Would you keep this DVD?

Blank Media
#1

Howdy all.

A short premise: I’ve been burning DVD’s since almost 3 years now, first with an LG GSA4081B and now with an LG GSA4160B. Those burners don’t support PI/PO quality scans, therefore I always selected my DVD blank media based on this forum suggestions but mostly on their play-ability on my readers (a Philips and a Samsung home theater, an LG LH4280V standalone burner, a Pioneer DVD-106 reader on the PC).

I used for a long time Ritek G04 4x DVD-R’s, which played well on all my units and still are well readable after 1-2 years. I moved to Verbatim MCC003 DVD+R 8x when they came out, now I’m using Verbatim CMC MAG E01 DVD+R 8x which replaced the MCC003 on EU market.

Now, to the point: I borrowed a Lite-On unit this week-end and tested a few of my new and old discs. I ran into this DVD (a RiDisc Ritek G04 burned on the GSA 4180B 18 months ago) and I noticed that the scan is quite “bad”.

Would you keep this disc or re-burn it, if the data were relatively important to you? The disc still runs perfectly on all my PC drives

Consider that now I’m getting THIS sort of scans with the Verbatim’s:

#2

You need to rescan these at 4X in order to tell.

#3

Scan at 4x speed instead of max for relaible results. I would toss the Ritek.

#4

If it was your important data, I’d keep it…If it were my important data, I’d reburn it. Keeping two copies is cheap insurance anyway.

#5

The scan at 4x is even worse… I’ll re-burn it :rolleyes:

#6

I highly recommend you use those Ridiscs as coffee mugs coasters once you are finished backing them up.

Those are pretty bad scans - even for Ritek - Either you ended up with crappy media to start with or it got worse - either way I’m surprised you can still play this on your DVD player with PIFs so high :slight_smile:

#7

Greg, that’s exactly the point.

I have HUNDREDS of those Ritek media, that I burned in more than one year of activity. I took some samples here and there, different contents and labels (Ridata, Ridisc, printables, etc…) and:

[ul]
[li]ALL of them still play very well on any standalone or PC reader that I own
[/li][li]ALL of them have similar scans
[/li][/ul]
so… this is the real question: how much would you spend, in money and time, if you were me?

PS:
Meanwhile, I re-burned the above DVD and got a much better result… see below

#8

I DARE you to scan that CMC a year or two from now :smiley: I am almost willing to bet some money that it will be a different picture! :smiley:

As far as what I would do, I think it’s obvious, you have very good DVD players :smiley: Second, I would back those up on media that is not considered landfill material, just for safety, I mean there doesn’t seem to be any POFs on your disc YET…only a matter of time…those PIF totals are amazingly high :smiley:

Anyhow what you do is up to you but personally I would not stick to such media, with all the crap about RITEK I don’t think I can say I trust that media anymore.

If you have old RITEKs burnt in the 2002-2003 years I would personally feel safe…but with the CRAP being sold today and companies cutting corners, I would play it safe and stick to TY, and there again, even so would keep double backups.

I mean who were they kidding when they said CD and DVDs will replace tape media and offer better longevity, that was a blatant LIE :smiley: I mean you’d be surprised that all my tape backups are error free and kicking ! I still think tape is the choice for archivals. Good o’l 16mm DAT tape backups… I mean even a crappy metal oxide low end 8mm tape will probably outlast the best media out there today! This is quite pathetic… I would hate to think how those BluRay and HD-DVDs will hold up :smiley:

Sorry for the rant - just had to get it out :smiley:

#9

Ritek G05s have a history of decay over time. Sorry to hear your G04s are doing the same. Once again, you remind me why I should avoid Ritek at any price.

#10

Actually I HAD problems with Ritek, but not when I used the G04’s : as soon as I tried the G05’s I had so many coasters and tracking errors that I scrapped the whole lot and moved to Verbatim, although doubling the price at the time.

I hope that G04’s won’t take their reveng over time :rolleyes:

#11

Just to clarify, Ridisc are not the same thing as Ritek/Ridata as they are budget media distributed by e-net. Well known for overprints, inconsistant quality, ect.

#12

It don’t matter who you buy em from
Riteks are pretty much all the same

#13

You just keep on believing that buddy. :wink:

#14

Not sure about that. CMC has shown being stable in a couple of climatic tests.

About the G04, I already explained many times that Ritek started making lower quality G04 sometime in 2004. Depending on batches and sources, you have stable or non-stable G04. It’s a lottery. My own G04 discs bought before november 2004 are stable. Most of those I bought after that have a fast PIE/PIF increasing rate :(. And the worst part is that they all burn fine to start with (great scans actually) so you tend to trust them… :a

#15

For important data I generate PAR2 volumes and save them on discs… in addition to making two copies :wink: