![]() ![]() For those who print their disc labels the process has been streamlined. The routines to create high quality photo archive discs with slideshows that will work directly on a PC as well as Mac have been tweaked in Toast 9 Titanium. Lastly, Roxio claims that recovery of files on damaged discs is better (this wasn’t tested as such!). Both of these functions performed as expected during testing. Video Quality Previewing lets you see how your converted video will look – before you start encoding it. ‘Pause and Resume’ allows video encoding to be temporarily suspended so that CPU cycles can be dedicated to other processes if needs be. Aspects of the user interface have been improved too – especially those guiding the user through choices of media file size and more complex usage. crossfades, transitions) have been enhanced vinyl disc and tape conversion is better and more true to life. In audio some aspects of audio processing (e.g. Support has been augmented for such devices as Xbox 360 and BlackBerry. There’s a handful of new menu styles and backgrounds for DVDs, of course. There have been improvements in these four areas of Toast functionality as well: for video the TiVo and EyeTV conversion routines have significantly been improved as have some of the compression and custom DVD compilation processes. Toast 9 is now also able simply to capture streaming internet audio – indeed to capture most audio sources. You also now have integrated access to Aperture and iLife ’08 libraries.įor audio, Roxio has devised what it calls a unique audio fingerprinting technology which automatically identifies and tags otherwise ‘anonymous’ (unnamed) tracks so that you don’t have to wonder what could be hiding behind ‘Track_0001’ etc. A new bundled application, Roxio Streamer, enables streaming TV and video to your Mac, iPhone or PC via the internet. Toast 9 now supports HD DVDs and can burn up to 30GB of data. For video converted for iPod use, DVD chapters can now be preserved – eliminating ‘fast forward’ and ‘rewind’. High-def Blu-ray or HD DVD discs can now be created to play back on the latest set-top boxes as well as on standard DVD media. DVDs can be batch converted and compiled for VIDEO_TS. You can pause video conversions if needs be – in order to regain Mac process cycles. It’s in Toast’s video capabilities that version 9 has changed the most: faster preview video quality for certain encoding settings direct capture and convert from AVCHD high-definition camcorders better editing for TiVo and EyeTV recordings. And Toast works well with both audio and video media. You can share your media with other users in a variety of ways. Toast 9’s feature set covers four areas: it has sophisticated CD and DVD (including Blu-ray up to 50 GB) burning routines which cater for data on PC as well as Mac operating systems and can span multiple disks – now without splitting files. So despite the many things that Toast 9 can do, the interface remains delightfully simple, easy to learn – and to remember. Far from it: given what it can do, Toast 9 is remarkably simple spare even. The danger – which has been skillfully avoided in this version of Toast too – was always that the product would bloat and become too complex to use effectively there would be too many menus, too many screens, settings and paths through the suite. But it will be necessary for all but the most advanced ‘power’ users carefully to evaluate what’s new and how well it works against how they now use, and might come to use, the product. While the jump between Toasts 8 and 9 is not huge, there will be enough new advantages to make the upgrade (rather a pricey one, it has to be said) worthwhile for many users – particularly since many already useful tools within the product have been improved. But Toast’s multiplicity of features sets it apart. There are other apps – not least Apple’s iDVD – which will allow sophisticated management and burning of CDs and DVDs. By and large the product can still be recommended as the market leader in its field. Now Toast 9 Titanium (releases 9.02, 9.03 and the current 9.04 were used to prepare this review) has added several new functions which keep pace with developments in optical media technology. In recent years Roxio has slowly and steadily added features, generally made improvements to the working of the product and changed the interface of the software… it isn’t entirely Mac-like – not that it is in any way off-putting. Roxio’s Toast has long been the software of choice for reliable and flexible CD and DVD burning on Mac and PC. Upgrade from previous versions $79.99 after $20 mail-in rebate ![]()
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