Customer Reviews

Roxio Toast 8 Titanium (Mac) [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

Toast has always been the best burning software on the Mac and this version is no exception. I had skipped over version 7 and wasn't sure about getting version 8 since I had the impression that much of what Toast does is already built into the Mac. Boy was I wrong. What comes with the OS, iTunes and iDVD barely scratches what Toast 8 can do. There's a reason why people continue to recommend this as a must have app on the Mac - it's gone way beyond burning of CDs and DVDs.

Likes:
* Data Spanning - a must have for EVERYONE - if you have files that are too big to fit onto a CD or a DVD (and it's really pretty easy to have this now... think video files or your iTunes library) Toast splits them and burns a piece onto every disc.... and you can take those discs to any Mac or PC to use them.
* Burn Catalog - this is cool - it keeps track of the contents of your discs - so you can see what's on them - even when the discs aren't in the computer anymore. I love this one...
* Music DVD - puts 1000 songs on a regular DVD so you can play it in your home theater system and see menus and album info while the song is playing.
* Photo Disc - my wife loves this one... makes great looking photo disc slideshows to send to PC users
* EyeTV - I use EyeTV to get TV shows onto the Mac - and this is THE ONLY way to burn DVDs of your recorded show - and it's fast.
* DIVX - I like to download DiVX files but iDVD can't turn them into DVDs - but this Toast can
* DVD copying - Roxio put all of the other product Popcorn into Toast - so if you want to copy DVDs or convert DVDs for iPod... don't get Popcorn - get this.
* Labeler - I like to make case inserts of the DVDs I burn and this labeler in Toast is really top notch.
* Printed manual - YES you read this right, it comes with a printed user guide... how cool is that?!

Dislikes:
* New look - I'm not such a huge fan of the "new and improved" UI... I was used to the old one in Toast 6 and it will take some time to get used to the new... I guess that the price you pay for progress.

Overall I'm really happy with this purchase. There aren't too many other apps you need to use the Mac, but this is one of them I think. If you've recently switched from a PC to the Mac and you're looking for a burning program - this is the one to get.

Toast 8 Titanium is a worthwhile upgrade for the program. The GUI for the program has changed somewhat. Significantly enough that you'll notice. But not so much that there would be a learning curve to get around when using it. The whole thing is pretty much plug-n-play. If you're familiar with Toast 7, this will be a snap for you. If not, everything is fairly well spelled out, if not obvious for a mid-level Mac user. If you can do drag and drop functions, you can use Toast 8.

One of the big selling points for this program is the integration of TiVoToGo capabilities. This has been elusive to Mac users up until now. For many, it will still be elusive. What you will find out upon installation is that it will work with properly equipped Series 2 or Series 3 boxes. However, it will not work with DirecTv supplied TiVo units. Also, you should be aware that not all TiVo units have their USB ports enabled. Thus causing an issue with connecting to your existing network. There are work-arounds for these issues. But using them may void the waranty on your TiVo.

Overall, I'm happy with the purchase. The program works faster on my Intel iMac than Toast 7. But I still wish the TiVoToGo would work in my home.

Toast 8, just does what I need. I bought Toast because I needed support for a new DVD burner that neither the basic OS (10.4) nor my slightly old version of iDVD would support. It offers easy to understand interface that I've come to expect from a first class Mac app (and have found lacking in Disk Copy). Toast burns my dual layer DVDs just fine. It burns everything else I've thrown at it just fine as well. It also solved a problem that I had just accepted before. When making backups for remote storage, it seamlessly spans multiple CDs and DVDs. It tells me how many disks I'm going to need before I get started. It guides me through the entire process.

One of the bundled apps that I didn't expect to use is Deja Vu, the backup/mirroring/etc. Utility. I have several shareware backup utilities and was reasonably happy with them. I've found however, that they cannot compare with Deja Vu for flexibility, power and ease of use. It has become the new backup standard at my house.

There is a ton of other capabilities in this package that I just haven't gotten to use yet but I an extremely pleased with this package and would not hesitate to recommend it to other users.

This is another product that I wish Amazon would allow us to give half (1/2) stars because I would rate the Toast 8 at four and one half stars as opposed to a perfect five.

For someone to give a product 5 stars, it is presupposed that the product is outstanding with no unrealistic flaws. There a few that you should be aware of. First of all...

Toast 8 is a bundled software package. Until now, it was just the premiere cd/dvd burning software for the Mac. Period. And, it is still the most economical and best multi-platform burning software for the Mac, only this time
Roxio has decided to combine several little add-ons to make Toast 8 a more attractive buy. Indeed, it does. We've used earlier editions of Toast in various functions such as in providing the local print shop with our files for advertising and promotional material for our theatre. Never a problem. We've used Toast to back up files on the harddrive and archived them. Never a problem. Making crisp clean copies of audio cd's, excellent, except in the version we had, one could not go back to I-Tunes to burn files once Toast was installed. It seemed as if Toast "bogarted" the cd-burning ability from I-Tunes.

Toast 8*
The cd/ dvd functions, excellent as always. But, you're (we're) now able to use I-Tunes to burn files we have on file without having to go to Toast. Great. Roxio kept a perfect software in tact.

CD Spindoctor*
Unless I'm wrong, but I think Roxio has used their "PC" name for the Mac-version of their audio filtering software "Jam". That created just a little confusion, they should have just said "Jam," because they marketed it as being included in Toast 8. With that being said, you should know that THERE ARE NO INSTRUCTIONS FOR ANY OF THE OTHER FREE SOFTWARE INCLUDED EXCEPT FOR THE ORIGINAL TOAST SOFTWARE. The booklet that comes in the box has instructions for only the cd burning, Toast. If you're not familiar with the other software like I was "CD Spin Doctor ("Jam"), Disc Cover Re, Disc Catalog, Motion Picture HD or TiVo to Go, then you'll have to find instructions on-line. Spindoctor/ "Jam" is excellent for what it does. I've used several times to restore and back-up old cassettes that I worried would break. This particular software used to come as a stand-alone software about 6 months after the latest version of Toast would appear, bringing the combined cost of Toast and Jam to about $150. It's now free! (I spoke to a rep. at Roxio concerning some directions on using Spindoctor and she told me afterwards that Roxio was discontinuing "Jam" and decided on adding it to Toast.)

Spindoctor instructions-- you'll need to have in addition to the audio device (ie, turntable/cassette deck) an RCA 1/8 audio input jack. The 1/8" input goes directly into the MacBook/ PowerBook or MacPro etc. jack. The red and white (right and left) channels goes into the "Line Out" of the audio device. Once you open Spin D, you'll have to decide if you want to record from the computer's internal mic's or the input module. Unless you're recording a discussion in the room, I'd suggest the input. Once you do that, you'll notice in the bottom section, right, the time remaining on the computer's harddrive for recording. *It doesn't give you the file saving option yet, as it automatically saves it as an uncompressed WAV file.

After you've done your recording, you'll have to engage the "wand" device to see the spectrum. Spin will automatically break the recording into sections. You'll move the triangle to the spot where you'd like to make some adjustments. Correspondingly, you'd have to look to the bottom where the numbers correspond to the colored sections, if you would. Hitting delete removes that section of the audio file. Beware... when editing, only the audio in the colored (red, yellow, blue, etc) will be transfered to Toast for burning and/ or I-Tunes for storage. It's not always easy to determine what's been deleted as the background is a pale grey.

When finished, you can either add equalizer enhancements (a small tab in the upper right-hand corner) or send to Toast and or/ I-Tunes. There's a box in spin that says "Path". This is important, because if you want to delete the uncompressed WAV file, you'll need this information to find it to delete once you've archive the uncompressed to cd/dvd and the compressed file in I-Tunes. Both, you'll have to engage from the drop-down menu.

*Disc Cover RE-- You can use this, if you have a disc that allows for burning images on the top.
*Disc Catalogue-- This is great if you'd like to know what you've burned and when, but it won't tell you where the file is if you've followed the Path and deleted the original file.

*I haven't used Tivo-to-Go, but a friend said the resolution left something to be desired.

With the exception of the lack of supporting instructions for the free, bundled software. This is absolute worth upgrading to. If nothing else than for software that you'd probably buy separately.

I recently encountered a problem with the purchase of Toast 8 Titanium and have had problems with Roxio in the past. Well, things appear to be changing. I had the pleasure of dealing with a caring Roxio employee who took care of my problem in an efficient, effective and extremely friendly manner. After some discussion with this person, I came away with the feeling that things are changing for the better. My experience could not have been better.

I still think that Toast is one of the best pieces of software ever written for Macintosh. I especially like the new feature in version 8, the ability to create CDs of photos that one can give to friends and family. The recipient can play a slideshow on either PC or Mac with no need for any additional software, not even Toast. This feature, alone, is worth the upgrade to me. A great piece of software, and a company that looks to me like it will be providing first rate customer service.

Deciding to upgrade my old standby software for my new ProMac the installation of Toast8 has been nothing but trouble for me.
The look of this app. is great but the actual usage was a nightmare.
I have spent over 3 hours on the phone with Roxio's Tech. Support but they have been unhelpful and finally useless for my issue.
What happened to me was, with Toast's new automatic media finder.
Every time I wnated to burn an old MP3 file (that had always worked with the Alsoft version)
this NEW TOAST would not only change the name of the disk info I would list but would RENAME the actual file!!
Toast would take my original file, example: "My Voice" to be burned on a disk called "My Disk".
I would end up with A disk called "Purchased" (taking that title from an iTunes folder title)
and Toast would rename the burned file as "Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho!!
The actual playback of this newly named file WAS the "My Voice" track but it had been burned and stored with this new name.
This happened over and over again with different files being given different names.
I emailed tracks to Roxio (who doesn't support their product directly but sends you to a subcrontracted support site) who had the same problems.
They tried a few fixes and reinstalls but no luck. The final work around that Roxio gave me was to drag my files into Toast
but Manually give each one a completely NEW NAME before burning.
While, this does work, it was hardly convenient for backing up music files that I would want to have their original names.
I have now completely uninstalled Toast8's application and
have happily reeturned to using Alsoft's version with MAC Classic OS.
A ADDITONAL WARNING: Roxio does not give ANY free installation support. You will be given to
a secondary company who charges $35.00 for any technical issue!

If you are thinking of buying Toast 8 to use the Tivo-to-Go feature to encode Tivo files for your iPod or to burn onto DVD, do not spend your money before checking out Tivo and Roxio discussion forums to see if some well-documented problems have been fixed.

Toast 8 worked well until the Tivo Fall '07 update was pushed out in October. Tivo files transferred since the update will usually play on your laptop or desktop, but there are serious problems with the export for iPod and DVD functions. At first, the export functions would not work at all in many cases. Roxio eventually got a fix out that allows it to work most of the time, but there is a continuing problem with audio synchronization. Audio is often out of sync with video by anywhere from a half second to three or four seconds.

The annoying thing is that it's completely unpredictable; some programs encode perfectly, some are all but unwatchable. There is no pattern except that 30-Minute programs seem to encode correctly more often than longer shows. My own experience is that you have about a 50/50 chance that it will work correctly.

There are alternatives out there; they may not be as fast or convenient as Toast 8, but they actually work every time. Popcorn 3, by the way, has the same set of problems.

We put off buying this for our Macs for 2 years. Now we are kicking ourselves. The first three uses - archiving, making Music DVDs (a strong challenge to using Apple TV for showing your music on the big tube), and making photo discs for the relatives -- all worked like a charm.
You're going to like this product a lot better on Intel Apples than on G4 Power Books, but we are pleased on both, and we like the interface.
Buy the boxed version and get the book - looking up how-to in the manual is much faster than scanning the electronic version for help.
We hardly ever say that any product is a 5.

I just up-graded from Toast 7 Titianium. As expected Toast works great and has some very nice new features (disk spanning, iPod, PSP support). I didn't even realize until I installed that it included TiVo To Go. I did the install on my MacBookPro C2D. Opened the program, typed in my TiVo media code, and was able to see both of my TiVo s right there om my desktop! Wow - transfer was easy - just a click. It just works. So, I transfered my TiVo copy of the most recent 24 to my laptop, then used Toast to compress for an iPod. Except for taking some time for the transfer and codec, could not be easier. Cheers - Jim

Couldn't get it to work. I wanted my tivo programs to download to my Mac so that I could take my TV shows on the road with me. I wanted to be able to burn to a CD. Couldn't get the Tivo, Mac and Toast to pair up. What really bugs me is, OK so I am not the most proficient computer person out there, I am fairly knowledgeable. Well, Mac wouldn't help on a 3rd party, Tivo could get me hooked up on their end, but then Toast has no customer service....unless you want to pay $35.00 for the call. Sorry, I like my purchases to have a bit of complimentary support. I returned it . Oh yeah, and the rebate was only if you were upgrading from a previous version. That was not clearly marked in the information before I bought it.