"not my forum -- but i think posting links to "deals" not a good idea .. first , many people from others countries , second , alwasy good deals somewhere , third -- i know of issues with some of those good deals , but i am not aboutto warn everyone everytime i see one of these posts ... "


Happens here all the time and there are many that like to be made aware of good deals. Picked up a couple hard drive deals that I have seen here on the forum. No one else ever seem to object to the deal alerts.

Check this one at Staples today:
DVD media spindle
Save $25. SPECIAL BUY.
$24.94
25/pack
Valid Apr 25 - May 8

http://instorespecials.staples.com/staples/default.aspx?action=detail&storeid=2363226&rapid=0&pagenumber=0&listingid=-2098202039&offerid=&ref=%2fstaples%2fdefault.aspx%3faction%3dbrowsecategoryall%26storeid%3d2363226%26ViewMode%3d0%26StartRow%3d19

well fine -- other than the first post being b stock grade and the second "deal" post being even MUCH worse CMC media ... i guess if you are after the cheap stuff -- ok

but then people who post problems with compatablity issues, skipping, bad burns, life of disk and coasters shoudln't wonder where thier problems are comming from ..

Your critisism of the products in question are welcome. People here would be happy to learn from your experience. Add your information to the mix, but I wouldn't tell folks what to post.

What are the problems with the G04 Riteks? I ordered some last week, and your comment concerns me.

The only issues I know of are these:

Some DVD-R media are fakes. Looking at the ID code with a tool like this:

DVD Speed

can usually tell you if the media is what it claims to be, although there was an infamous case a year ago where Meritline got a bunch of bogus Maxell discs that had a valid Maxell ID, but turned out to be forgeries.

The second issue is murkier. There is supposedly an "a" grade and "b" grade. I think that is what B_JM is referring to. I am not sure, however, what it really refers to, or how you can tell the difference, or even if there really is a difference. Someone else can chime in and fill in the details.

As for Ritek G04, they are the king of the inexpensive media, and most people report great success (I have burned hundreds of them without any problem). I buy most of mine from Meritline who usually get the media to me within a day (I live in California where they are based). Other people, however, swear a blue streak whenever you mention their name.

Never heard of "B" stock. Where'd that come from? I've used Ritek discs and burned 100s--never a problem.

J--

i help run a little website called dvdrhelp.com -- we monitor and keep track of all media/codes and quality issues .. along with a lot of other things ..

recently there have been MANY reports of bad ritek g04's -- i have also had this confirmed by 2 separate very large suppliers .. The thing is - i used them also exclusivly and recomended them to everyone ..
There are in reality 4 grades of riteks.
One of the suppliers has had a huge number of returns of one lot - it seems to be hit or miss and is dependent on a number of disk factors.

we use about 1000 - 2000 blanks a month, switching now to Taiyo Yuden brand. Also sold as Verbatim DataLifePlus AZO Pastel Disc.

I prefer TDK, although you pay a lot more for the quality. I have used TDK since the old cassette days, and have found their DVD disks to be excellent. I use other brands as well, recently computergeeks.com had some "unbranded" TDKs which work fine, but I've has some problems with other brand names not burning at 2x, just 1x. So basically, for important projects, it's worth the money IMHO to get a good brand name with a good track record.

Just my 2 cents :-)

yes - you can get some good disks from TDK , but TDK ussually doesnt make them ... DVD disks labeled "TDK" are made by 16 different companies ..

some are the worse disks on the planet and some are very good and they can be marked the same .. TDK is not the only one doing this ..

some TDK's are ritek G04's even -- as well some are maxell .. some are the ones i now use also ... see for yourself:

tdk media codes

A "little site" called dvdrhelp.com....heh. I don't know what your role is, but high praise for maintaining the best resource of its kind.

Can you explain why you switched to Taiyo Yuden? I haven't heard of that brand before, but you must have read many positive reviews. I'd be willing to try them, especially since I see they offer the new silver inkjet printable surface.

I hope you hang around as a resident DVD-R brand specialist. It's so hard to find up-to-date, objective comparisons.

I am a moderator there and on some other sites related .. i post here and there and elsewhere as BJ_M or B_JM ussually ..

switched to Taiyo Yuden because of excellent reputation .. they make the disks also for some other highly regarded brands ..

downside is they are almost 2x the price of ritek G04's

i just bought a small quality (1000 pieces) to give them a shot ..... but they have had a very good user loyality so far ..

see the article on videoguys site about dvd disk quality -- a little out of date but informitive ..

Never heard of "B" stock. Where'd that come from?

That was my question earlier, and it hasn't been answered yet. Actually, I had heard the term, but no one has defined it. Obviously, it implies that the vendor has various different grades, but how does anyone really know? Unless there is some definitive test, it sounds like an Internet "urban legend" to me, probably started by some competitor.

That said, I am very interested in the possible decline in quality of Ritek G04. It sure would be nice if there was a way to quantify this. The DVDrHelp site is an absolutely amazing resource -- the best thing of its kind on the Internet -- but obviously the users there run the gamut from rocket scientist to people that should be permanently launched into space. As an example, if you read the posts there (and at Doom, and at Club CD Freaks, and at AfterDawn, and at Burnworld, etc.) you get lots of opinions, but precious few facts based on tests.

Any of these sites can be really biased by a few people who have strong opinions, even if they don't have actual scientific testing to back up those opinions. Also the player and media databases are only as good as the people who report. Lots of people report failed media, yet it could be any number of other factors that really caused the failure.

I wish Ralph LaBarge would publish the follow-up work to his excellent DVD media compatibility study he did several years ago. We discussed this here a few weeks ago.

All I can say is that, from my end here, I haven't seen any change in the appearance or performance of G04 blanks purchased over the past 18 months. I just got shipment of 50 more from www.meritline.com, and I'll pull out out and burn it tomorrow morning (though such a simple test won't tell much).

Again, if the DVD Identifier on these disks says "Ritek G04" then I don't know how the heck one would be able to say that there are different grades of these things. Is there verifiable documentation that some batches are of lower quality than others?

I did a few minutes of Googling around, and came across pages such as this one.

As far as I can tell, this fellow is implying that these various disks appear to have a Ritek identifier on them, and the quality is obviously crappy. But to me, the only Ritek disks I have ever seen are either clear or frosted (or printable white, but I've never bought any of those).

So I guess I'd have to say that as long as you stick with regular sources of supply and specify "Ritek" as the vendor, things should be fine.

Incidentally, I broke open the latest batch of 50 disks that I recently bought and pulled a half-dozen at random. The purple backs look absolutely flawless. In fact, the only time I have EVER seen physical defects on a disk were on some GQ DVD-r blanks I bought two years ago. On a few of those, you could see little spots where the dye sort of flowed around as it was applied, I'm assuming, by some sort of spinning process.

I am brand new to the video editing thing, and I was wondering what B_JM meant by "B Grade Ritecks". Is there some kind of quality grade assigned to blank media? If so, what is the minimum I should look for and how do I know what the "grade" of the media is? I will only be making home movies and would like to make copies of my daughter's movie DVDs.

I want to apologize in advance because I know this is not the right forum for this discussion, but I hope B_JM reads this or someone else that can help me.
Thanks,
Ray

BJM, you still haven't explained HOW you know these things. What evidence can you provide? In a court of law, your comments are nothing more than "hearsay," which would be "inadmissible."

J--

"... you get lots of opinions, but precious few facts based on tests."

Exactly, John, and I am of the "opinion" that that's what we're getting here!

J--

I've contacted Ritek via e-mail and asked if they do indeed produce "graded" DVD discs. Will post the reply when it arrives.

J--

Luxo, so long as you ordered your discs from a reputable dealer, you have nothing to fear. Thousands of people have used millions of Ritek discs without any problems. Ritek has a sterling reputation!

J--

On their web site, Taiyo Yuden claims they are "The company that pioneered recordable CD technology...". What a crock! Tell that to Philips, Mitsubishi, Hitachi and Sony.

See: http://www.oneoffcd.com/info/historycd.cfm

Companies and/or individuals that make statements like the above tells me everything I need to know about them and/or their products!

J--

VideoCurmudgeon - unless you know what you are talking about -- you better not post ...

"The CD-R was invented in 1988 by the Japanese company Taiyo Yuden. First CD-Rs were produced in 1994. Among the first manufacturers were the companies Taiyo Yuden, Kodak, Memorex, Maxell, and TDK. Since then, the CD-R was further improved to allow writing speeds as fast as 52x and even 54x relative to the first 1x CD-Rs. The improvements were mainly due to optimisation of special dye compositions for CD-R, groove geometry, and the dye coating process. Low-speed burning at 1x is still used for special "audio CD-Rs", since CD-R audio recorders got standardized to this recording speed. "

the above from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD-R

many other sources on the web if you care to check ..

BJM, you're in no position to tell anyone who can and can't post. All I did was post what I found. You did the same. I stand corrected.

You still haven't provided the source for your claim that Ritek produces graded disc. We're still waiting. At least I'm willing to admit to my mistake.


J--