Ritek G05 = New Honorary Princo !

I know that statement is pretty harsh but I was making some random read-back tests of media in my DVD collection and I’m quite alarmed about how much my Ritek G05’s have deteriorated in such a short time (one or two months).

I stopped using Princo’s as soon as I realised that about 10% or more become unreadable with CRC errors after a few months. Up till now I’ve had no such trouble with Riteks, but since some members here have reported “Princo-like” experiences with Ritek I decided to test the read-back of a random selection of my burnt Riteks.

Ok the good news is that none were totally unreadable with CRC errors, but I did notice that several had a very wobbly DVD-speed curve and I know for certain that all were good when burnt because I test each burn with DVD-speed right after burning. At this stage of the test I didn’t know which discs were G05’s and which were G04’s or G02’s, because they all look quite similar.

Now here’s the really disturbing part, when I crossed checked with the mid codes I found all the ones with the wobbly DVD-speed read-back curve were G05’s. In fact every G05 had a wobbly DVD-speed read-back and all the G04’s had smooth read-back. But the G04’s were older burns than the G05’s so this bodes very badly for the long term survival of this media. Considering most of these G05’s are only one or two months old I wouldn’t be surprised if many were unreadable within one year.

So I seems I need to treat G05’s like I did with Princo before, not trust them with anything important, never buy them again, and try to unload the ones that I currently have to people that I hate. .

Sorry you're having problems. Unfortunately, this is not all that unusual with Ritek -R of any generation. IMHO Ritek has a totally unearned reputation for good media, I wouldn't buy them at any price. The G04 and G03 were just as unreliable.

I also think we will start to see more of these problems with high speed media of all types, especially when not stored in ideal conditions.

At least you are not alone Click here. Currently I am re backing up all my Ritek burns with good old TY media.

Thanks for the info guys, so I know I'm not the only one.

BTW, can anyone suggest some good DVD-R media for my Pioneer 108? Currently I cant get TY locally though I'm thinking about mail ordering it. What other media would be good for my burner? BTW speed is not too important as I dont mind burning at 4x.

Maxell, made in Japan.

wow. More nails in the coffin for Ritek, it appears.

@uart

Where do you live? I've had good experiences with Fuji 8x DVD+R 50 pk from Best Buy (mid y000t02-00), and I've seen others like the DVD-R of the same kind (mid tyg02, I believe).

Australia.

So it seems like I need to look for something with genuine TY or maxwell mid codes.

BTW, what are the mid codes to look for with Maxwell?

Well, good Maxell mids could be Maxell002 or MXLRG20, but I'm trying to remember something I read about only having certain media available in Australia... I'll have to search, but hopefully someone will help you out before I can finish the search, since I have to leave for a bit...

[ADDED] Here's a thread on possibly good TY media. Although it's NZ, perhaps these brands might be in Australia too.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=112294

Yeah the fujifilm TY's are a pretty safe bet and I can get them locally. I can also order TY online at a better price.

About these Riteks I currently have. I've just got just the one spindle of G05's, they're the ones that are causing me grief. I've also got a full spindle of G04 (4x -R) and one of R02 (4x +R). So far these ones seem ok but after seeing how quickly the G05's are crapping out I'm not sure how safe any of these Riteks are anymore.

Does anyone know what the long term survival of the Ritek R02's (4x +R) is like. These ones are giving me pretty good scans straight after burning but I've not had them long enough to know about their long term prospects.

What brand are these Ritek G05 disc's ?

JB Hi-Fi are selling out all their Maxell MIJ 5packs (in jewel cases) at the price of 10 for $10.00. This is good media. Don't buy the 50 spindles as they are G05's.
Once this MIJ Maxell stuff is sold out it will not be replaced.

Yeah, I have never had any problems with the G04's.

The G05's I have had on the other hand have been difficult and unpredictable to burn.

Same with me lost about 70 DVD's with CRC errors some are ok but I dont trust them. The media was G05 Ridata white top printable. They were packaged in the red with white lable cake spindel thing. Very upset with this and i will never buy fkn Ritek again. The error seems to be at a change in the write speed and only affects one file on the dvd. Will be ordering some TY's or Verbatum/MCC online and hope they will clear up the problem.

*Note:* The first batch of G05's i got did not have Ridata Printed on the inner ring. These seem to be working fine with no problems.

I have close to 350 G04's with not one problem. The discs get alot of use from various burners and not one person has ever complained about the media.

These ones are "RiMedia" branded. In the past I've found them to be a good brand. With the earlier G04 and R02 media I always good experience with this brand, it's only the G05's that are deteriorating rapidly.

Oh dear Uart, I think you have sloppy factory seconds. These are most probably B or C grade from Rimedia.

Buy some Ricoh for good results! If not then TY or Maxell for excellent results!

RiMedia is a shop/distributor with their own line of media ( RiMedia brand ).
That is not an official Ritek brand, so a lower grade of media could be expected. ( even though their website says "A Grade Guaranteed" ).
You might want to contact them and request a refund since they are "A Grade Guaranteed".

One poster over at Videohelp.com feels that the issue has to do with the label glued to the top warping the disc and adding to the errors in reading. This would support his assumption as would my experience:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=112

I'll have to backup this Videohelp user's and CHa's opinions.

I noticed that when scanning medias when the burner is hot (long use, high room temperature..), I had poor results with all medias that have a "heavy" labelling. When the burner is cool, these medias give much better scans.

Like paper labels, these "heavy" company labels seem to add to the stress due to heat, now if this is from warping or from adding extra wobble or whatever else, I don't know.

Anyway RiMedia is indeed a below par brand, you never know what Ritek grade you get with these (and sadly Ritek seems to keep on selling B or even C grade discs to media companies - will they keep on doing that until Ritek's reputation is totally destroyed??). I have a friend who had similar trouble with Rimedia discs. Funny how they mimick the Ridata (genuine Ritek brand) logo, have you noticed?

If you really want Ritek discs, better stick with Traxdata. But there are many other alternatives, and with the prices drop, Verbatims and Maxells (!! made in Japan Maxells, of course) are a safer way to go...

So are the Ridata g05's affected as well? I recently picked up a 50 spindle of them.

This is the Ritek I am having trouble with. MID is RitekG05

I just returned Maxell MIT Media code Ritek G05 to Maxell USA. They scanned as corrupt media with Plextools.

Hehe. Mine ended up in the Auto stategy data base, I couldn't figure out why they wouldn't burn any faster than 4x in the Plex so did a little search and there it was.

The pack I bought was a "retail" version. I hope it isnt too affected, at least until I can back up the ones I've used.

I won't touch any MIT media at this point. I had great luck with Ritek G03/G04 discs and I still think that they are great media as I have had them for over two years and they all still work great, but I would not buy ANY Ritek media at this point given all of the mixed reviews.

TY -R, Verbatim -R, Sony -R (MIJ) Maxell -R (MIJ)