Taiyo Yuden vs. Ritek

[mookydooky]

Anyone have an opinion on which DVD+R and DVD-R are better? I'm planning to get some and I would like to have somewhat of an informed opinion. Are there any other manufacturers I should be looking for? Tell me everything you know. I need to get up to speed on this really fast since I will be buying a lot.

[cloasters]

Are these drives rebadged for sale in the US?

[SteveI]

Originally Posted by cloasters

Are these drives rebadged for sale in the US?

Mooky is talking about the disks themselves.
Ritek is a company in Taiwan that has been manufacturing DVD+/-Rs and CDRs for years. They are huge, and sell high mid and low grade CDRs as generics or to other companies that rebadge them. A lot of low grade CDRs were out there a few years ago, and many think that all Riteks are bad as a result. At the moment, a lot of people think that Ritek DVDs are good.. same thing.

I have a bunch of Fuji DVD-R that are rebadged riteks. They are 2x and suck big time.

Taiyo Yuden, I think are a Japanese mfgr of DVD-/+R and CDRs. Because they are a bit smaller than Ritek, they have always focused on the higher grade stuff only. This has left their products with a good reputation (which I tend to accept since I don't know all that much).

A while back, Fuji CDRs were mostly Taiyo Yuden, and a quick way to identify it was "Made In Japan" on the cover. The rule of thumb I followed was if it was made in Japan, get it. If if was made in Taiwan, avoid it. AFAIK, TY is the only Japanese mfgr of CD and DVD blanks.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

[cloasters]

Thank you for explaining this, SteveI. I'm told that Fuji Made in Japan CD-R's are solid gold. You pay for them, though. If they are on sale, buy, buy, buy! Silly me, I thought Fuji made their own blanks.

Then there's the PITA that different burners like different "virgin vinyl," or at least used to. That dates me!