Ritek CD-R Media Quality

[bigshotceo]

I'm looking for CD media that's relatively inexpensive but still high quality. Since I'm satisfied with the quality of Ritek DVD media, I've been looking at Ritek CD media (yes, I know that just because Ritek produces high quality DVD-r doesn't mean that the same is necessarily true for CD-r, but it's a good sign). Can anyone give me advice as to whether or not Ritek CD media is good media? If not, can someone give me a recommendation on what is high quality media? Thanks.

[hech54]

Me too.
I just bought some Verbatim 52x white topped CD-R's and these things are JUNK. Both my LG4040B and my Samsung DVD rom/CD-R combo will only burn them at under 12x and even those have been getting errors occasionally.
I have my eye on some Ritek CD-R's also.

[elmotheteapot]

Where are you guys based, many online media places sell ritek cdr. Im UK based but know that a lot of US Stores (not Onlibe) often have sales on Taiyo Yuden Fuji Cdr which are excellent quality.

[Rookie64]

http://www.rima.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=R&Product_Code=1103&C...tegory_Code=CM

[sterno]

There have been a lot of threads about the quality of various CD-R manufacturers. CD-Rs are so common now that even the junk ones often aren't too bad on quality, though a lot of set-top DVD players are picky about just what kinds they'll take. Ritek is one of the cheap manufacturers, but their discs are usually of decent quality these days. Most of the stuff you see on the shelves at stores is CMC, which is very inconsistent on quality. If you buy the cheap Verbatims you're probably getting CMC.

Taiyo-Yuden is widely considered to be one of the best manufacturers. Fujifilm CD-Rs used to always be TY, but now they've switched to somebody else (I'm not sure who). The expensive Verbatims are also of excellent quality. Mitsui and Kodak also make (made?) good discs, but I haven't seen any of those recently and they always were expensive.

[Schpyder]

Ritek was one of the below-average quality producers of CDRs in the past. I've personally had Riteks CDRs go unreadable in under 3 months. I've pretty much stuck to Taiyo-Yuden and Mitsubishi (Verbatim DataLifePlus) for the entirety of my CD burning career, and they haven't let me down.

Taiyo-Yuden is widely considered to be one of the best manufacturers. Fujifilm CD-Rs used to always be TY, but now they've switched to somebody else (I'm not sure who).

CMC. If you want TYs, make sure to check that Fuji spindle. If it says "Made in Japan," you're golden. If it's Taiwanese, you're getting crappy CMC stuff. There are still a whole lot of TY spindles in the channel still, so it's not time to totally give up on Fuji yet, but you do have to be a lot more careful now.

The expensive Verbatims are also of excellent quality. Mitsui and Kodak also make (made?) good discs, but I haven't seen any of those recently and they always were expensive.

Kodak hasn't made media for over 2 years, and if you can find a spindle of Kodak Gold Ultra CDRs now, it usually goes for about $80 (!!!). Of course, it's still the single best recordable media that's ever been produced, but I certainly don't think it's worth more than most DVD media costs. Mitsui is very good, but you can pretty much only get them online, and they're expensive. Verbatim DataLifePlus are fairly well-spread, but they don't get discounted to the level that the TY Fujis usually do. Prefectly good discs, though.

There have been reports of late that Ritek's CDR quality has improved over the last year, but I think it's too early to tell. The main problem with Riteks has always been longevity, not coastering. Every single TY or Mitsubishi disc I've burned (all the way 5 or 6 years back now) is still perfectly readable. I don't think you can say anything about Ritek's new "quality" when it comes to longevity just yet.

Of course, if you're using them for random mix discs or as a floppy replacement for transporting data, it's not a problem. But I was using my CDRs as my primary archival device for lots of media, and needed them to last. Now that I've picked up a DVDRW, I don't see them filling that role much anymore.

[LanEvo7]

TDK and Maxell both use Ritek for their discs. I've been using them for three four years and no issues with them. CMC, however is another story. All my CMC discs started degrading after about a year.

[sterno]

TDK and Maxell both use Ritek for their discs.

Current TDKs appear to be CMC also now. In fact, nearly every cheap CD-R spindle I've picked up in retail stores in the past year has been CMC. The exception is the TY Fujifilm spindles, which are no longer available in this area - every Fuji package I've seen on sale rececntly has been of Taiwanese manufacture.