TOAST 6.0 OR TOAST 5.1.1

[the posse]

I HAVE RECENTLY PURCHASED TOAST 6.0 and i don´t really see the difference between 6.0 and 5.1,can anyone explain to me,i.e does it burn quicker,i don´t think so,but the one thing that bugs me is the fact that when you put in a dvd-rw with a film on it in 5.1 it offers to erase it whereas in 6.0 it does not.I´m a newbie here so go easy on me.
Basically i just want to know why toast 6.0 is better and if not i´ll just carry on using 5.1.1

[pusa]

Toast 6 is better. That's why I bought it.

[terryj]

Top Ten Things better about Toast 6:

10. Its the only Toast compatiable with Pioneer A06/DVR-106 drives.

9. More Stability with high speed ( 40x or greater) burners.
I haven't had any FAKE "Buffer Underrun" messages I used to get in Toast 5.21.

8. Now lets you to specify DVD, SVCD, or VCD.
Toast 5.x only lets you choose VCD or DVD.

7. Improved Spin Doctor for fixing/mastering audio CDs.

6. Creates DVD's and VCDS and SVCDS in an acceptable
interface with Menus.

5. Creates Drag and Drop motion picture CDs.
Drag photos, and animate with a Ken Burns effect,
with music like iPhoto.

4. Faster encoding of QT mov to MPG-1

3. Copying now allows you to Copy DVDs directly, provided
there is no copyguard.

2. More support for after market CD-burners so you can pick and choose
what to use in your Mac. Want to use a 52x32x52x Mad Dog CD-r/rw CompUSA $29 special ...? A Office Max Khypermedia $19.95 after rebate
52x42x52x cheap CD-r/rw? In A MAC?!? You'll need Toast 6....

and the number one reason:

1. Its Video MPG-1 compression component can create MPG-1's
out of anything! Troublesome AVI's, DIVX, improper windows
formatted MPG's...it's saved me tons of headache and enabled me
to get the job done fast.

[tdogg4ya]

Things about Toast 6 I don't like...

1. Has to encode (split a/v apart and back together again) vcd, svcds, takes too long esecially when I just got done encoding it, so I know its compliant. Toast 6 takes too long, Toast 5 just takes your word for it and burns it!

2. Sometimes vcds burnt are altered not letting audio match over some vcds (as result of using Toast 6 to burn VCD). Although when burn same mpeg1 with my pc, its perfect.

3. Can't customize dvd making too much


Other than that, Toast 6 rules and is far better than toast 5

[AntnyMD]

Things about Toast 6 I don't like...

1. Has to encode (split a/v apart and back together again) vcd, svcds, takes too long esecially when I just got done encoding it, so I know its compliant. Toast 6 takes too long, Toast 5 just takes your word for it and burns it!

The Toast 6.0.3 update no longer re-encodes already in-spec VCD/SVCD/DVD video. It also no longer re-encodes MPEG audio to PCM for DVDs. It also now accepts muxed MPEG2 video with AC-3 audio in the DVD-Video tab.

Toast's web site asks you to note there is no verion 6.0.1 or 6.0.2, although I read weeks ago in this forum that some pressed CD copies of "the original" Toast 6 carried those version numbers.

[gmackenz]

The Toast 6.0.3 update no longer re-encodes already in-spec VCD/SVCD/DVD video.

HAH! I still end up quitting Toast 6.0.3 because it still re-encodes FFMPEGX created standard VCD mpg files. I am forced to use Toast 5.2 for VCD creation...Bleh! Sucks to have to have both versions still on my system.

[AntnyMD]

Are you sure its really encoding? It will say "encoding" even though its merely checking the entire file to make sure it is spec. Also I've noticed that sometimes I forget to encode the audio at the correct sampling rate, so it does re-encode the audio (but NOT the video).

[gmackenz]

Are you sure its really encoding? It will say "encoding" even though its merely checking the entire file to make sure it is spec. Also I've noticed that sometimes I forget to encode the audio at the correct sampling rate, so it does re-encode the audio (but NOT the video).

It does say after "Preparing," "Encoding." How can one find out if the audio isn't correct for the VCD spec? Shouldn't the presets for VCD in FFMPEGX by just that? How did you discern that only the audio was being re-encoded?

I used the standard preset from the QUICK PRESETS drop-down menu for VCD for each of my three divx anime files and deselected only the "Author as VCD" in TOOLS. For Audio the sampling rate is set to 224 kbit/s bitrate; 44100 Hz;Stereo;CBR.

All I know is that with 5.2 version of TOAST takes a fraction of the time 6.0.3 to burn an hours worth of anime as a VCD and it's very frustrating as otherwise TOAST is a fine OSX program (over than having no overburn capability). I wish some of the shareware burning/mastering programs were able to as much easily as TOAST does...Particularily in VCD Menu creation, which TOAST 6 still lacks easily manipulation of background/buttons by the GUI.

[AntnyMD]

I was able to discern that it was merely re-encoding out-of-spec audio because it took just 15 or so minutes to do so. A full re-encode of the video would have taken hours.

I haven't used ffmpegX for awhile so I can't give any educated guesses. There must be something about the encode that isn't exactly to spec ... for example, are you tweaking the framerate of the video because its anime? Toast only makes 25fps or 29.97fps encodes. It can do NTSC film (or at least Toast 5 could) you have to practically guess the correct key combination to get this extra option to reveal.