Quality Of Ritek DVD±R Media Going Down????

[Super Warrior]

Ritek Media in the red OEM packageing such as here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817132379


Such media used to be pretty great. However i've ordered one DVD+R and one DVD-R batch of similiar red packed media, and once burnt,they are always skipping and or freezing up as hell in my player and PS2. I burnt them on the slowest speed leaving my comp. otherwise unattended as the burn went on, to gets best results like i always do,so no cause of error there.

Now however it seems the only Ritek stuff thats still solid and works pretty well, are the "retail" stuff in the cake box like these:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817132347



Any news on this,has ritek switched to useing different quality/OEM brand discs??

[jimmalenko]

Ritek has been "going down" for around 18 months to 2 years, according to people here with far greater knowledge than me.


They've always worked perfectly for me though

[lordsmurf]

RITEK ramped up production and lowered QC a bit during the G04 lines. The media is not all that good compared to something like MCC or TY. But it's still in the top third or so of all media made. Most people are alright with it, but beware of coasters. The media is not to be trusted, you must test it.

[chas0039]

I find no reason at all to consider any Ritek media anymore. The scan below was a very good burn with no bad peaks. It had a very low total error count when it was burned. This is what it looked like after 3 months. It is unreadable today and is reported as "no disc". I had 100 G05s burned on a wide range of burners and they all tanked. Unfortunately, testing did me no good as they all looked fine after the burn. Over at CDfreaks, quite a few users have reported the same problems.

[non-linear]

I found the same as most people here, that Ritek media has been getting worse. I now use Taiyo Yuden media, which costs a bit more than Ritek, but well worth the cost, IMO.

My last couple batches of Riteks, I found more discs that had scuffs and dust on the surface, and even a few that looked fine ended up as coasters.

[GullyFoyle]

I use Ridata 8x and 16 x.
I rarely get a bad dvd or burn.
I keep all bad disks.
I have a shitload of other brands in the pile, but few Ridata.
I've burned thousands of them.
To each his own.

[chas0039]

I use Ridata 8x and 16 x.
I rarely get a bad dvd or burn.
I keep all bad disks.
I have a shitload of other brands in the pile, but few Ridata.
I've burned thousands of them.
To each his own.

That is exactly the problem with Ritek and Ridata. Sometimes they are fine and sometimes they are trash. All my R03s are fine and all my G05s from a year ago are fine. Lots of people have had no trouble with any Ritek they own. None of that helped any of us who got caught with the bad stuff.

[non-linear]

Doesn't matter how many you've burned, the fact is that the quality of Ritek media has went downhill. I'm in the process of reburning some of my more valuable video/data that I burned on Ritek media in the last 6 months or so because I simply can't trust their media anymore, and I value my data.

If you choose to trust your data with Ritek media, then that's your choice, just don't come here crying that you can't read those discs 6 months from now.

[joeg04]

This is what it looked like after 3 months.

Was this a white top printable disk?
Or did you apply a paper label?

[Tom Saurus]

I am glad I read this. I was thinking about getting some printable DVD's instead of just writing on the DVD's with a sharpie. The guy to owns the place where I was thinking of hiring to upgrade my computer was suggesting Ridech Printable DVD's and a Epson Printer.

The vast majority of the DVD's I have recorded to are called PRINCO, well that is what DVD Decrypter says when I burn the ISO Image. They seem to be fine. Though I will be really disappointed if in a year I can't play what I have put on DVD. That kind of thing would be so discouraging I would just go back to the old vcr.

I probaby would be better off, giving up watching tv and taking up knitting. Knit One, Pearl Two, might be the way to go. I know I have to knit a little bit, just a scarf, I don't know how to cast off. I think I might knit a scarf six miles long, for the Guiness Book of Records.

[psx_pirate]

[/quote]The vast majority of the DVD's I have recorded to are called PRINCO

Oh dear .... princo = crap

[Super Warrior]

The vast majority of the DVD's I have recorded to are called PRINCO

Oh dear .... princo = crap[/quote]

Agreed. Wheither or not Ritek is still considered good quality media, one things for sure: Its still 10 times better than any Princo crap. Gahh.

Princo now THOSE are low-quality trash. Started useing them way back with my first burner at first, because of their very cheap price and seemingly good burns at first. However,6-7 months later when the discs degraded i was left with nothing but a great big pile of skipping coasters.

Thats when i made the switch to ritek and thus far ritek has been EXCELLENT until now.

[Super Warrior]

Ritek has been "going down" for around 18 months to 2 years, according to people here with far greater knowledge than me.


They've always worked perfectly for me though

Hmmm maybe it was just the first couple discs. Plus i noticed the original i was trying to backup also had slight problems while playing(though nowhere near as bad as the backup).

Now the recent ritek DVD-Rs i've tried have worked pretty good.

[chas0039]

This is what it looked like after 3 months.

Was this a white top printable disk?
Or did you apply a paper label?

Nope, that was the problem with the G04s that went bad. These were good old silver Ritek G05s from Newegg.com.

[cyflyer]

they are always skipping and or freezing up as hell in my player

Welcome to the real world ! If you had read posts over the past year you would know that Riteks have gone downhill. As far as I'm concerned they are downright crap. Only about half of Riteks that I recorded circa 18 months ago will actually get to the end. Forget wether they're red-wraps, green-wraps, or whatever. And its no point saying they will improve, or quality control will be improved etc, cos once crap and your confidence is lost in a product, then its always crap as far as I'm concerned. That goes for anything beginning with Ri....
I 've learned one valuable lesson. Forget the cheap shit, spend a few extra cents and buy the good stuff for peace of mind. The hassle of crapped out recordings is just not worth it. There is NOTHING worse than sitting through your favorite movie with friends, enjoying your beer and popcorn, and getting to the last ten minutes, when it suddenly packs up.
Ahhhh !!

[Tom Saurus]

If PRINCO and Riteks are crappy DVD's, which ones should I get? I hope Sony's are good quality DVD's, I have used those as well. Why do the DVD's degrade? Thanks in advance for any information you can provide. Thanks for the information that has already been provided. I have learned alot from videohelp.com

[Super Warrior]

If PRINCO and Riteks are crappy DVD's, which ones should I get? I hope Sony's are good quality DVD's, I have used those as well. Why do the DVD's degrade? Thanks in advance for any information you can provide. Thanks for the information that has already been provided. I have learned alot from videohelp.com

Ritek is decent-to-excellent brand. The discs i posted about earlier seem to work ok now.

Princo however is garunteed crap. They degrade due to the cheapness of the disc quality. Had MANY Princo's degrade into useless crap.

Never had a past Ritek disc mess up on me yet.

[Gen-An]

Taiyo Yuden, Maxell and Mitsubishi/Verbatim are generally considered top class when it comes to DVD media. You should have much better results with them than the likes of Princo or Ritek.

[non-linear]

If PRINCO and Riteks are crappy DVD's, which ones should I get?

Taiyo Yuden.

I get mine at blankmedia.ca; the price of TY media has dropped by about $20 in the last few months. You can get inkjet printable media for about $67 for 100 discs, but they have discs as low as around $41 for silver laquer 4x media.

[cyflyer]

Ritek is decent-to-excellent brand. The discs i posted about earlier seem to work ok now

What, they've suddenly improved in the past 24 hours ?????

[Bodysurf]

I find no reason at all to consider any Ritek media anymore.

I feel the same way, especially considering there is little cost difference between great (e.g., TY, MCC) and mediocre recordable DVDs.

[Bodysurf]

If PRINCO and Riteks are crappy DVD's, which ones should I get?

See NoMoreCoasters.COM.

I am particularly fond of 8X Taiyo-Yuden and 16X Verbatim DataLifePlus DVD+R.

This isn't 2000 when blanks were $7.00 a pop. This is 2005 where great blanks only cost $0.40-$0.70 at everyday prices.

[joeg04]

Nope, that was the problem with the G04s that went bad. These were good old silver Ritek G05s from Newegg.com.

I don't believe that the dye deterioates so fast.

Did you store this DVD-R always at room temperature?
Did you store it always in a jewel case so that it can't warp by about 1mm?

I ask this because of the following Pioneer article:

As a side note, there have been reports of degradation due to disc tilt resulting from the use of improper cases and packing.

Source:
http://www.pioneer.co.jp/crdl/tech/dvd/2-2-e.html

[lordsmurf]

Did you store it always in a jewel case so that it can't warp by about 1mm?

I ask this because of the following Pioneer article:

As a side note, there have been reports of degradation due to disc tilt resulting from the use of improper cases and packing.

Source:
http://www.pioneer.co.jp/crdl/tech/dvd/2-2-e.html

Warping is indeed a serious problem with cases and wallets.

[GullyFoyle]

Taiyo Yuden, Maxell and Mitsubishi/Verbatim are generally considered top class when it comes to DVD media. You should have much better results with them than the likes of Princo or Ritek.

While I have very few Ridata's in my pile I have many more Maxell of Verbatim.
I may get a single bad Ridata disk out of three hundred but I'll get five + bad disks from fifty ( or less) Maxell or Verbatim.

[chas0039]

I don't believe that the dye deterioates so fast.

Did you store this DVD-R always at room temperature?
Did you store it always in a jewel case so that it can't warp by about 1mm?

You can certainly believe what you want.

These were stored on floppy plastic hangers, vertically under no stress at all, in a dark cool low humid place. I have done this before.

No other media has shown any problems including some rare "good" G04. None of these have labels or printable surfaces. They all had the Ridata brand. ALL the discs from this batch showed significant deterioration as show above in the scan. Many of these were scanned right after burning and the scans were very good with PIE levels in the 20s and PIF in the 2s and low total numbers. These discs were burned on seven different drives.

I am not the only one reporting this problem. Over at CDFreaks there were over a dozen posters with the same problems and more people found this was also true after they tried re-scanning.

I also had a few die hard sceptics there as well who insisted this could not happen because it had not happened to their discs. That is why this is so nasty, because there doesn't seem to be a clear pattern as to which Ritek discs were hit with this flaw. Even officials at Ritek have been lamenting the release of large amounts of G05 that are bad, although this problem is not mentioned.

The thing I find so unbelievable is how Ritek users will argue with anyone who "attacks" their choice of media. I mean guys, it is only a disc! This is not some family business your relatives have worked at for hundreds of years. They nailed us with G04 printables and again with the "landscape" discs; again with G05 and reports of tons of B Grade media, and still people attack any reports of problems.

When Prodiscs went bad, people lamented the loss of good media and moved on. When someone reports some bad TYG02, no one says they are lying but they sympathize and offer suggestions as to better sources. But mention a problem with Ritek and people respond as though you are attacking their family.

Anyway, your comments to me were not of this type. You just gave me an opportunity to vent. As I have said before, use these at your own risk. There is nothing worthwile about Ritek that balances the risk.

[Tom Saurus]

So I take it my best option, is to take my existing Princo DVD's that I have already made, decrypt them with DVD Decrypter and then if that works burn the resulting files to Taiyo Yuden Blank DVD's. I noticed that blankmedia.ca has them for around 80 cents each. Then store these TY in black hard DVD cases. I noticed that they sell a DVD Case that holds ten DVD's and has a sleave on the front that I can put a piece of paper in that shows what is in the DVD Case.

Question Number One: They say at the website that these are geniune Taiyo Yuden DVD's, how do I know for sure?

Question Number Two: Since a DVD Case has been built that can hold ten DVD's in a hard plastic container, does this mean there is no more danger of disc warping, that is unless I am rough with the DVD?

Question Number Three: Have you found blankmedia.ca to be a good company to do business with?

Thank you to all those posters who answered my previous questions. Thank you in advance for answers to these questions if you chose to provide them.

From the looks of the DVD Case on the blankmedia.ca website that holds ten, it doesn't look like it would take up that much room and they are only about a dollar a piece. 50 Cases would hold 500 DVD's. I suppose it would take awhile to redo my entire DVD collection, but it seems like the best option.

I am really glad I read this thread, at first I was frustrated and kind of down, but now I realize there may be some hope yet. It might take some investing in premium quality DVD's but it is better than starting all over again and rerecording all the tv shows and movies from scratch, especially when the broadcast flag will soon come to the premium channels and one can no longer record into your computer and use it like your own pvr.

I noticed that the Taiyo Yuden DVD's are printable to the hub, and that could mean down the line I could print some words and pictures right on the face of the DVD. That seems so groovy, I kind of feel a little bit like Austin Powers today, I got my mojo back. Yesterday, I was kind of down thinking my DVD Collection was going to be dead in a few months; I kind of felt like a hperactive hypopottamus with hemoroids.

[joeg04]

decrypt them with DVD Decrypter and then if that works burn the resulting files to Taiyo Yuden Blank DVD's.

Why decrypt?
If they have DVD video format, i would simply use Windows copy/paste to copy the VIDEO_TS folder from DVD-R to HDD. You will get an error message, if any bit cannot be read correctly. If that worked, I would burn the VIDEO_TS folder from HDD to the new DVD-R, for example using Nero Express "burn DVD video files".

I would not use the function "data DVD", because IFO/VOB/BUP files have to be burned in a special physical order (required by standalone DVD players).

If Windows copy does not work, I would try ISOBuster.

they sell a DVD Case that holds ten DVD's

I don't have those, but for me they look good.

[joeg04]

These were stored on floppy plastic hangers, vertically under no stress at all,

I find those floppy plastic hangers suspicious for warping, even if stress was not intended. Do you have a link to it? I prefer hard DVD jewel cases. They do not touch the DVD except at the hole in the middle. Therefore they can not stress the disk.

See also:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1282251#1282251

[non-linear]

Question Number One: They say at the website that these are geniune Taiyo Yuden DVD's, how do I know for sure?

So far, I've bought 2 100 packs of TY02 media, and many others have bought much more from them, and they are the real deal. One indicator is the way the 100 packs are wrapped; they use a tape wrap, which SCDVD discussed in this thread, and that's how I receive mine. The writing surfaces are in much better condition than my last several Ritek orders (some had scuffs, scratches and some dust right out of the wrapper).

You can also tell by the extra care they take packing them, not only with the tape, but the extra blanks on the top and bottom. Another thing I've observed is the quality of the inkjet printable surfaces is much better than what Ritek does (theirs look like the surface is painted on).