Ok, I have been an avid princo fan for a long time now and it seemed to me that was the dominate brand used by sellers here (err now **********)
and they always worked fine for me no problems.

Now though I have burned about 10 of the "true 2x" princos from allmedia outlet and they all seem to be defective. They have like these smears in the burned part, like an unburned section. Make any sense?

I'm guess it's a bad batch of disc's or maybe my burner going bad.

But I now see a lot of support for the "ritek" brand.

I never thought much of them, I did not like them because they were silver tops.

But many people seem to claim these are superior to princo.

I was just wondering people's thought's as I am thinking of steering away from the princo brand.

Are there any suggestions for cheaper but reliable media similar to princo?

I noticed Rima is carrying optodisc and price is about the same as princo/ritek. Any comments on that brand???

I am a Ritek convert as well. Princos have been hit and miss for me but Riteks work every time and in every player. The color of the top of the disc doesn't matter one bit. What matters is the dye used on the writing surface. Riteks use a dark purple dye which are well known for having high reflectivity for DVD lasers (hence the high compatibility) whereas Princo's lighter purple dye isn't quite as reflective. I would definitely spend a little bit more to have the Ritek dependability. Riteks work well in even the pickiest of DVD Players. One again Ritek is my vote.

Moving this to CoOp.

Yep, Riteks are the shiznet. I've used them from day one and researched it. Most people are at a consensus on many different forms that the Riteks are the best generic media out there. Princos are cheap and have quality issues. In fact, I heard that the copied the TDK code and made some people think they were getting TDKs. I would steer away from Princo. Best price I've seen or Riteks are from Rima.com for $115 delivered in the US. Good luck!

Ritek all the way. Works on every dvd player that I have tried on.

Optodisc hasn't been used by many users since it is almost as expensive as Ritek and it only burns at 1x (Versus the Riteks burning at 2x on most DVD Burners). The reports I have heard from the few who are using them say that they work Great but since the cost differential is minimal then I would just spend a little bit of extra to have the dependability of a well known and tried brand (not to mention having the 2x option).

hi,
i work in a small computer retail store and we sell around 2,000 DVD's per day to passing trade. Most of our customers are using them for movies, say no more....;) . I find that about 80% of customers that know what they are talking about prefer Ritek die disks. Anything that has Ritek die they will buy because they DO play in most DVD players. We do stock bulkpaq and Clone with the Princo dies but only a small percentage of our customers prefer them over ritek. The princo followers prefer the silver top ones soley because the have the TDK thermal printer for printing on to the disks. The white top clone's with princo die in 1x, 2x and 4x speed tend to sell quit well but not as fast as Traxdata with ritek die.
On my home usage i use 2x Traxdata with ritek die or 1x purple bulkpaq both work well on my JVC DVD stand alone player but the Traxdata loads and plays faster.

Is it true that Ritek's darker purple dye is alot better then Princo's light one? I Disc like Apple have a very dark purple bottom so I figure the darker the better. Also Ritek cost more then princo. The store around here sell princo for a dollar and ritek for 2. Princo will have some bad batch once in a while, it's not common to burn 8-10 coaster in a row, so get a new batch.

Is the Ritek media you are talking about 4x or the 1x/2x discs? The 1x/2x Ritek discs run between $1.30-$1.40 a disc from Rima or Allmediaoutlet (ground shipping included) for a 25 pack. If you order in a pack of 100 then you are talking about $1.10-$1.20 a disc+shipping. With the new hacked firmware for the Pioneer105/A05 these discs burn perfectly at 2x (Yes even for those of us with Cendyne burners). So when you take a look at those options they aren't that much more than your Princos. And if you take into account the number of coasters you mentioned per pack it makes it almost negligable. If Princos work for you then great but, I won't recommend them to anyone because I have seen a growing list of problems with them.

RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK RITEK.

Princo make cheapo discs. Perhaps for CDR they're ok because CDR dyed has evolved to quite a stable formula. But at present, PS2 and DVD players love Ritek. full stop.

I will also vouch for them working great on the XBOX.

PRINCO. No problems with them at all and the Silver Tops of Ritek easily peel and scratch making the disc unusuable!

i've never had a problem w/ princo. i only use mine on xbox though, so my experience is limited in that regard.

Originally posted by RedHerring24
PRINCO. No problems with them at all and the Silver Tops of Ritek easily peel and scratch making the disc unusuable!

Are you sure these are Ritek Silvertop?

All the silvertop I've had are not like the old flaky ones of the past, true they are silver topped but they still have a plastic thermal seal. When I started buying them I tried a destruct test on 1 as I didnt want to buy a load of cr*p. I used a dart to sctatch the top plastic and despite putting a lot of pressure on it I never managed to penetrate the plastic and get through to the Dye.
I've had hundreds of silvertop and have NEVER had one peel or blister.

Princo on the over hand are sh!te. Just started a bundle of 100 of the Datawrite Pink 4x (princo Dye) first 3 spat out as coasters. 1 on the lead in and 2 during the burn. That'll teach me to stray from the path of Ritek.

You a princo victim too? I'm sorry. Ritek silvertops rule!!!!!!