Expert’s Rating
Pros
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Our Verdict
Roxio ’s Toast has long been the gilt measure for going beyond the character of disk - burn capabilities that Apple has built into the Mac OS . In recent years , Toast has expanded beyond that purpose into media transition and extraction .
Toast Titanium 10 ( ) , for exercise , add together the power to distil clips from unprotected DVDs ; preserve and change vane - based Flash television ; archive AVCHD files from camcorder ; win over audiobook CD for iTunes or iPod / iPhone playback ; transport television to a TiVo DVR ; and capture and tag audio from external sources .
InToast 11 , the late version of the $ 100 CD / videodisc burning and TV conversion software , big changes include a newfangled user interface , built - in tutorials , multiple burner support , caption suport , and hardware - wait on video encoding .
Toast’s Software Update window shows you what’s new and lets you updates without downloading huge disc images.
As in the past , Toast also include a clustering of additional apps : Disc Cover 3 RE , DiscCatalogMaker RE , Get Backup 2 RE , Mac2TiVo ( for transmit files to a TiVo DVR ) and TiVo Transfer ( for pulling content off your TiVo ) , and a raw version of Spin Doctor ( formerly CD Spin Doctor ) . The Streamer app is no longer included , however .
Here ’s how the young version menu .
Installing and updating
The first change longterm users of the software will remark select place very early on . Rather than a folder you sweep to your Applications folder , there ’s now an installer . While not a full-grown deal in itself , it does signal an of import change to the way Roxio plow the various apps in the Toast package .
Toast ’s Software Update window shows you what ’s Modern and lets you updates without downloading immense disc images .
With previous versions , any sentence there was an update to Toast and/or its bundled apps , you ’d have to log into the Roxio site , download a disc image with the entire cortege of apps ( even if nothing changed in the bulk of them ) , and then replace your Toast folder with the updated pamphlet . I ’ve always found this summons to be annoying and needlessly complicated . With Toast 11 , that bother is a thing of the past . pledge and many of the include apps now take vantage of theSparkleupdate - ascertain and -installing framework ( and those that do n’t have options to help you find update as well ) . What that means is no more logins and downloading huge disc images to make certain your apps are up to appointment .
The new UI makes it easier to choose a category, incorporates the Media Browser, and adds useful burning settings to the main window.
Although the update process is vastly improved , with the primary Toast program , the update still spawns the Toast Setup Assistant and gain you prefer which disc to establish on and then walks through the install process as if you were get from cacography . ( Roxio said it want to verify this first use of scintillation - powered updating was rock hearty , and may tweak the behavior in the feature . ) For the other apps , such as Spin Doctor , updating plant as you ’d look .
New user interface
Although Toast has always had a lot of power , it was n’t always soft to figure out how to make everything work . To start with , there ’s now a Tutorials section that includes screencast videos ( and links to step - by - dance step PDFs ) walk you through several common task .
The new UI fix it easy to prefer a category , incorporates the Media internet browser , and adds useful burning place setting to the independent window .
Even after that , though , there are oecumenical improvement to how you find your way around the package . Activities are still group into the same five categories ( Data , Audio , Video , Copy , and Convert ) , but antecedently they were list by icon only until you clicked on one . Now , you may clearly see the names of all the categories . And or else of being smashed into one street corner of the UI , the class are exhibit as tabs that run across the width of the content window . Whether you ’re raw to Toast or have been using it for years , you ’ll believably apprise the refinements to some often perplexing port choices of the past .
The Assistant window can show you common projects for a category, or all the available options.
There ’s also a new Assistant windowpane that can show you common project for each category , along with descriptions and big image , or an Advanced view that list all the available alternative .
The Assistant window can show you common projects for a category , or all the available alternative .
And there are other small but useful changes . The large red button in the low right recess has a black ring around it and is labeled with the word Burn , Copy , or Convert ( depending on the type of project you ’ve created ) rather of , well , just being a big red button . you may pick out a burner and its setting , as well as the number of written matter you want to burn , directly from the main window . And you could now view the Media browser app as a freestanding be adrift palette ( as before ) or integrate into the main UI . You might even detect that Toast icon now has a disc and an iPhone occur out the toaster rather than two disk — a nod to the waning importance of strong-arm media for many users these day .
The VideoBoost feature can speed up H.264 video encoding using supported Nvidia graphics.
But speak of forcible media , I still burn data DVD fill-in ( mostly of concert in lossless audio data formatting as archives ) and with Toast 10 , it lead until the last version—10.0.8 — before I could reliably cauterise those videodisk without every third one fail during the writing summons . With Toast 11 , I have n’t seen any such problem and have been fire data DVDs for weeks with only the rare loser along the way .
New video features
Toast 11 expands its video format support , add together presets for the iPhone 4 , Android phones , Windows Media Video , DivX Plus HD , and MKV , as well as Internet - specific presets for YouTube , Facebook , Vimeo , and F4V Flash video .
you could also have Toast publish immediately to on-line services and even pinch the link to the picture — I added a 720p video recording shot with my iPhone into Toast under the Convert heading , and uploaded it forthwith to my Vimeo news report . While the process was n’t as smooth as using iMovie — for model , the Title field was blank even though I ’d already given my video a name in Toast — it did take me directly to the video Thomas Nelson Page on Vimeo when it was end uploading ( a nice touching ) . Using the High quality circumstance , the movie was almost identical in quality and file size to the same moving picture exported from iMovie . Still , Toast only lets you snip movies , not combine multiple clips and insert transitions the way iMovie does , making it less useful for many multitude .
At the same time , you may now create custom video profile , pull off from one of the built - in presets . This could be useful if you want to convert video recording that will look good on all your especial Apple machine , say . But ( presumably to ensure compatibility ) you ca n’t interchange the setting for the net telecasting presets for YouTube , Facebook , or Vimeo .
Spin Doctor (formerly CD Spin Doctor) can now capture audio from individual apps.
( address of exportation preferences , you may exchange the object gimmick or divine service , as well as timber , after sink in the big flushed clit — which is labeledConvertin this context — but you may also get to them by clicking the name of the current background at the bottom middle of the silver screen . But you would n’t know it by looking , because the recording label ( Vimeo – High , for example ) appears like any other text , and does nothing to betray its clickable nature . )
The VideoBoost feature can speed up H.264 video encryption using supported Nvidia computer graphic .
A novel feature call VideoBoost can take reward of the GPU in some newer Nvidia graphics chips / cards to accelerate up H.264 video spiritual rebirth . If your Mac supports it , a Use VideoBoost Acceleration choice will show up in the Player Setup window . ( My iMac with Nvidia GeForce 8800 GS graphic is n’t patronize , nor is my Mac Pro with ATI Radeon x1900 graphic . ) The hurrying benefits should be like to using the $ 100 Elgato Turbo.264 HD ( ) USB spliff ( and in case you were wondering , you ca n’t utilize both at the same time ) .
Spin Doctor works fairly well defining and identifying music, but still has some rough edges (such as the text rendering problems seen here).
Also , you may now schedule video conversions for a posterior sentence ; when converting video from unprotected DVDs , you may include any of the subtitle from the DVD burned into your exported TV ; you may play back HD content burned on stock DVDs ( the HD / BD chew - in , required for HD author on standard or Blu - shaft of light discs , is still a $ 20 add on , or derive as part of Toast 11 Pro ) ; and you now have the ability to add manual chapter Deutschmark as well as better ascendency over the clipping of clips .
Audio improvements
One raw audio feature film is call Audio CD Spanning . Like iTunes , it allow you add as many tracks as you want for combust and breaks them into the number of CDs call for to do so . Unlike iTunes , however , you could determine which tracks go on which CD , as well as hold Audio Units filters to your raceway .
Spin Doctor ( formerly CD Spin Doctor ) can now get audio from case-by-case apps .
A new version of Spin Doctor ( which Roxio also relate to as SDX ) summate some cool new features . you may now put down audio from any private app on your Mac or whatever you see through your speaker / headphones , in addition to the ability to record line input of tapes or LPs . ( Otherwise you ’d need an app program such as Rogue Amoeba ’s $ 32Audio Hijack Pro . ) Spin Doctor charm audio from apps at 20 Bachelor of Medicine per min ( 32 - bit stereo at 44.1kHz ) as CAF file , and you could export the sound recording in a variety or format , or send off the audio recording to Toast or iTunes . Spin Doctor can also connect to the Gracenote MusicID service to identify the euphony you ’ve read .
Selecting multiple recorders for simultaneous burning.
I tested out Spin Doctor capturing euphony from my iTunes subroutine library and from Safari connected to my Napster account . In iTunes , I record an Al Green album . and the software package did a large business of auto - set the caterpillar track , but the identification table service only visualise out two of the 10 tracks . With another album , Pink Floyd’sMeddle , it stopped recording with about 12 1/2 minute leave behind in the last call , “ Echoes ” . automobile - define separated the record album into five tracks instead of six ( the first two songs were identified together ) and it was able-bodied to distinguish the four other caterpillar track — include the incomplete “ Echoes”—but one of the songs was identified incorrectly ( wrong artist , deed of conveyance , and album ) .
Spin Doctor work moderately well defining and identifying music , but still has some rough edge ( such as the textbook rendering problems seen here ) .
When catch from Napster playback in Safari , I generally had better results . It show and auto - fix Paul Simon ’s latest album , but it did n’t identify the tracks on the first try . When I clicked the Identify push a 2nd time , it found all the metadata and added it correctly . ( observe that my capturing from Napster was for testing purposes only — we do n’t endorse capturing euphony from stream services to keep ) .
Toast 11’s new clip extraction window.
I also encounter several text edition rendering and placement problems in the Info tab after recording some audio recording . And it ’s not clean how to best work with the applications programme if you choose not to use the racecourse machine - define feature .
Spin Doctor unquestionably has some cool new features over the previous version , but as far as stableness and bug , it still needs some work .
Other changes
Selecting multiple recorders for co-occurrent electrocution . For the first time , Toast now supports simultaneous burning to multiple drive — this lets you create two copy of the same disc , say , if you have both an internal and extraneous candle / DVD burner . In the Destination pop - up window , alternatively of picking a particular drive to burn to , you take the Select Multiple Recorders option . Click the Burn button and a Select Recorders window look , which let you prefer from the tilt of attached burners , as well as the number of transcript to make per private road as well as the write speeding .
On my first attempt burning an audio CD to my Mac Pro ’s intimate burner and an external FireWire drive , the external pass me an immediate medium - misplay window and failed to burn . The other written matter , on the home drive , burned OK . When I flip to incinerate just to the external thrust , that phonograph record cut absolutely as well . I then tried a different outside burner ( USB this time ) and was capable to glow to two drives at the same time without any problems .
Roxio has also improved the DVD clip descent feature film for function with unprotected DVDs , image file cabinet , and Video_TS pamphlet . Borrowed from Roxio ’s Popcorn 4 software program , the new interface lets you easily select multiple clips from various titles to export as individual movie files . I took 60 - plus - twelvemonth - old footage from a 16mm - to - DVD transfer exhibit my mother and aunt as minor with their parent ( my grandparent ) and selected several discussion section to export to iPhone format as individual snip . The process was quick and well-heeled , with good upshot .
Toast 11 ’s Modern clip descent windowpane .
Toast 11 Pro
In addition to the standard Toast 11 Titanium , Roxio also offers Toast 11 Pro , which includes all the same things as Titanium but tot up the HD / BD spark plug - in , a full version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 ( ) , FotoMagico 3 RE , SoundSoap 2 SE and the SoundSoap Audio Units spark plug - in , and Sonicfire Pro 5 . constituent 9 is $ 99 by itself , so if you do n’t have a written matter yet the bundle is a really near deal .
Pricing
Toast 11 Titanium costs $ 100 , and Toast 11 Pro is $ 150 . owner of Toast 10 can promote to Toast 11 for $ 60 , or Toast 11 Pro for $ 100 . Owners of Toast 9 or earlier can upgrade to Toast 11 for $ 80 , or Toast 11 Pro for $ 130 . All upgrade take vantage of instant discounts ( no rebates involved ) .
Macworld’s buying advice
Despite some rough edges , Toast 11 is a very nice acclivity from Toast 10 . The simplified interface makes the software program easy to act upon with , and the Sparkle framework makes it more commodious to update . Upgrade prices are still a little outrageous — especially considering that you could get a novel boxed in written matter online for not much more than the upgrade price — but if do n’t mind spending the cash , you ’ll be rewarded with a better app and more included functionality than before .
