Bought a 50 cake of RiDisc media yesterday. They have a lighter blue label with a greenish tinge to it. The media code is CMCMAG_AE1.

Burned two discs one at 8x and one at 4x. Both didn't even get recognised as DVDs by my Panasonic standalone. They read ok in the DVD burner (Pioneer DVR-108 with 1.20 firmware) but in my Benq DVD-ROM drive the disc reading speed drops down to under 2x. I did some tests using DVDInfo Pro and noticed an alarming increase in parity error rates. Also double-checked by burning a disc using some of the older dark blue label stock I have left. No problems here and low error rates on scans, so it's definitely these new discs.

Had purple ones a while back, then the dark blue ones which both had the MCC02RG20 media code and then the silver matte finish printable ones that were CMCMAG_AE1 media code; never had any problems with any of the RiDisc brand until yesterday.

These discs have a silver inner ring *and* a silver outer edge ring on the burn side; the previous incarnations only had the inside ring. Quality of the spindle has deteriorated too, they've used thinner plastic. I've also noticed a rougher end edge quality on the discs themselves.

Now I'm hearing rumblings about Verbatim discs going down the Ritek route!

I wonder if the market for blank discs is slowing to the stage they're relying on cheaper grade material so they can keep in business.

Regards

TZ

Take ahold of your ritek dvd's.
Lift them about 3 feet off the ground.
Move toward the nearest trash can.
Hold dvd's directly above the can.
Drop dvd's.
Problem solved...

@harley2ride RiDisc != Ritek.
@TigerZai, I'm guessing that first batch of CMC MAG AE1 you got was just a better batch than the ones you have now. As for Verbatim going down the Ritek route, the reason for that is Verbatim no longer produces 8x media (all of the lines have been switched to 16x) but there is still market demand for it, so they have to supply discs from other manufacturers. You didn't mention what burner you have, but I'm sure you can use the 16x media at 8x, so the safe bet is Verbatim 16x which will always be MCC/MKM media.

Only the "Pearl White" Verbs are Ritek, the rest is still MCC and TY.

MCC 03RG20 is outstanding.

Buying Ridisc, Datawrite, Datasafe, Rimedia etc... is a lottery. Sometimes you're lucky, sometimes not...

Yup, steer clear of the e-net "budget" media. Lack of consistancy usually puts people off of it. I would go with the Verbatim Pastels if I were in the UK. Under 6.50 pounds including VAT for a 25 pack. Certainly not the price of the budget media you are currently using but then again cheap media isn't cheap if you are getting a bunch of coasters.

@Harley2ride:
They're not Ritek discs. RiDisc used to have "Manufactured by Ritek Taiwan" printed on them when they were affiliated with Ritek's G05 discs but production capacity and quality problems led them to use CMC Magnetics instead.

@Two Degrees:
The burner was a Pioneer DVR-108 with 1.20 official firmware. Regardless, the spindle is getting returned for a refund.

TZ

As a follow-up I've included some scans using DVDInfoPro.
The first image shows a scan from a RiDisc purple disc with the RITEKM02 media code that I burned a while back.



Next is an image from a burned disc out of the tub I just bought: RiDisc with CMCMAG AE1 media code.



I used my Pioneer DVR-108 drive to burn these discs and for the scans. I've seen that this model doesn't fair particularly well on scans but DVDInfoPro seems to support it and judging by the above, the results are quite shocking. Note that the scale on the PIE graph for the CMCMAG_AE1 discs has been doubled to show the data but I left the PIO data on the same scale.

As a sidenote, I called the retailer explaining that not only are the discs very poor quality but they didn't even get recognised by my DVD player. Subsequent burned discs on older RiDisc stock (MCC) still work without problem and get good scans. Their response was there wasn't much they could do because of the different dyes and compatibility problems with other devices. Bearing in mind I'm in the UK, the Sale of Goods Act here states that when a product doesn't fit the purpose for which it was manufactured then I'm entitled to a refund. It's quite reasonable to expect a burned DVD - given that other media work fine with the same source - to play back in a DVD player in my opinion. I explained this and they said they'd have to go through each disc to test them now where in the past they would have just returned them and offered the customer a refund or replacement. They said they now have to go through each disc because Trading Standards (a branch of the local council) approached them with a cake of discs for return that included a pirated movie. They accepted them back and offered replacement or a refund but got severely reprimanded because they accepted a pirated disc among a load of blank discs. Their stance now is that when I return them, the discs will be tested in their burner and tested on a DVD player for quality. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they'll do nothing and just say they worked when I return for the results.

Not only did they seem to have a somewhat defensive response as far as customer service is concerned, they also asked me what I used the discs for. When I explained that I make backup copies of my movies so I don't keep handling the originals, they said "Yeah right. That's what you're using them for. Uh-huh. 'Cos there's no point spouting on about your rights if you're breaking the law yourself" At that point the conversation verged on the point of redundancy. I wonder if I approach them with these scans and a friend of mine in Trading Standards that their direction may change. *sigh* Don't think I'll be using their store again.

Regards

TZ

CMCMAG AE1 also gave terrible results in my Pioneer 109.
I've also seen posts from members reporting poor compatibility of this mediacode with Pioneer drives.

As for the M02 disc, it's difficult to judge from a 108 scan. The PO peaks seems more to indicate scratches than a real burn quality problem. - or dye defects (check for these).

Sorry about your problems with the shop.
In England, if you want to keep on trying cheap discs, better shop from SVP as they really take the Sales of Goods Act seriously, they replace any product you're not happy with, for whatever reason, without discussion . Only with such an outstanding customer service as SVP's you may take the chance to play around with budget media. But even so it's always risky as there's not only immediate burn quality, but stability as well....

Buy good discs!