I bought a 50 pack of these as I was told they were made in Japan and are very goods discs. I was very unhappy when I saw that the media code was RITEKG05. The discs are 8x goldentops with green text. So are these really made in Japan or did I get screwd? Also are they better than Traxdata Riteks? I’ve had no problems with Traxdata +R R03 but the -R G05 I hear are not very good.
Ritek G05s are very erratic in quality. Some are OK and some have real problems. The only way to tell is burn and scan.
Wow, it said MIJ but was Ritek? Man, buyer beware, I guess. Haven’t come across one myself, but Ritek is known to vary in batches quite a bit. I’ve gone through two spindles of R03, one which was exceptional quality and burnt with a PIE max of 20, and another which burnt with a max around 100. Big difference!
Because of this, we can’t really say if they’re better or worse than Traxdata, since maybe one spindle of Traxdata is a good batch, another is bad, one spindle of this is good, another is bad… etc etc.
Oh, and it’s Maxell. (Sorry, big pet peeve)
The only way to tell the Maxell gold top DVD-R from the Ritek GO5 Gold top DVD-R is that the Maxell’s only say 4.7GB Data where as the riteks say 120min video and under that it says 4.7GB data. This both on the discs themself and packaging.
Good to know, but still, the package should have said Made In Taiwan.
A few months before I knew to look, I bought some Maxells 4x at Bestbuy.
When I checked later there was a made in Taiwan sticker over the made in Japan printed on the outside wrapper.
They were RITEKG04.
Maybe the sticker fell off your package :Z
What does it say on your spindle? Made in Taiwan or Japan?
I think there should have been a sticker over the MIJ saying MIT instead. Looks like they screwed that up, or someone removed it possibly.
It is known that the MIT stickers sometimes don’t make their way onto taiwanese spindles, for some reason. Maybe Maxell should make a label that actually says MIT, no stickers required! 
Where do you live, and where did you buy these?
I had the exact same thing happening to me two weeks ago. Came across a “made in japan” spindle with G05 discs inside. Brought them back. :a
Made in Japan Maxells are MXLRG03. Ritek is made in Taiwan.
Either Maxell had a glitch with packing, either they’re starting to be as unreliable as some other brands. :a
G05’s are actually very good when they’re A-grade (though I’m not implying in any way that Maxell branded G05 are A-grade, I DON’T KNOW) but they have compatibility issues.
If it’s clearly written “Made in Japan” on the pack, BRING THEM BACK, you’ve been abused.
Yes it does say Made in Japan on the pack but I don’t trust that very much anyway. That’s why I always ask before I buy and I was assured they were indeed made in Japan. Now that I’ve called them about it they explained me that they were made by Ritek with Ricoh Japan technology, know-how and quality control or something like that.
Thanks for the tip, mine are the 120 min ones, I’ll know from now on.
Well I wouldn’t deal with those suppliers any more because they deliberately lied to you (and are still making lies and bullshit excuses to cover it up). I think you should insist that they take them back.
BTW, The Ritek G05 spindle I got was some of the worst media that I’ve ever used, even worse than Princo and that is no joke. But someone on another forum told me that the Maxwell/ritek stuff was a lot better. I dont know if it’s true but this person said they used a different dye and a different letter in the serial number on the hub. My G05’s for example have a serial that starts “H5-08L23…” but I’ve been told that the Maxwell branded riteks have an “…Axx…” code instead of the “L23” that mine have in the serial. I dont know how much better the “A” code ones are compared with the “L” code ones that I’ve got. I can however tell you one thing for sure, mine are pure trash (and I mean that literally because I had to throw the whole spindle in the garbage). Anyway, after that experience I’ll never buy another ritek disk as long as I live.
The return of Maxwell. Wonder if they are related to Maxell… 
I’ve not seen that the Maxell Ritek G05s burn better than the regular Ritek Ritek G05, but I have had 3 Riteks (so far) start failing just after being burned two months ago. However, there have been no error increases on the Maxell RitekG05s I have that I have tested yet.
When I got those Maxells (that I thought were Maxells, as it was my pre-‘read labels carefully stage’), they were at Staples and did say clearly MIT on the side. Had I known about MIT then, I would have taken both spindles back fully unused (I was only able to have them refund one, since that one wasn’t used and only had the wrapping off it).
Otherwise, yeah: if you see MIJ on a Maxell package with no sticker over it, and they don’t come up mid Maxell002 or MXL… then take it back asap for a refund and tell the ppl they’re selling fakes, too.
I picked up a 50pk spindle today at Office Depot (Tennessee) since they had them at $18 a spndle.I got the DVD-R and the package is a blue to lite blue with a white at the top. The disc’s are the gold ones. It has Maxwell with DVD-R on the left side of the disc. On the right side it has 8x/4.7gb/2hrs. The bar code clearly states Made in Japan in three languages. Since I can’t test them is there any need to worry?
Kenny J.
It’s Maxell. 
You shouldn’t have any troubles with Japanese Maxell’s.
Could somebody with these Maxwell Riteks G05’s please post the serial number on the hub.
As I said above my RiMedia Ritek G05’s have a serial that starts “H5-08L23…” and I’ve been told that the Maxwell ones are different in that they have an “Axx” in place of where the “L23” is in my serial. Can somebody please confirm this.
Well it might be a factor, because all my G04’s have an “Axx” code in the serial and none of them are degrading like my G05’s currently are.
I have maxell DVD-R 8X and the code in the inner ring is J4-13A03… I guess maxell is selling various kind of dvds.
By the way, anyone know what DVD+R maxell is distributing.
As a side note, Maxwell is a coffee brand made by Kraft Company
Yeah that’s what I was talking about, they’re the “A03” dye instead of the seemingly more crappy “L23” dye that I have. Of course I don’t really know that “A03” or “L23” actually has anything to do with the dye, that’s just what someone in another forum told me.
As a side note, Maxwell is a coffee brand made by Kraft Company
Doh of course, Maxell not Maxwell. My bad :o
The code on mine is J4-02A035… so I guess these Ritek G05s are indeed different than the Traxdata/RiData ones and hopefully of better quality.