New Sony DVD+R Now Ritek Confirmed

[msmaiden]

I humbly apologize if this is a repeat.

I simply want to confirm that my 100 cake box is useless now - for me anyways.

I have always purchase the silver TY's for transferring family stuff from VHS-C and mini DV's but used Sony and Verbatim for everything else like movies etc

Last night I used my last disc of the 100 I bought at BJ's Wholesale Club a while back. They are only selling Memorex now so I picked up a 100 pack at Staples, I've also bought them there in the past.

I opened the new package popped a disc in the burner LG ( model GH22LS40 SATA) and a night filled with "Failed To Burn " errors began. Disc after disc, I tried them from the mid and bottom of the stack too and nothing worked.
I tried three different software programs to convert and still coasters.

Then I tried an old Verbatim, success! It wasnt the burner after all.
So I read on Amazon that Daxon no longer makes the discs. Sure enough, using DVD Identifier the new ones say RITEK F16 001. The old ones using DVD ID say SONY. I then found this site and read over the Blank Media Quality Review page. What an eye opener to say the least although I already knew to stay away from the super cheap stuff.

I do have a small cake box of Memorex that were kicking around from my brother, they say RITEK and wont work either.

Im NOT saying these RITEK Sony are total crap, well for my burner they are, but they probably are fine for most folks. My burner is a few years old but has not failed me until now. I almost bought a new one today thinking it was the problem.

It's just maddening when I think about all the Sony I have used, 400 plus discs with maybe 5 failures. Im not exaggerating on that either. They were always good to me.

So I go to order some Verbatim on line and read that their quality has also suffered, no wonder the ones Im using burn every time, they're several years old and Mitsubishi Chemical 004 . Guess it will have to be TY's for everything from now on. I certainly dont mind paying for quality, I just didnt think Id have to use them for the every day stuff.

BTW, these new RITEK Sony's will work in my Sony DVD Direct unit however Im not going to use them. Maybe I can pawn them off on my brother.

Thank you for having this site, Im learning alot .

[admin]

Some of my reply pulls heavily from these site articles:
- Review: Blank DVD Media Quality Review / Best Blank DVDs
- Forum Post: The Best and Worst DVD burners - DVD Burner Reviews for 2011
- Forum Post: Which Verbatim brand DVDs should I get at a retail store? Which are MCC?

Quote:

Im NOT saying these RITEK Sony are total crap, well for my burner they are, but they probably are fine for most folks. My burner is a few years old but has not failed me until now. I almost bought a new one today thinking it was the problem.

The issue with Ritek is that they've had various media recipes through the years -- most of them rather disappointing in terms of coaster ratio, as well as playback/reflectivity issues for the "good" burns.

RitekF coded media is based on the newer Fuji oxonol dye -- the "F" in the ID. I don't remember the exact timeline, but oxonol has only been used in DVD-R and DVD+R for maybe 4-5 years now. Remember that DVD-R(G) dates back to 2001, and DVD+R to 2002. Some of the early FUJIFILM coded media was rather disappointing, as were some others based on this tech.

However, the RitekF has proven itself to be pretty decent. A "sub-archival" disc, excellent for general non-archive usage. The media guides on digitalFAQ.com are in the midst of an expansion and remodeling, and RitekF media will be included in a new "2nd Class" that squeezes between the existing 2nd Class (soon to be 3rd Class), along with FTI and Prodisc.

Of course, if your burner refuses to cooperate, it probably doesn't make much difference. Which leads us into the next point...

Quote:

burner LG ( model GH22LS40 SATA)

An LG burner is rather poor, with known well-document cases online of media failing to be recognized, excessive coasters (even with high grade MCC or TY media), and simply being all-around stubborn and wasteful (of both time and blank discs).

That you can get an MCC disc to work with it successfully is almost a streak of good luck. LG drives habitually reject MCC media, and it's something I've seen on dozens of drives, from 2005-2010.

Quote:

So I go to order some Verbatim on line and read that their quality has also suffered

I don't know what you read, but that's not correct. Verbatim has sadly diluted it's own brand name by outsourcing a new low-grade "Life Series" and "Value Series" media under their brand. However, non-Life, non-Value media is still that same excellent archival-grade MCC as it has always been.

Quote:

Guess it will have to be TY's for everything from now on.

TY media tends to work in less burners/recorders and players than MCC media. That's why it falls under MCC on our review guide. Given that you have the infamous LG brand/manufacture of drive, there's always a chance TY will be a spindle full of coasters -- no better than the Sony RitekF discs. So watch for that.

Again, give these three pages a good read:
- Review: Blank DVD Media Quality Review / Best Blank DVDs
- Forum Post: The Best and Worst DVD burners - DVD Burner Reviews for 2011
- Forum Post: Which Verbatim brand DVDs should I get at a retail store? Which are MCC?


If you have any further questions on digital video, digital photo, or anything else computer related, don't hestitate to ask, and make a new post.

Thanks.

[msmaiden]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

I realize the LG burner has lousy ratings and I didnt have high hopes for it when I bought it. It was a replacement for the Samsung that died after 2 weeks. I needed a burner that day and this was the only SATA drive at Best Buy which is the only retail option locally.

That was about two years ago after my brother built my computer so I can say that this particular burner has been a true work horse. The discs consistently play in all five of the various dvd units throughout the house, even the super old Mustek and super fussy Samsung combo player.

I will see what happens when I burn a TY disc later in this unit, they are 8X DVD-R which the LG paperwork recommends. As this unit has been good to me I wont replace it yet, when I have to I will read your Best & Worst Burner Guide. Im glad to know it's there

It was on both NewEgg and Amazon that some of the recent reviews commented that they ended up with quality issues even with the non -Value and non- Life. However I think I will take a chance and order a pack of the +R today.

The reason I use the Ty's for the home movie transfers to basically to have a digital backup copy as I have the master tapes in a secure fire safe. I havent really tested their playback on all the units, I will now thanks to your warning.

Thank you again for the helpful info, I appreciate your time and expertise

[NJRoadfan]

So far, so good with the last batch of Verbatim media I got from Newegg. The -Rs were MIT while the +Rs were Made in UAE.

[msmaiden]

Hey thanks for the heads up, I think Ill order the -R's from NewEgg today

[admin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by msmaiden

some of the recent reviews commented that they ended up with quality issues

Never forget that user reviews are often heavily biased due to limitations in the knowledge of the person leaving said review. For example, I've seen reviews where a person has given one star to blank DVDs because it didn't work in a CD burner or DVD reader -- which wasn't stated explicitly, but was still somewhat obvious.

Media is often blamed for other issues related to burning or playback hardware, or sometimes even the way data was prepared before it was burned. If anything is bad (or even just imperfect) in the entire process, from creation to playback, there may be issues. The disc is often the patsy, the fall guy, even when the disc is not to blame.

On the other hand, never forget there is a lot of bad media out there.

But when comments start to turn against known-good media, like Mitsubishi MCC coded discs under the Verbatim non-Life/non-Value brand, then you need to look deeper. In all likelihood, you'll detect any number of blame-game mistakes, or even outright displays of stupidity and ignorance.

If you do run into issues, trust that it will be that LG drive.

Also remember that drives age. People often wonder how long discs will last, but the more bothersome issue to archivists is how long the readers/players will last. Discs tend to last decades, while drives are lucky to get a half decade lifespan. In two years, with or without moderate use, the drives can decay due to environment and wear.

People who smoke in home/office also kill their optics gear in a short timespan, as the laser eye gets "lung cancer" -- tar buildup that destroys it permanently. I've seen it many times.

[msmaiden]

I went ahead and ordered two more 100 cake boxes of Verbatim +R's from Amazon. I had received my order the day before of 100 +R's and the package was made in Taiwan so I ordered the extra two.

Also decided to stick with +R's as that is what the LG burner recommends.
When the new discs arrived Tuesday I was disappointed to find Made in India on both packages.

However I remembered what you said about the bias against Indian made media. I checked the disc ID, MCC 004, and decided "what the hell".

I want to thank you for the advice. So far I've burned several dozen discs without a problem. And this is using perhaps the crappiest burner out there
I cant attest to the quality of the finished discs except that they look ok on my both PC and TV.

Thanks again for your words of wisdom

Oh and per your advice I kept the RitekF Sony discs for the day I have to replace this burner.


BTW I have burned quite a few TY's with this LG and there were no coasters