again ... but i notice there are MANY variations of G04 -- it seems (when i just checked) at least 5 different varities..

if you ask me - the best built dvd-r disk is still the older apple disks which had the same code as other disks but were thicker and felt solid (the riteks re thin for sure) as were the old pioneer disks ..



the canada suppliers i use are double the price of ritek printable for TY printable ....

[Hawseman]

I'm not trying to sway anybody here....I am a true believer in the "what works for you" philosophy. My postings here are trying to inject some of that philosophy into the "Ritekie" crowd.

Riteks just haven't worked for me (on 2 totally separate burning systems, with 2 separate 50 spindle batches). In my case it's the player...very picky. But, not picky enough to crap out on pricier media. This puts Ritek in my not-quite-good-enough bin.

SunMaster's link shows about the same information as LordSmurf's (www.nomorecoasters.com). Seems the best burner compatibility is with TY or MCC media. Ritek isn't bad, but not quite as good. Beall's actually rate about as good as those Datasafe Riteks.

Am I repeating myself here?

[FulciLives]

SunMaster's link shows about the same information as LordSmurf's (www.nomorecoasters.com). Seems the best burner compatibility is with TY or MCC media. Ritek isn't bad, but not quite as good. Beall's actually rate about as good as those Datasafe Riteks.

When I first bought my NEC ND-1300A I bought a 25 pack of BeAll 1x-4x Certified DVD-R discs from MERITLINE.COM

The first 3 or 4 had no READ ERRORS burning at around 4.25GB (back-ups using DVD2ONE with custom size set to 4350MB).

Then all of a sudden I started getting READ ERRORS around the 4.2GB mark.

After about maybe 5 of these I started setting my size to around or just shy of 4.2GB

No READ ERRORS on the remaining batch expect one that had a few at around 4.18 on a DVD that was 4.19

Never bought BeAll DVD discs again.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
These were all burned at 4x using firmware 1.05 which is what my NEC came with.