Ritek Dye RITEKM02
Its over a year ago I published an article referring to Ritek discontinuing the well loved G03, G04 & G05 dye formulation, and on the forum I published it in I was ridiculed that Ritek would even think of such a thing.
Well it has happened and the first disc I come across is RIDATA printable media with the MID code RITEKM02 it is recognised as a 4x speed disc and the writing layer is a light purple and not the deep purple we all love. The printing surface covers 42mm inner to 118mm, leaving a 1mm gap around the edge, the inner has a 4mm silver ring leaving the centre clear with the logo RIDATA printed on it. The discs look well made and most drives recognised them as 4x speed media and burnt accordingly. The discs played back fine in my DVD players until the last few minutes when playback started to falter.
Here are the Disc Quality scans
The PIE error rate is smooth with only a steady increase towards the outer edge but the PIF shows a sharp increase at the edge of the disc indicating there may be a problem in this area. 75% of my error graphs show a similar pattern after the 4gig point but up to this point I could not wish for a better one.
Speed tests
To be fair I have shown a selection graphs to show the extremities of the range of quality which shows
1 A perfect burn.
2 A burn with faltering towards the outer edge and
3 A burn which failed to read at the outer edge
I printed various labels on the discs with my Epson R300 printer and the printing was nice and clear onto the matt white surface.
Conclusion
I was a bit disappointed when I discovered that Ritek had changed from a trusted and proven dye formula and after sampling the discs I was justified. The burn quality of these discs up to the 3.5-4gig area is excellent but after 4gigs I am afraid it is generally a no go area. So if you plan to burn the media to its outer limit I would give this disc a miss because in my tests at least 75% either failed after the 4gig mark or were close to doing so.
Added: Thursday, September 30, 2004 Reviewer:Flash
