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Toast 10 Titanium: Burn, Baby, Burn

Toast started life as the premier method for burning a CD on a Mac. Toast 10 Titanium retains its elite status as the method of choice for burning CDs and DVDs on a Mac. Toast 10 offers revolutionary changes, but it has also cleaned up its act, with an improved user interface that provides faster access to the four most commonly used burning formats.

• Data. Toast can burn data in Mac Only, Mac & PC, UDF (DVD-ROM) ISO 9660, and Photo Disc formats. Aside from the Mac Only format, all of the options are cross-platform, making Toast a great choice for burning discs to share with friends who use that other operating system.

• Audio. Likewise, all of the audio formats (Audio CD, Music DVD, MP3, Enhanced Audio CD) can be used on just about any device that adheres to CD or DVD player standards.
• Video. Video formats that Toast 10 supports include DVD-Video, Blu-ray Video (with optional plug-in), Video_TS Folder, Video_TS Compilation, BDMV Folder, and AVCHD Archive. Video_TS Compilation allows you to combine multiple Video_TS folders into a single video DVD.
• Copy. Three types of media copying options are available. The Disc Copy option will copy any non-encrypted CD/DVD Blu-ray disc to a blank disc. You can also use Disc Copy to create an image file that will function the same as if you inserted the original disc into your Mac.

The Data, Video, and Copy options also allow you to compress data to fit the media, including squeezing a double-sided DVD onto a single-sided DVD blank.

Toast 10 Titanium: Convert

Toast 10 builds on the Convert functions introduced in Toast 9. Toast 10 performs a wide range of video and audio conversions to a large selection of file types and formats.

As you might expect, Toast can convert video for use on Apple TV, iPhones, video iPods, and the iPod Touch. But less predictably, it also has presets for Sony’s PSP and PlayStation 3, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360. If you want to convert a movie for viewing on your smartphone, Toast can convert it to the native formats used by BlackBerry, Palm, Treo, and generic 3G phones. It can also convert video for streaming.

While having preset conversion formats is nice, Toast can also convert to specific file types, including DV (the format used in iMovie and Final Cut), HDV, H.264 Player, MPEG-4, and QuickTime Movie. Gone is the option to convert to DivX, which was available in Toast 9.

Toast 10 audio conversions are not as extensive as those offered for video. Still the essentials are covered, with AAIF, WAV, AAC, Apple Lossless, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis. Also available is the ability to convert multiple audiobook CDs into a single audiobook file with chapter markers intact. Audiobook conversion is a great way to transfer your audiobooks to a portable player.

The Convert feature can also perform batch conversions. You can add multiple files to the Content pane, and Toast will obligingly convert each one for you.

Toast 10 Titanium: Additional New Features

Toast 10 Titanium includes many other new features. In fact, there are too many new features to address in this review, so we will just look at some of my favorites.

Web Video

Hidden in the Toast 10 Titanium Media Browser is a special category called Web Video. Web Video allows you to save videos from various web sources to your Mac for later viewing. You can also use any of your saved Web Videos as source material for any of Toast 10 Titanium’s capabilities, such as converting video for viewing on an iPhone or adding to a DVD.

CD Spin Doctor

Previous versions of CD Spin Doctor could only open AIFF and WAV audio files. Now CD Spin Doctor can open and save files in MP3, AAC , and Apple Lossless formats.

DVD Compilations

Earlier versions of Toast allowed you to created a compilation DVD by dragging multiple Video_TS folders to the DVD project. Each movie you added would have its own menu button in the DVD title section, to allow you to access each video in your compilation. Toast 10 builds on this by adding new menu styles, as well as the ability to add multiple movies to a DVD without adding multiple buttons to the title page. You can now watch your compilation in succession, without returning to the title page each time.

Streamer

Streamer allows you to stream EyeTV, TiVo, or other video sources on your Mac over the Internet for viewing on your iPhone or iPod touch.

Toast 10 Titanium: Wrap Up

Toast 10 Titanium brings a wide selection of data, audio, and video tools to both amateur and professional Mac enthusiasts. Its ability to provide multiple tools does not interfere with its core function: to burn information onto recordable media.

The only real disappointment for me is the same as it was with Toast 9: the Blu-ray plug-in remains an added-cost option.

I had some intermittent problems with the Web Video feature, although it may have been a problem with my Internet connection at the time of testing. Occasionally the web video I captured had some minor stuttering that wasn’t present in the original. Time will tell whether the feature or the Internet connection is the culprit, but the latter is more likely.

Toast 10 Titanium is my go-to application for audio and video authoring needs. Despite its many capabilities, it’s pretty darn easy to use.

4 1/2 stars.

Review Notes

There are two versions of Toast 10: Toast 10 Titanium, which was reviewed here, and Toast 10 Titanium Pro, which will be covered in a separate review.

Toast 10 Titanium system requirements:

• PowerPC G4, G5, or Intel-based Mac
• OS X 10.5 or later
• At least 512 MB memory
• Toast 10 Titanium: $99
• High-Def/Blu-ray Plug-in: $19.99