What’s Happened to Ritek DVD-R Quality?

[andyg]

Article from the DVD-Recordable.com
http://www.dvd-recordable.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=Reviews&file=index&req=showcontent&id=76

[bigman2]

Looks like they have latched on to the business model that the like of Bulkpaq use. Produce some decent discs for a while then as soon as people begin to think they have found a good disc they start mixing the grade B, C , D, E etc discs with the grade A discs.

[windtrader]

Right on. I had this exact thing happen to me about six weeks ago. I bought a pack of 25 Ritek orange discs as pictured. Being a burner for some time now, I ALWAYS check each disc before sticking them in the burner. First couple fine, then the visible flaws as shown in the first picture. By the time I went through the pack of 25, I think there were at least 5 that were bad. I took them back to the store and they allowed me to open another pack and take some replacements. That stack had baddies in there too.

I bought another stack of 25 of a different brand and cautiously viewed each disc and they were visibily clean and burn ok so far. However, I did discover I got three 2x discs thrown in with the rest of the 4x stack. Hope I did not trade one problem for another. Too bad about Ritek - they were so reliable and quite inexpensive.

On the brighter side, as 8x and dual layer media production ramps up, 4x dvd-r meida will become more commmoditized and the remaining suppliers of 4x media will need to improve their quality if they are to remain in business. The flakes will disappear and it will be easier to buy decent media at cheap prices. The premium margin will be on the new stuff.

[sarahjh69]

don't you believe it!

they will just stick 8x identifiers on 4x media
and the situation will get even worse.

[Carlos Garcia]

I still use their 1X media. Yeah I know, it takes almost an hour, but believe it or not, I have burned about 1,000 Ritek brand DVD-Rs so far and not one single coaster. My latest kick, burning onto Ritek's PRIMEDISC double-sided DVD-Rs...then popping them into my DVD Jukeboxes. This way, instead of 300 discs, I can actually squeeze 600 in there...and like I said, not one single coaster...I'll let those in a hurry worry about bad 4X or 8X media...for us dudes still using 1X...Haste makes waste :)

Carlos.

[windtrader]

Not sure what you guys have your hands on but like the article shows and what I have personally seen, these discs are CRAP. I figure if you can see blems then how many of them have blems you can not see with the naked eye also have problems.

Slowing the burn down might help but who in their right mind would burn on such marginal media in the first place?

[Carlos Garcia]

Originally posted by windtrader
Not sure what you guys have your hands on but like the article shows and what I have personally seen, these discs are CRAP. I figure if you can see blems then how many of them have blems you can not see with the naked eye also have problems.

Slowing the burn down might help but who in their right mind would burn on such marginal media in the first place?

I've been using Ritek's 1X media for about 2 yrs now, no problem on any discs...Like I said earlier...not even 1 coaster! In fact it's the only brand I'll use!

[theReal]

Ritek has always had the reputation to be a medium to low quality CDR media producer. Then they became better - now it seems with DVD they're slowly falling back into the old "quality" regions...

btw. I just bought a bunch of Ritek G03 (under the label "Octron") and they seem to be quite good. They were 6.99 EUR for 5 pieces in Jewel Boxes

[joshyg2]

has anyone here used:

Data-Bank DVD-R ?

they use premium quality die, they are cheap, they work flawlessly for me.

i got 100 for $100 AUD

[gooki]

How do you know they use "premium quality die"?

[BassPig]

Samsung BeAll seem to do pretty well for me. I'm using the 4X white printable version this week and quality has been good. Burns at 2X on my A04 writer.

[atreides93]

I bought a 100 pack of Ritek G04's from rima.com a month ago. I haven't noticed any problems with them yet, but now that you've warned me I'm going to start checking my disks more carefuly from now on to see. That would really be disappointing if they started lowering their quality now.

[windtrader]

It appears that the real branded Ritek discs are fine. I know that the next batch I buy will have Ritek, Ridata printed on each disc; no more silvers.

[BassPig]

Two years ago, I briefly tried CD Recordable brand DVD-R media. It's interesting to note that today I just burned a replacement disk for a client that recently noticed playback problems with her disc. I just saw the defective disc today and it's one of the CD Recordable brand that I used 2 years ago!

Be careful what discs you use. The fallout can last for years!

[windtrader]

Be careful what discs you use. The fallout can last for years!How true.

The Ridisc and Datasafe seem to be mostly sold in the UK market. Ridata is available in the US but sold as silver tops, not branded.

IF you know where to get the branded Ritek discs in the US, please post details. thx

Update - I found branded Ridata at Meritline. I guess this is quite new per the following article:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:92COTRVHZHMJ:www.cdfreaks.com/news/9419+ridata+brand+dvd+media&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[BassPig]

I'm not sure if branded, but the supplier where I buy all my media is meritline.com. They do sell Ritek brand DVD media. But I have never tried it. I opted for the Samsung BeAll discs last year and found they fixed some problems that a few clients had with Toshiba players. I've had very good results with the BeAll disks and this latest batch has been 100% error free on settop players I've been quality testing on. Not one instance of freezing or blocking up, the whole disk through.
Meritline does have Ritek G03 and G04 media on sale this week:

"Genuine Ritek G03 Grade A DVD-R Silver/Purple 4.7GB Blank Media General DVDR Disc 25, 50, 100, 200, 500 Pack
As Low As $0.65 Plus Free Ground Shipping! "

But this is what I usually buy now:

"BeALL™ DVD-R 1X-4X 4.7GB Blank Media White Printable General Purpose DVDR Disc 25, 50, 100, 200, 500, 800 Pack
As Low As $1.04 Each"

A little more expensive, but reads on some players that the others don't.

[padre]

I've good success with both Ritek and BeAll printables purchased through Meritline. When I want to print right to the hub, I use the BeAlls and they come out looking just like the commercial versions of DVDs. I've run the BeAlls through Kprobe and the quality of the media (burned with my Pioneer A06D) is very good (well within exceptable limits).

The Riteks are normally very good too, but some batches from other suppliers have had some issues at the very far edges, so I used to try not to burn them at anything over 4gb. But using the Meritline Riteks, no problem, and never a problem with the BeAalls burning all the way to the edge.

[BassPig]

That's good to hear. The BeAlls are the only disc Meritline offers a money back satisfaction garantee on, so they much be confident in super-adequate quality. I've never seen a defect on the BeAll discs. As long as I don't apply a label, they play perfectly in all the players that members of my wife's dance troupe use (we regularly videotape and produce DVDs of their shows. Distribution is about 25-30 DVDs per program).
One time we had a Meritline disc fail to play on some oddball Toshiba player and I burned a new copy on BeAll media and took it to the client's home to have them try it. It played with no issues. That was a solid verification for me of the compatibility.
Meritline claims that NASA and government agencies use BeAll discs, so if they pass such certification, they are probably consistent from one batch to the next.
I note that one super discount no name discs, there is what I call the 'filth factor'--contamination in the disc packaging and between discs. Some of the discount discs have dust particles all over the discs, making me wonder if they fished these from an industrial dump and resold them. Definately not clean room quality.
OTOH, the BeAll discs have always been 100% free of foreign material contaminants. I think dust and dirt are a sign that something's not right.

[theReal]

It appears that the real branded Ritek discs are fine
That's the reason why I like it when brand name and manufacturer are the same - they have a name to lose here and can't sell any crap :)

However, for my important data I'm using Verbatim - they don't make the discs themselves, but from the producers' codes I read from Verbatim DVD-Rs, 90% of their discs are made by Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. and the other 10% by Tayo Yuden. Those are both well known quality manufacturers. However the Verbatim DVD-Rs are still only half as expensive as i.e. Mitsui DVD-Rs (still cost around 1.80-2.00 Euro per disc in Jewel Cases, but for important stuff I think it's worth it)

[Matthew]

@theReal, Verbatim is owned by Mitsubishi :)

[theReal]

:D OK, that explains it all :D :cool:

[OvERaCiD23]

Well the article says it all itself. The discs he's talking about are some off-brand that uses Ritek dye (or it says it does). Notice he says there's no problem with Ridata discs, and I can verify that as well. Between myself and a friend, we've used over 400 Ritek DVD-Rs (G04s), and not one visible flaw on any disc. All Ridata brand, not some off the wall "'Landscape', 'Mountain Water' or 'Mountains and Streams'" brand that claims to be Ritek. Stick with a reputable brand and don't try to cheap out; Ridata discs can be can for less than $1/disc now (~$47 for a 50-pack is what I last paid, free shipping). What more can you ask than the best disc cheaper than most others? ;)

[Dublin-Raider]

i have purchased alot of Arita (ritek g03) for about year, was very happy with there quality.
However two weeks ago i got my first defective 25 tub, the entire 25 were visibley defective.
It appears that Ritek are now using there Arita brand name to sell B grade (previously they had used it for over-prints which were still grade A).
So just a warning to my fellow members ARITA = B GRADE.......

[LB]

Originally posted by Dublin-Raider
i have purchased alot of Arita (ritek g03) for about year, was very happy with there quality.
However two weeks ago i got my first defective 25 tub, the entire 25 were visibley defective.
It appears that Ritek are now using there Arita brand name to sell B grade (previously they had used it for over-prints which were still grade A).
So just a warning to my fellow members ARITA = B GRADE.......

Where'd you get them from? I've only ordered from Meritline these past 1-2years, only bought their g03s, and have never, ever, had a problem with them. :D

[gooki]

ARITA is not owned by ritek in any way. That brand has previously used vivastar to manufacturer their discs.