brad's Experience
Written: Jan 03 '08 (Updated Jan 03 '08)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Compression feature is awesome. Feature-packed.
Cons: Some problems burning iTunes music.
The Bottom Line: Toast 8 is essential for any Mac-user. It has so many uses, most of which Mac-users will need at some point. Well worth the upgrade from versions 6 or 7.
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| brad's Full Review: Roxio Toast 8 Titanium for Mac |
I have been using Toast 8 since early 2007. I moved from Toast 7. Prior to that, I had been using Toast 6.
Toast 8 is a departure from the norms known in Toast 6-7. Gone is the familiar tabbed interface, which was so simple and elegant. In its place is a new interface, completely revamped, but superior. This is the first thing you will notice when using Toast 8. It takes some getting used to, but the learning curve isn't steep.
Essentially, the new UI consists of a left pane that has all of the functions and the right body, which is where you either drag and drop files or browse for content (to burn).
The left pane is a cinch to use and I love it. You have options for audio (audio CD, MP3 CD, etc.), video (TS Folder, DVD-ROM, Super video CD, etc.) and other functions.
I've used this for burning audio CDs, DVD-ROMs (from TS folders and imported DV), data DVDs and disk images.
I have been especially impressed with the "Fit to DVD" compression, which compresses large video files to fit on whatever media you have. I compressed a copy of The Good Shepherd - an 8 gig DVD rip - down to a 4.3 gig blank DVD. On my SD Sony Wega setup, I didn't notice any artifacts (not exactly bleeding edge). In any case, for me this technology is fantastic. Before Toast had this built in, I had to use DVD Shrink on a PC to shrink down TS folders for Toast to burn.
The compression also works for imported DV. I had almost exactly three hours of homemade Christmas video imported from a Canon MiniDV camcorder. Toast 8 recognized my camcorder and asked to import the video. I had three DV tapes. It took the first tape and then asked if I wanted to import more or finish. The system is intuitive. Long story short, all three hours fit on a 4.3 gig DVD with menus, and the quality isn't that bad.
I had problems burning audio CDs when importing music from iTunes. For whatever reasons, some tracks just don't come through when burned with Toast. I would much rather burn with Toast than iTunes, but I have had to use iTunes for burning audio CDs because I don't want to go back to a music folder that is a mess, compared to my music that is organized in iTunes.
For burning ripped movies, this thing works like a champ. I couldn't be more pleased. Basically, it takes a ripped movie (say, from MacTheRipper) and compresses it and then burns it, all in one swath. It is really slick.
Burning disc images is a no-brainer. I burned a set of Ubuntu discs with Toast 8 and had no problems. Very intuitive process.
I haven't used the burn-for-iPod function or Tivo-to-Go function. I just got a new iPod with 80 gigs of storage, so it's my plan to put videos on that thing. I hear Handbrake is the application to use for this purpose, but if Toast 8 can do it with ease, I'll use it. I will try both. As of yet, I have nothing to report. I have a Tivo on my network, but have not yet used the Tivo-to-Go function. I may yet use that. Toast 8 is the only supported application on the Mac for the Tivo-to-Go feature.
For those on the cutting edge, Toast 8 supports Blu-ray discs and burning to Blu-ray (no HD DVD support). I don't own a Blu-ray player or a Mac with a Blu-ray drive, so I don't have any use for this. But at least it is available, and can be considered by professionals who may choose to add a Blu-ray drive to their PowerMacs or Mac Pros.
Overall, Toast 8 is just a heavy-duty, fully-featured burning application. It is a huge improvement over Toast 6-7 and I highly recommend to those users to upgrade. It is well worth it. Toast 8 is universal binary, meaning it runs on Intel and PPC Macs.
I highly recommend Toast 8.
Brad
Recommended:
Yes
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brad
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Member: Brad Engelmann
Location: Helen Township, MN
Reviews written: 161
Trusted by: 94 members
About Me:
brad@engelmann.us (email address)
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