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The most helpful favorable review
The most helpful critical review
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Works great - for what I use it for
I bought this program from Amazon to do one thing, really -- to make High Definition discs from my HDV tape recordings. At this it exceeds my expectations, even if I did have to pay $20 more to download the HD authoring plugin.
I edit HDV video in iMovie HD (2006) and drop the resultant AIC files into Toast 10. I use the "Blu-ray" authoring feature to write...
Published 11 months ago by Eric Troutman
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176 of 179 people found the following review helpful:
Worst version of Toast Ever
I have been using Toast for many years and I have always thought that it was a well designed and easy to use program that allowed you to do many things that you would normally have to otherwise do using several other, more expensive programs.
Toast v.9 was and still is, a great application. It was easy to use and performed very well. I was happy with it. I...
Published 18 months ago by B. Allen
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176 of 179 people found the following review helpful:
Worst version of Toast Ever, February 19, 2009
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
I have been using Toast for many years and I have always thought that it was a well designed and easy to use program that allowed you to do many things that you would normally have to otherwise do using several other, more expensive programs.
Toast v.9 was and still is, a great application. It was easy to use and performed very well. I was happy with it. I was happy that is until I loaded version 10. It has been the worst experience that I have ever had with any of their products. To begin with, it doesn't load properly, necessitating a clean install and after all of that nonsense is finished, it still won't work. It hangs, it crashes and there is no documentation or tech support to help you address the specific issues or problems that you are having once you have given them your money.
Mac2Tivo is the worst application I've ever tried to use. Version 1.0 should have a b in the version number because it is clearly beta software. It won't share any of my videos with TIVO, showing only empty folders where there are actually dozens of files.
I have made many attempts to get help from Roxio and they are completely useless. There is no live tech support any longer, relying instead on "Roxanne" their computerized tech monkey. If you have ever been caught in a phone queu from hell, endlessly pressing phone prompt after phone prompt, either to be summarily disconnected or finally just hanging up in frustration, then you have some idea of what Roxio's "new and improved" automated tech support is like.
I have opened two different trouble tickets with them and all they will do is to repeatedly send me the same canned responses over and over again.
Don't waste your money on this. Wait until they have perfected the software. Toast 11 may be worth looking at. Or better yet, just hold on to version 9. It's way better than v.10
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107 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
Roxio's support is even worse than their product, which is quite a feat, April 16, 2009
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
I have been using Toast for some 14 years now (since version 3). Since Roxio took over development, the product has gotten worse every year, until it is now nearly unusable. There are so many bugs in this software, it would take pages to list them all. But perhaps one of the most frustrating is that they do not manage memory properly when burning. The result is that burning a disc will consume all of the free memory and cause the system to start paging to the HD, thus slowing down Toast and all other software running at the time. I have reported this bug their "tech support", who after several weeks of canned responses, finally told me this was how the software was designed and that they purposefully consume any available system memory in order to maximize performance (completely failing to recognize that by consuming all free memory and causing paging, performance is significantly degraded). As a Macintosh software developer myself, I explained to them what they were doing wrong and even pointed out the system call they were improperly using in Apple developer documentation and the note from Apple on why NOT to use it the way they are using it (it's a matter of setting ONE BIT). Their response was to thank me for my input and close the case without doing anything to fix it. Absolute pathetic.
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77 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
(Burnt) Toast, March 1, 2009
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
Roxio Toast 10 Titanium This is one frustrating program. Crashes repeatedly. Certain apps (such as Auto Music Capture in the bundled CD Spin Doctor) simply don't work, and there's no tech support to be found. Some of the more basic functions work OK, but not without bugs and frequent crashes. A lot of cash for a lot of grief. In fact, as I've retried a few functions to be sure this review is accurate, the *@#%* program has now wiped out all audio on my Mac. Time for yet another restart.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
Good features list, no performance, April 25, 2009
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
I have been a long-time Toast user since version 5. This version 10 is by far the worst edition of Toast yet. It has a great list of features, and may work initially -- but that is the most you will get out of it, if my experience is anything to go by.
Toast will no longer burn DVDs properly for me, and the program claims that almost any file I try to write with it is too large!
Then there is the tech support. Essentially, there isn't any. It is very frustrating. They have a discussion site, but one almost suspects that it is phony, and just for show, because there is no way to participate without an account, and there is no visible way to sign up for an account. I already have an account on their website to sign in, but the site acts as if I need a separate account in order to post a problem or participate in a discussion. Is it possible that they have cut off discussion because their software is so terrible?
It is a shame that the current management of Roxio is so incompetent, because Mac really needs a good disk-burning system.
I expect this company to be out-of-business very soon.
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
ROXIO TOAST 10, April 12, 2009
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
I agree wholeheartedly with the above reviews that rate this product poorly. The dvd copy will not produce a full dvd, instead it crashes near the end of the process leaving you with an indecipherable error message and a wasted disc. The audio capture records something, but it definitely isn't sound and remains stuck in your itunes indefinitely. Multiple crashes have occurred on my brand new imac after loading this product and tech support from Roxio is useless as you are stuck on the phone tree from hell with their automated helper "Roxanne" who just gives the same responses over and over without a fix. The only thing I have found that actually works is the cd copy, which works slower than just using itunes! All in all, buying this product is tantamount to flushing your hard earned money down the toilet with the added benifit of a lot of grief and frustration. Previous Toast products were very good, but this is totally worthless and should be avoided like the plague.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
Do not waste your money on Toast 10, June 24, 2009
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
I purchased Toast 10 specifically to read AVCHD files (recorded in 1440x1080 anamorphic) and convert to other formats, including HDV for faster editing on an HDV time line in Final Cut. (On the Mac, the normal approach is to convert to very large AIC files - which works fine but requires a render step when combining AIC with other HDV footage. Toast 10 is the only product that would, in theory, convert to HDV. Yes there is an imperceptible loss of quality in going to HDV, but that is acceptable for my application.)
The problem, as noted on Roxio's forums, is that Toast 10 loses synchronization between the video and audio when transcoding to AIC or to HDV. The result is unusable conversions out of Roxio. Roxio has known about this problem for months but has not fixed it yet.
Their support is pretty awful. When the 10.0.2 update download link did not actually work for Mac users, they sent support responses to questions that were not asked. I ended up having to download the Mac update on my Windows box and then transfer the file to the Mac.
For burning DVDs, it works okay - nothing fancy. iDVD works fine, and DVD Studio Pro runs circles around Toast 10. Regarding to the add'l s/w such as removing clicks from old recordings, ClickRepair is excellent for removing pops, clicks and hiss from old record albums.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Sour Milk Toast, January 17, 2010
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
Should actually be multiple NEGATIVE Stars, I entered a 1 just so it would register, but even that is misleading. I am not an expert at this particular topic, which caused my initial problems in attempting to burn DVD's of old movies taken from the television, and I now feel that the dust has not only not settled, but has gotten worse. After having read many reviews on this product, including at least one stating the same thing I am about to say, I elected to give it a try anyway and hope for the best. Needless to say, I was and am still very disappointed. I have received some feedback from Roxio customer service, including one message where I was politely advised to not create any new trouble tickets, despite new problems, but to use the same one originally entered so that a conversation string can be better managed and to not confuse the customer service representatives. I wish they had as much compassion for their customers.
For converting movies from the EyeTV format, which is my primary desire with Toast 10, I was advised (after a customer service inquiry explaining that smaller files in the Eye TV format would burn, while larger ones would not compress and were supposedly too large, despite being smaller, much smaller in some cases, than the indicated available disc space) to use the mpeg 4 format for best results. When using the mpeg 4 format and attempting to import it into Toast 10, I received a message noting that it was not a recognized format and would not import, despite their "customer service rep" advising me to use that format. Out of approximately 30 attempts I have had maybe 2 or 3 successful "burns" using what Eye TV calls MPEG Program Stream, which yields a file extension of "mpg," however, the vast majority of attempts using this format have yielded discs that would play for a short period, freeze for a second or two and start over, with nothing beyond the re-start point (incomplete burn).
I have additionally returned to the Mac on multiple occasions to check the progress of the often painfully slow burning process only to have a message indicating that the software had encountered an "unexpected error" or problem, and had shut down. How nice.
I can hardly wait to see what kind of recommendations Roxio will make in regard to the Trouble Ticket I now have filed, and yes, I did it by referencing or "tagging on" to a previous request so as not to upset or confuse the representatives.
My best recommendation to any potential buyer is to heed the warning of others, including this one and steer away from this product. Although I chose to be optimistic despite multiple warnings and descriptions of problems, I have been in error. I would love to know if anyone has a fix for these issues and probably even better, if anyone knows of a better software for these projects.
Thanks for tolerating this dissertation, my best advice - don't do it!
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
Roxio should be ashamed, May 9, 2009
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
I've been using Roxio products for years on my PC and have been pleased for the most part.
Recently I purchased a MacBook and downloaded Toast 10 Titanium at the reccomendation at the Apple site.
My main purpose was to be to transfer files from my TiVO Series 3 DVR to my Mac. After several failed attempts I find this software to be totally useless. All the other functions in the package can be accomplished better with Mac's own ILife software. Downloading any worthwhile programs fro my TiVO seems impossible. Anything that is sold online, per season or episode, cannot be transferred. ie Californication, Weeds, My Boys.
When attempting to transfer a simple half hour episode of Two and a Half Men I became irate after several hours of the transfer window running and nothing accomplished. And this with the fastest router protocol available.
Like I said, if you have ILife, you don't need this piece of crap. I have requested a return.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Audio out of sync with video on AVCHD conversions; company service is pretty lame, August 3, 2009
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
I bought this version in the hopes it would make it easier to work with my Canon VIXIA HFS10. Specifically, I wanted it to allow me to do two things: (1) convert AVCHD files directly, even without having my camcorder plugged in; (2) archive the AVCHD files from a camcorder harddrive or SD card onto a dvd, from which the files can be pulled as if they were on the original camcorder. Without this, I would need to convert my files in Final Cut Express as I take them off of the camcorder. With it, I can just drag the .mts files onto an external hard drive and only convert them as I need them.
It converts the video just fine, but the audio is out-of-sync with the video, lagging behind by a few frames to begin with and getting progressively worse for long clips. I didn't notice this at first because most of my video was of nature and so I didn't notice that lips didn't match voices. Then I did some interviews and was very disappointed. I've tried everything I could think of to fix the problem, including an uninstall and a reinstall. No dice. (But see UPDATE below).
So I emailed customer service - you CAN call them but a 15 minute call costs [...] bucks, even if they don't resolve the issue for you! No thanks. So I emailed them, stated my problem clearly, that I was working on a Mac and they responded with some fix for a different Windows video player that Roxio sells, for a problem completely unrelated to mine. So I emailed them back, and they told me to uninstall and reinstall and then upgrade (once again). A couple of hours later, having done that, I tried to convert a file and the same problem recurred. So I emailed them again, and in the email mentioned that I'm on Snow Leopard and they pointed me to a link that mentioned there is currently a problem with their TIVO support for Snow Leopard. In fact, I'd already seen that link when I was researching the problem (and also seen that I'm not alone in having this problem and that others report it on different Mac operating systems as well). As far as I can tell, the "customer care" associates I've been corresponding with are really just a computerized search engine that picks a few random words from the query and sends back a "solution" that can be associated with that query. I'd do better with Google than with Roxio's "customer care." (One thing I noticed is that for the last couple of years, as far back as Toast 9, they've been telling other people with the same problem that it is a "known issue" that they are working on a solution for. How can they put out a new version of a problem with "known issues" that they haven't yet resolved?
UPDATE (12/18/09): Now, several months and a few upgrades later, Toast is finally working like it's supposed to. With version 10.5 the audio no longer lags behind the video. I had purchased Voltaic HD online to fix the problem, and it did fix it, but unfortunately Voltaic is a lot slower than Toast and I don't see a major difference in quality. Now with version 10.0.5, things seem to be working fine, and it is very fast. I upgraded from 1 star to 3 stars for this review to say that I am pretty happy now, and that this is finally a product worth buying for AVCHD conversions, but it is not 5 stars since I am still unhappy with the customer support.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Works for TiVo transfers, but program needs polish, January 12, 2010
This review is from: Roxio Toast 10 Titanium (CD-ROM)
I have been looking at Toast for a while now (almost 2 years), and for one reason only...to transfer my TiVo recordings to my Mac for further transfer to DVD, iPod, etc. I held off for so long due to all the mostly negative reviews I read. But I finally bought it from a retailer (not Amazon) with the promise that I could return it if I was not pleased.
The installation went easily, and I was asked during installation if I wanted to activate the TiVo transfer function. I selected yes. After installation, I went to open the TiVo transfer program, and I received an error message telling me that the program was not installed. I was puzzled because I had selected the box to install it. So I re-installed the program three more times, and continued to get the same error message.
I Googled the problem and found a post that showed me how to go into the directory and open the TiVo folder and manually activate the program. After I did this, I was able to open the program.
The TiVo program is pretty intuitive and easy to use, and I have been able to easily transfer programs that I have recorded to my iPod for when I travel with my job. The video quality and audio is excellent, and I am very happy with how it works. My only complaint is the sheer length of time that it takes to transfer and then convert the programs to iPod format...it takes FOREVER!
So, overall, I deducted one star for me having to find out how to manually activate the program, and one more star for the length of the conversion process. However, once I activated it, it is working great. I cannot evaluate any of the other functions, as I have not used them.
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