rima.com reliability

[disturbed1]

There used to be a small "Certified Grade A Ritek media" in their little description. Now there is not. How does that not make sense?

Not in the last 2 years. There has never been a Grade Rating

There ARE definite grades of media. RITEK does theirs GRADE A, B, C and maybe even D. It's about % of passing random quality tests.

There IS a super grade, which is for OEM use. There is a grade that doesn't meet QC standards that gets over printed (usually orange with moutains).

If you don't want to believe it, or do more research on your own, go right ahead. In the meantime, I'm giving you the answers.

I defintely do not believe you. And I have already done the research. Perhaps you need to research a bit more. Start with actually talking to somebody in the media business before making incorrect assumptions.

If Meritline and Rima buy their Ritek from the same manufacturing plant then they literally are receiving the same product, despite the fact that Meriline calls theirs grade "A" and Rima doesn't.

100% true. The place Rima and Meritline get their Ritek media from is call Advanced Media INC. The only authorized US distributor.

Meritline calls them GRADE A Ritek. They also call Princo GRADE A DVD Pro. Doesn't mean squat. It's just a marketing term.

[lordsmurf]

Then I've been given bad information BY FIVE DIFFERENT PEOPLE that are not related in any way. In any case, I'm not willing to just dump what I've found based on what the two of you say. But I'll keep it in mind next time I look around for media information.

Especially in light of RIMA.COM having numerous faulty media. All the PRINCO and OPTODISC media I got from RIMA has been bad, and now RITEK. I think it's subpar media, and the info I was given explains it away nice and tidy.

I'd look elsewhere for buying media right now. My faith in RIMA has plummeted. When RITEKG04 starts giving a 15% fail rate, something is wrong, and it's not the user or hardware ... it's just bad discs.

We can argue semantics all day... but I and many others want to know why our RIMA-bought media is shit. Especially RITEK. What is the reasoning? Spare me the "bad batch" answer, as there is too much junk floating around to just be a "bad batch" problem. If this GRADING information is wrong, then what is the answer behind the flawed discs?

[adam]

Maybe I'm out of the loop but other than sammie and yourself, who else has complained about Rima's supply of media in particular? Of course there are the occasoinal problem posts on this forum, but have there actually been any widespread reports of problems with Rima's supplies? I haven't noticed any. Who are all these disgruntled people you are talking about? Doing a forum search on Rima, I'm honestly having an extremly hard time finding anyone else with complaints.

If there are generally higher numbers of errors with Ritek disks lately than that has nothing to do with Rima that is the fault of Ritek manufacturing. As Disturbed1 mentioned, its likely most retailers are all getting their stock from the same location anyway.

If these problem disks are even attributable to Rima, as opposed to their respective manufacturers, than I don't see how they are anything other than the typical isolated incidents that occur in any large scale operation.

Unless there is something I'm missing?

[bucsfan97]

I have a sample pack from RIMA that consists of the following arriving 2-4 ... I'll follow up with a report of what I find...

Sample Pack Includes:

2 Princo 4X DVD-R

2 Ritek 4X DVD-R

2 Optodisc 4X DVD-R

2 DupEZ 4X DVD-R

2 Prodisc 4X DVD-R

2 Samsung 4X DVD-R

[disturbed1]

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, don't Rima's Riteks come in Ridata factory wrapped plastic?

I know the last case lot I ordered came not only in a Ridata box, but each 50 pack was in red wrapped Ridata plastic.

This is also the case for the 100 and 200 qty's I've purchased from Meritline, Rima, Supermedia Store. They have all came in Ridata Red Wrapped plastic.

IF you order in a qty smaller than what is factory sealed (smaller than 50 in Ritek's case), then you can run into problems with fingering.

Lordsmurf, are you sure you didn't damage the Riteks yourself. You did post a thread about having problems opening the package.

[Lobe]

ya'know if Ritek really are selling less than "Grade A" then it seems they should be responsible enough to label it as such. I understand if they are re-wrapped/re-packaged, so you can't tell, there's not much they can do to prevent that. But come on, they're just giving themselves a bad name by not distinguishing. How would Ritek even benefit by this practice? Why bother to grade them then?
I suspect there are just some bad batches out there but not a lesser grade.

[lordsmurf]

Yeah, no damage on this end, no faulty drives or user error. Just bad discs. The RITEK packaging is not always there, sometimes yes, sometime no. Recent ones have just been clear wraps. And that post was more of a joke than anything else... but it is awful cheap that they skimp a few pennies on using spindles.

Th OPTODISC 4x from RIMA melted under the 105 laser at 4x burns. No other OPTODISCS did that, only RIMA. The RITEKG04 from all other places beforehand (shiny silver, matte silver, orange branded, purple branded, and inkjet) gave me 99-100% success rate. These recent RIMA ones have not. The PRINCO from RIMA seem to be the worst of them all, moreso than other PRINCO sales.

Most common issues on RITEKG04 from RIMA is dye thinning in the middle of the disc (causes playback problems, like the Princo and CMC end-of-disc dye issues), visible splotches in the dye on both RITEKG04 and RITEKG03, and then calibration errors during lead-in.

Using MXLRG01 and MXLRG02, RITEKG03 from local retail stores, and TDK gives 99-100% success rate. PRINCO from other sellers and RITEKG04 from MERITLINE has no problems. Well, PRINCO has less problems, still a big pain after 4GB and with 4x burning.

I've been around too many other merchandise in my day to believe ALL MEDIA comes from this one place you mention. I'd bet than some amount of this is direct import, bypassing the company of which you speak. There is nothing to prevent it. I know NIKON and CANON cameras, as well as FILM, have this kind of thing done all the time, often at a hit to quality for cheaper prices. You have to be VERY CAREFUL when mail-ordering photo equipment and supplies.

Retail stock normally gets highest grades, suchs as the orange and purple branded RITEK media and RIDATA, and then second class stock is OEM'd out to others to stamp there pretty name on it. The third class stock is often mixed with OEM-overage of the 2nd class and sold at mass discounts. This is how computers have always operated. I have a feeling some of the grades got mixed, and RITEK has publically had errors recently, notably the 8x media fiasco.

[disturbed1]

I have a feeling some of the grades got mixed, and RITEK has publically had errors recently, notably the 8x media fiasco.

That could be the problem.

As Ritek did recently go through revamping of their production lines. This was seen in the shortage of G03 media, and a shortage of the G04 matted media.

Ritek has been on a downhill spiral since the middle/late 2003. They have had numerous problems, and a new internal reshuffling. Add to that falling stock prices, and a falling profit margin (down 17%).

If you read back a few months, users were complaining of spots on the Ritek G04s from Newegg. Other users came forth and commented that this has been seen in most G04 media from other retailers. Shortly after that, no more matted G04s. I haven't seen a good Ritek product since early 2003. All Ritek I've recieved (Meritline, Rima) have been sub par, compared to early product offering. Though their OEM products (Verbatim, TDK) have shown the same high quality Ritek's rep was built on. Not that Ritek isn't good, it just isn't as great as most make them out to be (IMO of course).

I personally think Ritek is in over their heads with demand, and current capacity of their plants. They are making claims of becoming the number 1 disc maker, in terms of qty, but CMC is greatly ahead in numbers per month, and Prodisc is nipping on their heels. Even 3rd level Taiwan plants (Gigastorage, LeadData, Princo) are starting to catch up. With Lead Data recently landing a few HUGE OEM contracts for 8x media.

Not to mention that RICOH is made in Ritek's plants. Perhaps Riteks focus ($$$$) has switched?

[sammie]

No real reason to add to what has become kind of personal but I did want to respond to an earlier post. When I order something through the mail or internet and it is defective it is not my fault. It's hard to assign a precise number because obviously reputable companines don't usually send bad stuff, but I would expect that 80% or more of the retailers send you a prepaid return shipping label automatically. If they don't I ask. I can't remember anyone other than Rima refusing to pay for return shipping on a defective item. If I am returing somthing because I decide I don't want it sure, I should pay for it. But if I am returning something because it's defective, then the retailer should pay for it. Some have issued credit after they verified the item was in fact defective, but they have always paid.

As an aside, for CDs I had long ago switched to TYs, but I hadn't found a good source of DVD-r's from TY. Is there a place to get bulk plain top TY DVD-r's? Everything I've found has been brand named, logo imprinted jewel cased stuff.

[freestyler]

<cough> Rima...

Excuse me I think I'm catching something

[Lobe]

i had had good luck with Ritek's but still always used the TY or MXL for important things.... with all the Ritek probs lately, I think I'm back to only buying the Made in Japan media. TY or MXL.

I only bought from rima once but was very impressed with their customer service, prompt answers to questions, included samples...good packaging, fast shipping. And at least all my media from them worked 100%.

[sammie]

Hmm, sure enough. I'll take it to another thread, no sense hi-jacking this one or giving it further play. But I would like to get feedback on TY's, since I'm strictly going on the rep of their CDs.

[FulciLives]

Hmm, sure enough. I'll take it to another thread, no sense hi-jacking this one or giving it further play. But I would like to get feedback on TY's, since I'm strictly going on the rep of their CDs.

I've been buying the FUJI DVD-R discs at BEST BUY and they say MADE IN JAPAN and come in a 10 pack for around $25. These are Taiyo-Yuden brand discs.

BEST DVD-R media I have ever seen. I have never had one fail. I must have run at least 100 through DVDInfoPro with not a single read error. I don't even bother anymore doing the test anymore.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
The 10 pack at BEST BUY is on sale for $17.99 through 02/07/2004

[hoto]

wow, this post seems to have stirred up some rima related hatred


not that i want to fan the flames anymore, but for those canadian posters out there, have your brokerage fees and duty fees been high when ordering from rima?