Ritek: NEVER EVER AGAIN

[mrlar2]

I have just spent hours upon hours over the last few days trying to recover numerous DVDs that have now become corrupt and rotted. Some I've barely been able to recover enough to make new copies. Others are lost for good. The one thing they all have in common? They were *ALL* Ritek DVDs -- Ritek G04s.

At the time (a few years back -- back when DVDRs were 4x or just starting 8x) Ritek seemed a good bet. The price wasn't bad, and more importantly, burn test results seemed promising. Little did anyone know how they would rot over time.

Before people automatically start posting, let me impart to you some information:
I have the NEC-3500A (so damn good a burner I found one of the few places still left that carries them -- and bought another -- 2.5 years after the date of manufacture! If anyone's interested, a place called Hyper Microsystems has them for $39).

The NEC is still churning out great copies even today, so it's not a burner fault. And I NEVER burn faster than 4x, even with 8x, 12x, or 16x media. I'd rather have it be a bit slower and be a more stable burn for longevity. So it's not a speed issue.

MEDIA I HAVE USED:
I have burnt well over 2,000 DVDRs by now.
The brands I have used the most were:
The Made in Japan Maxell DVD-Rs
The Made in Japan Maxell DVD+Rs
TY-made Fuji DVD+Rs and DVD-Rs (Japan)
TY-made Sony DVD-Rs and DVD+Rs (octogon ring, Japan)
Ritek G04s (made in Taiwan)
Princo-made blanks from Rima in the early days (quite a few of them)
CompUSA cheapie discs (1x DVD-Rs, 4x DVD+Rs, made in Taiwan or Hong Kong.

CLIMATE:
I live in So California. No humidity, no strange climate. No climate problems. I keep the discs in protective sleeves, indoors, in the shade, etc. In other words, I know how to take care of the media that I work with.

Well a bunch of my DVDs have gone bad -- and then I noticed -- ALL THE ONES THAT WENT BAD WERE RITEKs. I had 41 Riteks (not very much -- thankfully I only bought one 50pk of it, and must have given away the remaining 9), but of those 41, SEVEN can't even be read now. Others are so weak most of the players can't read them (thankfully, my NEC was barely able to read some of them that other players couldn't). But on SEVEN it's so bad, nothing can read them. SEVEN OUT OF 41 cannot be read AT ALL. And about 10 more can only barely be read by one player. That's a horrible ratio. Now what about the other brands? Sure you wouldn't expect TY or the old Made in Japan Maxells to go bad -- but so far, even the cheap Princos (which are among the oldest I have) have held up just fine. So have the CMCs, the Optidiscs, the cheap CompUSA 1x and 4x discs, and the other "junky" brands out there. NONE of them have rotted except for the Riteks. That's gotta tell you something about what JUNK Ritek is. Thankfully about 80% of my collection is on either TY-made discs or the old made in Japan Maxell discs. The other 20% are the cheap stuff from the early days (Princo, Optidisc, CMC, etc), and then this one 50 pak of Ritek G04s.

More info: Someone I used to trade discs with occasionally used to send out those same Ritek 04s -- and I remember now a few of them rotting a couple months ago. I thought it was because he used a cheap (or old) burner, but now I see it was the Ritek media.

I was so mad I did a google search and found so many complaints with the Ritek G05s. I have no idea about the G05s, but the G04s were the ones that were VIVID purple/red (most DVDs have a kind of subdued purple color... the G04s were really vivid in color).

About two months ago I bought a 50pk of Office Depot (Ritek-made) DVD-Rs. I opened them up to verify they were Ritek (at the time I didn't realize how bad Ritek was). I only used two (just as temp stuff). This afternoon I took the 48 left and dumped them in the trash. Then I took the unopened 25pk Ritek-made Office Depot DVD+R DL (Dual Layer) discs that I bought on sale a few weeks ago, and returned them to the store for store credit.

I WILL NEVER, EVER BUY RITEK MEDIA AGAIN. PERIOD.
There's only been one other company that I have avoided with such vigor: TDK.
In the VHS days, TDKs had horrible dropouts. And in the CD-R days, I had nothing but errors, only with TDK CD media. So I've never bought a TDK product since. And now I will add Ritek to that.

It's not even a "you get what you pay for" because even the cheapiest, junkiest (by most people's opinions here) brands -- at least for me -- have somehow (thankfully) held up. It's ONLY been the Riteks that have gone bad. I can only be thankful that I didn't use Ritek all that much.

This is probalby old news by now. G04s aren't made (I assume) anymore. But I see all the rants against Ritek G05s.
Buyer Beware. AVOID RITEK.

[budz]

Like you I bought G04's when I began burning dvd media. Luckily the ones I still have are okay but I made backups of those discs just in case. I now only use VERBATIM & TAIYO YUDEN dvd media. SONY dvd media can be hit or miss. I still have a load of TYG01 dvd media that is stored away from sunlight. I'll occasionally use that media w/my first dvd burner which was a PLEXTOR 708A drive.

[hech54]

All of my old Ritek 4x silver top discs are still perfect...along with my Ridata (RITEK-R03-02) 8x which are newer but still no problems with them at all. My only problems with Riteks were with printables and I still use the Ridata discs for my Philips DVDR985 recorder exclusively.

[mrlar2]

I have no doubt there are plenty of people out there who have Ritek discs that haven't rotted (yet). I always thought highly of Ritek, mostly from comments of others I'd seen -- which is why I bought them a few years ago as I graduated from the "el cheapo" ones like Princo to Ritek, and then later to Japanese Maxells and TYs. Well thousands of DVDs later, the *ONLY* ones that have rotted -- from BOTH those I burned myself as well as those made by an acquaintance I used to trade discs with -- have been those G04 Riteks. I have no idea how their newer ones are, but I will absolutely not give them another chance. Not after the time, money, and lost data.

Anyone can make a bad disc now and then, but when you consider:
(a) NO other disc brand rotted on me. NO OTHER BRAND. Every rotted one was a Ritek G04.
(b) Ritek G04 discs sent to me by someone living 2,500 miles away rotted as well (2 out of 13)
(c) An incredibly high ratio of dead, corrputed discs, all Riteks
tells me never to use them again.

You can't muck around with data storage -- it's too important.
If it were another brand, like TYs going bad on me like this, then I'd never buy another TY.
But it's not. It's Riteks, and ONLY Riteks, and not just those burned by me.

This is the kind of experience (and ratio) that would make ANYONE swear off a brand. I just want people to know my experience so they can weigh this (along with other people's posts) in deciding which media to buy and not buy. I've seen people posting about how horrible Princo is. It's not that I don't believe them... it probably is junk, but with my situation, the ONLY rots have been Riteks.

[lordsmurf]

You jumped to a "disc rot" conclusion way too fast. There are other factors at play that are more likely. The "disc rot" thing is a myth, for the most part. Drives are the top cause, with never used/tested (or bad human memory of those old experiences) coming in next.

Now, avoiding Ritek, that's fine. They are not very good discs. So you made the right choice, just not necessarily for the reason you think.

I've never liked Ritek, and I know several others that are the same way.

[Rich86]

I've used Ritek media quite a bit. And a fair number of G04's.
It is true that there was a time period where Ritek G04 media was problematic - and I also have identified some deteriorated burned media. But they have been the exception for me and most work just fine. And when they went bad - they went bad pretty quickly (within a month or so). I recently finished up a stack of Ritek G05 inkjet printable media - with no problems at all. I'm not defending Ritek - there are plenty of brands out there I refuse to use due to a single bad experience - but in all fairness, the entire Ritek product line may not be garbage just because you got a problematic 50 stack of Ritek dvd media.
I mostly use TDK media these days (CMC 16x DVD+R inkjet printable) with very reliable results (Benq 1650 & Lite-On sata burners). Media cost about $.20 each on sale/coupon . . .

[SCDVD]

I have a pretty simple attitude about this. Why bother using potentially problematic media when I can buy Taiyo Yuden media for close to the same price. I know it works; there are no surprises. I don't have to wonder if Ritek, or whoever, got this batch right or not. It's not worth the bother and concern to save five or six dollars a spindle or so.

[buttzilla]

Thats what happens when you try to save a buck and buy cheap media. If what you are burning is important to you put it on good media and you wont have to worry about it.

[mrlar2]

I'm glad you're so sure that my situation is just a myth (LordSmurf). That my rotted discs are just a myth. Well since it's just a "myth" for you, you wouldn't mind if I wish that "myth" upon you?

I'm trying to be civil here, but I knew there'd be at least one person who would post something like that as "fact", thinking they know it all, blaming it on a bad burner -- or my faulty human memory, or not ever having tested the discs, when they know nothing of the situation.

So to be even clearer, the discs WERE TESTED. For instance, the videos my firend sent me (done on HIS BURNER 2500 miles away) were watched when they arrived. I let a friend borrow them as well back then. Now they cannot be played on ANYTHING. Those were discs that were playable when first made, and are completley corrupted today, and cannot be played on ANYTHING -- three different computer players, or six different home DVD players. So according to you either all 9 DVD players I have suddenly have worn out (even though three are new in a box I've kept for spares), or it must be just my imagination that I watched the videos on them when they were first made.

Again, I'm trying to be civil here, but I've spent HOURS trying to recover discs that have rotted that were ALL one brand, and don't really appricaite someone casually dismissing it as probably being due to me not having tested them, to bad human memory, or a bad burner when NONE of this is the case. The DVDs were watched when made and tested, and are completely unplayable on ANY unit now.

You can call the DVD Rot a "myth" all you want, but one fact remains: certain of my DVDs are now unplayable (use ANY TERM you want for it, "rot", the dye fading, little green microbes from mars invading the discs, whatever semantic game you want to play) -- but this has happened with only ONE BRAND of media that I used for a short time. Not *ONE* non-Ritek disc has shown ANY signs of corruption. Enough said.

As for others comments on using better media, yes of course. Today that's what I do (using only the older Japanese Maxells and now that they've stopped coming to the US, TY-made discs only). But the problem is that back in the early days, I didn't know better -- and back then, Ritek seemed to be rated by most people on these forums as very good media. So it's not like I was going for the Walmart special. I paid more for Riteks back then than I could have easily paid for bottom-end brands. I'm simply stating that a few years later now, a large percentage of my Riteks are no longer playable as they once were -- in ANY machine. And I've had this problem with NO other media brands, just those Ritek 04s. Ritek may (or may not) have improved, but after this experience I'd be a fool to ever trust them again. As I said, I've since moved on to TYs, but was apalled that it was only Ritek media on me that was going bad.

I DO have a lot more Princo discs from the early days (also reported by many people to often go bad) that still play just fine for me... but now after this Ritek experience, I'm worried that maybe I should go through and make backups of them onto TYs... but after all the time it took to make backups (of those I could still salvage) of about 40 Riteks, I don't know if I have the patience to backup 100-150 Princos. Man.... so far the Princos have play just fine, but I've seen horror reports from others. Thankfully other than that one 50pk of Riteks and about 150 Princos (and about 25 CompUSAs), the rest (probably about 2000) are all Japanese Maxells and TYs. But backing up 150 Princos would take days and days at the computer...

[romi7519]

Same thing happened here! No more Riteks for me.

[mgy999a]

I agree with SCDVD. Considering the cost I've invested in all the hardware for this little hobby, I'm not going to pinch pennies on the dvds. They are the end product, after all. There is no point in risking your video on less than quality media. (Forgive me for preaching to the choir here).

Obviously, Mrlar2 didn't know when he bought and recorded on these dvds that they might be a problem. And until he posted his experience with his dvds, I wasn't aware of this potential problem either. Since I have more than a hundred Ritek G04 dvds, I think I'll start this weekend checking them out.

Mrlar2, let me be the first to say "thank you" for posting this information.

I do have one question. You specifically identified the media as Ritek G04 but did you buy it under the Ritek label? Ritek G04 can purchased under a variety of different labels. Is it only the Ritek G04 media directly from Ritek or is it ALL Ritek G04 media, regardless of label? For some people, it might be worthwhile to identify their disks if there is any question.

Again, thanks
mgy999a

[MJA]

Ritek got me with their DL media(fuji brand)

[OneSickPup]

I do have one question. You specifically identified the media as Ritek G04 but did you buy it under the Ritek label? Ritek G04 can purchased under a variety of different labels. Is it only the Ritek G04 media directly from Ritek or is it ALL Ritek G04 media, regardless of label? For some people, it might be worthwhile to identify their disks if there is any question.

I can't speak for mrlar2 but I know from my experience that i had early degradation issues with 100 RITEK G04 silver tops purchased from Newegg. I have Maxell branded G04's and G05's that had no such issues to date.

[mrlar2]

Thank you
The deteriorating Ritek G04s were all "white printable" surface Riteks rather than, say, "Office Depot" brand Riteks, though at the time I don't know if there'd be any difference since they all come from the same factory. I must have bought two 25pks instead of one 50pk, because about half are just plain white, while the other half (also plain white) say "RiData" right near the inner hole. They were purchased through Rima (where I used to buy all my media). The G04s my friend sent (I don't know where he bought his) were I believe the same type (white printable) -- I say "believe" because he would make his own color lables and stick them on top. But I believe they were the same white printable surface G04s.

These G04s by the way, are the ones with the really vivid colors on the recording side (not subdued colors, but pretty bright/vivid).

[lordsmurf]

If ALL of your discs have problems, then you need to start buying lottery tickets. The odds of all the discs "rotting" are tiny. This is why your reasoning is dismissed as myth. Some other factor is at play here, you're just not calming down long enough to analyze it as needed. There are far too many assumptions in your conclusion.

It would be a different story if you have two discs out of thousands, that's more likely.

The only thing you said that is correct is that Ritek lacks in quality. That's something many of us have known for 5+ years now. I'm glad you've realized the mistake, but it's not because of disc rot.

Your issue is most likely related to wobble being offset by deterioration in the inkjet materials and glues. It's not the disc rotting (RITEK), but rather the surface. If you want to lump that together as "the disc", fine, but it's misleading. Your inkjet surface ruined your discs.

[ozymango]

You can call the DVD Rot a "myth" all you want, but one fact remains: certain of my DVDs are now unplayable (use ANY TERM you want for it, "rot", the dye fading, little green microbes from mars invading the discs, whatever semantic game you want to play) -- but this has happened with only ONE BRAND of media that I used for a short time. Not *ONE* non-Ritek disc has shown ANY signs of corruption. Enough said.

Works for me. I do think the terminology to describe what happens is kinda beside the point -- the point being:

1) The discs were burned and tested and played and they were GOOD.
2) They stopped working later.
3) In the same equipment they worked in before.
4) The equipment still plays other discs just fine.

This is not to contradict Lord Smurf's qualifications for the requirements of true "disc rot," but the "was playable at the time - no longer plays due to something bad in the disc" seems the more important truth.

I had a similar experience with Ritek discs, the white printable kind: I tested, burned, retested, and gave away a rather large number of DVDs of a concert I shot (with permission!), using GO4 stock, during a time when the word on that particular media seemed to be pretty good. Certainly they played just fine for me, and I actually test-played ever single disc I burned to make sure, and yeah it was boring. Okay, I only tested about ten minutes, but I checked the disc all the way to the end (and I didn't burn all the way to capacity, I left a few hundred meg of space).

I heard from several people later on -- like months later -- that the discs wouldn't play anymore. I chalked this off to user error; no offense, but who knows how scratched and dog-slobbered these discs were by now, I thought.

But I burned a lot of other stuff to these discs of my own (got a stack of 100, might as well use the rest) -- and most of these discs, if they even are recognized by my computer any more, will lock up on playback (if they're movies) or give me all sorts of data errors (if I backed up files on them).

So the lesson at the end of all this is -- buy good media. Though of course I thought I was buying good media, at the time. Sigh.

[OneSickPup]

-- I say "believe" because he would make his own color lables and stick them on top. But I believe they were the same white printable surface G04s.

Labels will make even the highest quality media problematic.

[ozymango]

Your issue is most likely related to wobble being offset by deterioration in the inkjet materials and glues. It's not the disc rotting (RITEK), but rather the surface. If you want to lump that together as "the disc", fine, but it's misleading. Your inkjet surface ruined your discs.

So let me see if I understand your line of reasoning --

1) Deterioration of inkjet materials and glues leads to playback issues (possibly due to "wobble").
2) The injket surface is not really part of the disc, it's just part of the surface
3) Therefore, problem is not properly labeled "disc rot"

I guess that's cool. Though if you're gonna call myth on the proper definition of "disc rot," I'd love to hear you give us your .02 on "wobble" and how deteriorating inkjet surface material leads to such a problem. Might be good for an afternoon's edification.

EDIT: "Wobble being offset" is an interesting concept, could you tell us more?

[Rich86]

I have a pretty simple attitude about this. Why bother using potentially problematic media when I can buy Taiyo Yuden media for close to the same price. I know it works; there are no surprises. I don't have to wonder if Ritek, or whoever, got this batch right or not. It's not worth the bother and concern to save five or six dollars a spindle or so.

Great. I agree.
Now, please point me to the place you buy TY 16x dvd+r inkjet printable media for something close to $.20 each, including shipping . . . .

also - the Ritek G04's that failed for me were silver topped - not inkjet printable. and the number that failed was a low percentage. The Ritek G05 media I spoke about earlier was inkjet printable - and not a single problem in the 2 50 stacks I purchased and used up. I suppose they could still fail someday, but the others that failed did not take long at all. I've actually run read surface tests on a number of them to sample the condition - successfully. Again - I'm not defending Ritek, just trying to keep things in perspective here.

Anyone who puts an adhesive label of any type on a burned dvd media needs to accept the fact that they will most likely not be able to read the data from that media at some point. I would not blame the media manufacturer for unreadable burned media that someone stuck an adhesive label on under any circumstances.

In all honesty, I believe the single biggest issue regarding burn reliability of optical media has to do with the compatibility of the drive firmware (the write strategy) to the media being burned and the manner in which users burn that media (speed, condition of the media and drive, program used, etc.). This statement assumes we're aren't talking about really trash dvd burners or media. Nor is it arguing against using high quality media as one of the steps to take to maximize success.

[SCDVD]

I have a pretty simple attitude about this. Why bother using potentially problematic media when I can buy Taiyo Yuden media for close to the same price. I know it works; there are no surprises. I don't have to wonder if Ritek, or whoever, got this batch right or not. It's not worth the bother and concern to save five or six dollars a spindle or so.

Great. I agree.
Now, please point me to the place you buy TY 16x dvd+r inkjet printable media for something close to $.20 each, including shipping . . . .

I don't know where you get the 16X inkjet DVD media and $.20 with free shipping from. This thread is about Ritek media. If you check around (Hint - Look at the sponsor links on the home page), you will find TY media for not much more than Ritek ($.06 to $.08 more). But let me be the first to suggest that you buy the Tommy-rot brand of 16X inkjet printable DVD media for $.20 including shipping. It's your data not mine!

[Rich86]

I have a pretty simple attitude about this. Why bother using potentially problematic media when I can buy Taiyo Yuden media for close to the same price. I know it works; there are no surprises. I don't have to wonder if Ritek, or whoever, got this batch right or not. It's not worth the bother and concern to save five or six dollars a spindle or so.

Great. I agree.
Now, please point me to the place you buy TY 16x dvd+r inkjet printable media for something close to $.20 each, including shipping . . . .

I don't know where you get the 16X inkjet DVD media and $.20 with free shipping from. see #1 below . .
This thread is about Ritek media. see #2 below . .
If you check around (Hint - Look at the sponsor links on the home page), you will find TY media for not much more than Ritek ($.06 to $.08 more). But let me be the first to suggest that you buy the Tommy-rot brand of 16X inkjet printable DVD media for $.20 including shipping. see #3 below . . . It's your data not mine!

#1 - Costco - local - purchased when I am there for something else when on sale/coupon
#2 - Although that is what started it, your comment I responded to was pretty broad and generic regarding media brands.
#3 - sorry - just trying to keep the facts straight. Although TY media is very good - it is not cheap. And the CMC media I use under the TDK brand has been extremely reliable - in my system, with my high quality burners, with updated firmware and dynamic write strategy development, using the programs I use, under the conditions I burn them and then store them.

[mrlar2]

If ALL of your discs have problems, then you need to start buying lottery tickets. The odds of all the discs "rotting" are tiny. This is why your reasoning is dismissed as myth.

Lordsmurf, maybe you should actually read the posts you reply to before replying to them and putting words in other's mouths. Go back and actually read my posts again. Nowhere did I ever say all my discs have rotted (or even that all my Riteks have rotted). I even listed for everyone the specific number of rotted discs -- 7 out of 41 -- that could not be salvaged.

To ozymango and others:
Yes, exactly, thank you. The simple fact is, these discs were pressed well, worked fine, I used and watched them initially, and with the passage of time, the only ones that have shown deterioration were Ritek G04s, to where now 7 out of 41 in my collection (plus a few sent by someone else to me) no longer play. I get real tired of semantic games.

As for the comment about labels hurting... could be, but I don't think it was the cause in this case, because only the discs sent by my friend to me had labels. I never use labels myself, so that wouldn't explain the Riteks I made going bad.

Anyway, I posted here only to help others out, as I have been helped by others' reports in the past. I don't have the time to get into arguing matches with people who don't read the posts or lightly dismiss things, but have replied initially in order to give even more information. I've been very detailed in exactly what the situation has been, and leave it up to all of you to sift through everything and decide to believe what you want to. All I know is, I now make it a rule only to buy top-quality media... the thing is, at the time, I had thought Ritek was supposed to be good quality (not the best, but still supposed to be pretty darn good). But not after the experience I had. To another poster who wrote about Ritek's entire product line: as I said, I have had no experience with other Ritek products (just their G04s). Their other stuff could be fantastic, or junk. I just know that with the experience I had -- and with the NUMBER of discs going bad -- all Ritek -- I'd be a fool to ever buy them again (though to be honest, as I said before, I had since moved onto TY anyway). But I know Ritek is still "everywhere" on the marketplace, so I wanted to impart my experience to others. OK, time to move on...

[DarrellS]

The first two things you need to know about burning DVDs is don't use Ritek/Ridata media and don't use labels.

My first mistake was buying cheap 25 packs of Ritek and Ridata. All 25 of the Ritek discs were corrupt and the first two Ridata were corrupt. I've been using the rest of the Ridata for data DVDs which they seem to burn just fine. They just won't burn a movie DVD. All my Fuji Prodiscs burn fine but watch out for Fuji labeled Ritek discs. My brother has some Fuji (Ritek) DVD+Rs that burned alright but he's only burned a couple. Every Ritek DVD-R I've seen is crap.

A friend loaned me her music CDs which all had labels on them and none of them would play in my CD or DVD players because they were too thick.

[ROBERT BLACK]

Although I certainly agree with most of the bad sentiment directed at ritek G04s and 05s, I've never had a bad disc yet with RicohJPN +R discs. Are these not made by Ridata?

[lordsmurf]

I'd love to hear you give us your .02 on "wobble" and how deteriorating inkjet surface material leads to such a problem. Might be good for an afternoon's edification. EDIT: "Wobble being offset" is an interesting concept, could you tell us more?

The inkjet surface is not part of the disc. It's an added piece. It would not qualify as disc rot. Many of those early-generation inkjet surfaces were about as bad as labels. Or they used CD-quality surfaces on a DVD, and that doesn't fly.

The smallest things can upset the delicate balance of a disc. We already know Ritek media sucks, and part of that reason is (among other things) it doesn't balance well (the "wobble"). This is one way you get coasters. If the properties of that inkjet material changes too much (air bubbles, glues oozing or settling into pools, etc), you'd get problems. This might sound like a long shot, but it's actually more feasible than the vacuum-compressed disc materials changing. The external labels are open to the elements, and thus will die much faster. This is one reason you need to use good inkjet media, not crap.

People worry about discs "dying" too much. In reality, all the other aspects of disc playback will fail much faster (obsolescence, players/lasers, secondary problems like warping and labeling, etc).

The problem by the original poster may be something else. For example, we know NOTHING about the exact storage conditions (just a few generalities on the climate, and interior storage location).

I stand firm behind the lottery ticket comment. 17 discs (7 "dead" and 10 "partial") is still a ridiculous number from a bank of only 41 discs. Something else happened here. If it were 17 out of 4100, you'd have a case.

If you don't want to figure it out, fine. But "my discs all died" is myth, by and large.

[lordsmurf]

It's your data not mine!

This sums up my philosophy too.

I can help you sort the truth from the bullshit, I can help you pick better discs. But at the end of the day, if you want to screw yourself, go for it. It's not my data! Or if you want to believe all yours discs rotted, that the Earth is flat, and that the moon landing was staged in a movie studio, go for it. What the hell do I care!? I feel good knowing that I tried, and hopefully the next person who reads this thread will get the benefit of knowing what somebody said is potentially nothing more than bullcrap.

[videobread]

The Ritek 8x problems are well documented on this site. I have had my own horror story with Ritek and will never buy them again. I go with TY only.
When Ritek alone became unreadable in my drives I was able to read and replace 95% of the bad disks with a "new" drive. My old drives were still able to read TY, Ver and Max with no problems. Only the Ritek were a problem.
Here is the bad news. For the first time I have been experiencing read problems with the previous generation Ritek's. The ones that were not hub printable, had the silver rings and were 4X. They were burnt in 2003, 2004 and 2005. I hope they aren't all going to go south on me. I have begun backing them up out of principle. (Yes, I have new drives. Pioneer A111's.)
I do not understand how people can still claim Ritek problems are due to defective drives, bad burns, etc., and Ritek problems are some sort of myth. To each his own. No more Ritek for me - EVER!!!!!!!!!!!
When a variety of used burners stop reading only one brand of disc, is the disc the problem or the burner? I say the disc.
When a new burner will read 95% of the suspect discs does that make the suspect discs any better? I say no.
Buy a new burner. Recover you suspect Ritek. Don't buy any more Ritek.

[lenti_75]

this is the rule:

spend more and get real stuff. I've always spent more, even when a good disc was like 4-5$ and a cheapo one for 1-2$.

[candsh]

Has anyone said if they had flashed there drive (made it region free and at the same time gave it the ability to burn faster than the manufacturer's spec) This was a big cause of disk failure a couple of years ago. I did this to a Pioneer drive and wound up replacing because of disk failures. This wasn't the fault of the disk or the drive but, rather my own stupidity. I have used Ritek (G04, G05) almost exclusively and a Pioneer drive ( now a DVR-A09) I may change disks but I will always have a Pioneer drive/burner. NO PROBLEMS PERIOD, Never an overspeed burn even though the drive will allow it right out of the box on certain media (Ritek being one of them) I follow the rules and use compliant procedures and I can go back and play any back-up I have made and they play perfect every time. The only problem receivers have been Sony and that is to be expected.

[budz]

Has anyone said if they had flashed there drive (made it region free and at the same time gave it the ability to burn faster than the manufacturer's spec) This was a big cause of disk failure a couple of years ago. I did this to a Pioneer drive and wound up replacing because of disk failures. This wasn't the fault of the disk or the drive but, rather my own stupidity. I have used Ritek (G04, G05) almost exclusively and a Pioneer drive ( now a DVR-A09) I may change disks but I will always have a Pioneer drive/burner. NO PROBLEMS PERIOD, Never an overspeed burn even though the drive will allow it right out of the box on certain media (Ritek being one of them) I follow the rules and use compliant procedures and I can go back and play any back-up I have made and they play perfect every time. The only problem receivers have been Sony and that is to be expected.

Flashing a drive to make it region free has nothing to do with a disc not being able to be read back correctly. It's not about burning the discs correctly with regard to RITEK media. RITEK is low quality dvd media where over a period of time the dye will degrade to the point the disc will become unreadable. Good luck with your RITEK!