Ritek G05 is crap media!

Dragemester has pointed out that no searches on Ritek-G05 DVD-R media returns any useful results for newbies here for some quick info on whether Ritek G05 media is decent media.

RITEK-G05 media is crap.
RITEK-G01, G02, G03 were/are considered good media. (not my personal opinion).
RITEK-G04 longevity (quality) is under contention.
RITEK-R01, R02, R03, R04 (DVD+R) were/are considered good media. (not my personal opinion).

This thread is here for that single purpose.
If you find any threads, scans or any other useful posts in general, please post a link.

Ritek-G05 (DVD-R) media is terrible media because:

• It gives you a false sense of security because it burns very well on current DVDWriters & the PI/PIF scans look beautiful - this is a testament to the drive manufacturers firmware support, not the quality of the media.
• It begins decaying almost immediately and in just in a few months it becomes completely unrecoverable.
• It is not the same between batches! This batch might last forever, the next 20 batches might last a week. And you can't tell which is which.
• Because of the degradation problems, it leads you to believe your readers, players & hardware is playing up, especially when your entire collection is based on Ritek-G05's, and none of them will play (it's obviously the hardware right? WRONG!).

I'll start with the threads which I consider relevant, or at least along the right tracks.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....ight=Ritek+G05

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....ight=Ritek+G05

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....ight=Ritek+G05

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....ight=Ritek+G05

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....ight=Ritek+G05

---

Last edited by DrageMester; 11-06-2006 at 16:49. Reason: Changed listing for G04 at poster's request

Yo Hat-

Thanks for the props mate-eh!

Mike

Here are some more threads that I found (also posted in another thread you linked to):

I give up Ritek

Ritek G05 = New Honorary Princo !

Has Ritek Always Been Poor Quality?

Another case of degrading G05, Maxell-branded

Excellent idea. I'm trying to point a lot of people I know away from Ritek G05 but they just won't believe me. I show them scans... they say I'm putting too much emphasis on the scans. I tell them it's not only the scans but the shit playback I get from some, but of course I can't show them the playback. I tell them to play a G05 of theirs that is a year old or more all the way through and watch... funny enough I never hear anything about this point....

Anyway, good idea.

Another satisfied G05 customer!
Will you look at those pretty colours!

Recommended maximums for PI/PIF is 280/16 for the (8ECC) burner.

That beats this one debro: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=154

Yo-

This is the worst scan I have ever seen - and it is Taiyo Yuden-eh!!

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...46&postcount=8

Mike

Isn't that particular LG drive the one which has FUBAR support for TYG01 media for some reason?

This is a drive bug (or, to be exact, a firmware bug, since older firmware revisions did not have this problem), and not the media's fault.

crap is an understatement
Memorex branded G05 burned at 4X pioneer 105 aug 2004
and I have had several worse ones

Hi

I had to throw out a spindle of Maxell branded Ritek G05's. The burned DVD's experienced degradation within 2 months!!! I had to replace that crap with Taiyo Yuden and i have been happy eversince...

Ritek SUX!!!
NBK

Ritek -Rs for long term storage yes suck. Short term use or practising when you are new to burning etc they are perfect. I use whats left of my G05 stock as temp storage when I need to do a re-format, or to move progs (AVG, spybot, Adaware personal, vlc that sort of thing) I have downloaded to others PCs if they don't have broadband.

Wow ! I am surprised to hear this happen with Maxell. Maxell was a brand I used ages ago - It's strange because their -R and +R line of discs have a lifetime waranty. Their support is CRAP too. I would have thought however that RITEK based maxells were better ! At any rate I don't use -R. I still have left over RITEK R03 spindles (Maxell) and so far they burn excellent, and much better than the RIDATA crap.... I have 1 year old discs and they have not degraded at all - the increases in PIF are marginal, no PIFs more than 2.

Here is a scan of Maxell branded Ritek G05 crap!!!

NBK

NBK: I believe the PIE/PIF spike is a bug in the drive which occured with older Liteys too. But stil, even without the spike the scan doesn't look too good...

There is a bug in my NEC ND_3540 fw 1.04 burner?

Thanks to this forum for educating me on value of buying good blank DVD and CD media. Until last year i bought the cheapest name brand media. Now i buy Taiyo Yuden only!!!

I wonder if Verbatim DVD-R's and CD-R's are any good?

NBK

Verbatim is pretty much okay, as long as you avoid the inconsistant MBI MIIs.
Look for the DataLifePlus if it still exists, or look for Metal Azo/Super Azo/Advanced Azo/SERL/Advanced SERL/TeRL.
You should not get the DataLife CD-R or the Pearl White media.
Well, Verbatim is what most of us backwards Europeans use, because TYs are rare or expensive - or both.

@NBK, Verbatim media is among the best media you can get.

NEC drives are known to be quirky scanners, and sometimes they don't give repeatable results.

If you want to know any more than that, please start a new thread or post in a suitable thread. In this thread your questions are off-topic.

There are two types of Maxell on the market greg, MIJ and MIT, which most probably cause the differences. I have not used Maxell yet but Arachne swears by the MIJ +Rs, to the point she moves them about on Asdas shelves.

R03 is a +R as said and the quality of those are not in question. Riteks +R from what I have read here are still of reasonable quality, which is why I believve drage tried to keep this about -R G05 discs, instead of attacking the whole output.

Ritek +R's are of reasonable quality, but the quality still varies badly compared with TY. Maxell MIJ is supremely good media.

I disagree about Maxell MIJ (MAXELL002.etc....) I have used an entire spindle of 100 and IMO they are bad. They are worse than my RITEK R03.
The SCAN PIE (individuals) are decent, but the totals are much higher than TYs. The PIF count (max individual are mostly 2 sometimes 3) and the totals are extremely high (800-2000) evenly spread across the disc...Yet my TYs virtually no PIFs and always a maximum of 1 occasional 2..with totals of less than 100 for a full disc.

Here are some of the 8x plus series Maxell and another scan of a Maxell printable (15 pack) disc, both samples are MIJ.

And I paid 30 cents more on these bloody discs than my TYs. I will hear the same excuses that these scans are very good and the story about the gold surface etc... That I don't buy, at least not for the maxells. Why does the TY produce such GOOD scans and the maxell such high PIFs spread across the disc - I understand those scans are up to spec but for the price I paid and for a MIJ they should be better than this. And before some people say it is irrelevant, let me tell you that those discs were played on a few DVD players, and on some there was some skipping/pausing whilst my TYs were perfect from start to finish. I think personally that maxell sucks now. My RITEKS scan better than this and have not degraded on me so far (knock on wood).

I have asked some people to burn some with their non liteon drives and same thing.......decent PIEs, big PIF totals. Now I can understand some of you will say the total is good - good for a MIJ disc ? Look at the individuals, I would expect them to be 1........maybe occasional 2.. I am disappointed with Maxell - I think they have Quality control issues. My TYs have NEVER caused my trouble, never skipped, paused or whatever on the most fussy player.

Not so sure about G04 here. Seeing more and more problems being reported about these also becomming unreadable !

Exactly so from personal experience.

in debro's statement the operative word describing other ritek media