Toast 7

[macuser25]

http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0508toast.html

[hovispresley]

Mmmm looking good.

[londor]

Also according to one beta-tester (ThomasG) Toast 7 has PopCorn built in.

[galactica]

You know whats funny, just tdoay i was thinking to myself... I wonder when Toast 7 is going to come out.

HAHAHAH how funny

[terryj]

WHOA!!!

man, the Compressor like settings under
Advanced tab are making me wet my shorts!!

[AntnyMD]

Continued development of Toast is a great thing.
Toast "quirks" at the launch of a new version have never been fun. Dont wet yourself just yet.

[pusa]

http://docs.sonic.com/081705_toast7/wave1.html?sssdmh=dm15.67890

[chikanakan]

I don't know if anyone is using Toast 7 yet, but it is pretty cool. It has support for DVD-VR discs and can extract down to the chapter level in the new media browser.

The new disc info reads Media ID and has a link to Videohelp.com. Lots of cools stuff.

I also like the new disc spanning feature and restore tool that lets me backup lots of data over multiple CD/DVD. I can span big MPEG and DV files to CD for archiving.

Oh, and there is a new Hybrid format with more control.

So much stuff, it's hard to know where to start playing with it. Time to check out the PSP and DivX 6 export.

[onegoodmove]

I just purchased a copy of Toast 7 and though it may just be my ignorance I've run into a problem. Dragged a 40 minute .avi file into toast selected DVD video clicked record got the message 5.29GB needed 4.38 available. Does anyone have an idea what is going on isn't it supposed to compress to fit on a standard DVD.

[chikanakan]

Well, it depends on the bit rate. Did you use automatic, or did you change the encoder or audio settings? It should say in the draw what the settings are. It seems the disc gauge has been updated to, so it is pretty accurate. If you mouse over the gauge, it should tell you how much is being used by displaying a tool tip.

The gauge will also turn turn yellow, then red if too much data is added.

[onegoodmove]

I used automatic. I just tried doing custom settings reduced encoding to lowest possible settings and it still says it won't fit on a standard DVD claims to need 5.3GB disk only 4.36.

[chikanakan]

Are you sure the DivX file is only 40 minutes? I've burned a 2 hour Divx file with no problem. When you click the edit button in Toast, what does the info says about the file?

[Frobozz]

Try Save as Disc Image to find out if it really requires that much space.

[terryj]

yuuck!
It requires Quicktime 7?!?!?
Have all the bugs been worked out of QT 7 yet?
Quicktime 7 and OSX 10.39 don't play well I've found....

[onegoodmove]

It says the file is 40:35, I changed the settings to Video 2.00Mbps (2.00 Mbbs max,) 4:3 Audio: Dolby Digital 128kbps. I'm now getting there's not enough free space on this disc: 2537535 sectors (4.84 GB) are needed, 2298496 sectors (4.38 GB are available. I tried doing an image with default settings but got a 0K file. I'm going to try that again.

I have Quicktime 7 and OSX 10.4.2 I've had no problems with Quicktime 7

[DanSlagle]

QT7 is a disaster in my opinion. Even on Tiger. Thank God I kept a copy of 6 around. Apple has some work to do with 7.

[willrob]

Some infor from xcelerateyourmac.com

First report on Toast 7 (VR-mode discs, HD, new features) -

" Mike, I'm not with Roxio but had the fun privilege of being a Toast 7 beta tester. My focus was on handling of VR-mode discs from a standalone DVD recorder and on HD MPEG or iMovie HD sources. Toast 7 works brilliantly with these.

Starting with VR-mode discs: As people with standalone recorders of DVD camcorders know, Macs won't mount a VR-mode disc. (Note - I'm not sure what OS X version Thomas used, but see below for a reader note that OS X 10.4 did mount his VR discs, although previous OS versions wouldn't.-Mike ) Toast 7 does! Launch Toast 7 and insert the VR-mode disc. Go to the Media Browser and select DVD. The content of the VR-mode disc appears. You can select the entire disc or individual titles. Drag the content to the Toast Video window and the MPEGs are copied from the disc to the Roxio Converted Items folder. That's all there is to it. The MPEGs are now available to be burned to DVD or exported to a variety of formats. WARNING: The default Toast preference is for the converted items folder to be emptied when quitting Toast. I recommend choosing a different setting so you don't accidentally delete the copied MPEGs before you're done with the project.

Now for HD content: Toast 7 automatically recognizes 16:9 content and encodes video DVDs properly for 16:9 playback on widescreen TVs and letterbox 4:3 on standard TVs. I used Apple's VirtualDVHS 2 to capture HD streams from my Comcast/Motorola 6412 PVR. Toast 7 doesn't recognize these streams (although I'm told it will recognize EyeTV TS streams). I opened the captured TS stream in MPEG Streamclip and chose Export to MPEG. This converted the stream to an HD MPEG file which Toast 7 recognized. Toast re-encoded the MPEG to an SD 16:9 video for DVD with no difficulty. Toast also retained the 5.1 AC-3 audio from the original.

I also tested with 1280x720 HD DV files in iMovie HD. I was able to drag the video straight from the iMovie timeline as well as drag the iMovie Project file to Toast. In either case Toast correctly encoded the video and properly retained the 16:9 aspect ratio.

I tried a mix of 16:9 and 4:3 movies to be burned on one DVD with Toast. Using Toast's Automatic setting, the aspect ratio was correct for each of the movies.

Some of the other features I especially like are the Media Browser for accessing iTunes, iPhoto, Movie folder and DVD content, data disc spanning, 10 nicely designed video DVD menus that show up to six Titles per page (plus optional chapter menus), built in "Popcorn" compression, and the Shuffle Play and Smart Lists addition to the DVD Music Album. For users who don't have Roxio Jam, it's terrific that Toast now includes the DVD Music Album and AC-3 video DVD encoding without having to buy Jam.
-Thomas "

A reader replied to this posting saying OS X Tiger (10.4.x) will mount VR discs:

" Hi Mike,
Just wanted to let you know that, in contrary to what the writer of the first Toast 7 report claims, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is capable of mounting VR mode DVD's. We've used a JVC standalone DVD recorder to record the complete Live8 concert (we didn't want to miss the Pink Floyd performance ).
OS X Panther and Jaguar refused to read our VR mode DVDs, however Tiger mounted it perfectly.
Greetings, Thijs "

[chikanakan]

Well, 10.4 will mount UDF 2.0 and 2.0.1 discs now (which are true DVD-VR discs), but it doesn't use them correctly. What is the point in the finder mounting them and not being able to use the files in any useful way.

It really all depends on how the DVD is recorded. If it was recored in Video mode, then it is just a standard DVD as long as it is finalized. It uses UDF 1.02 and will work on the Mac in 10.3 and 10.4 without a problem. However, if it is on a DVD-RAM or DVD-RW (or recorded in VR mode), then it is true VR mode and the files can't be used on the Mac without an Application that supports UDF 2.0.

So far, Toast is the best app on the Mac that will use DVD-VR discs. Toast also support DVD-RAM camcorders, DVD+VR, 16x9 and 4x3 aspect ratio even if they are combined into one title.

So far the VR support is really great in Toast 7. Much much better than the other software out there.

[terryj]

QT7 is a disaster in my opinion. Even on Tiger. Thank God I kept a copy of 6 around. Apple has some work to do with 7.

Dan so does that mean,
you run Tiger with QT 6.52?

I have one test machine at work with QT7 and Tiger 10.42 and it works
ok, but I had to take ALL video related things off of it because
QT 7 caused major FCP/DVDSP3 headaches.

I'm at QT 6.52 and OSX 10.39,and I'm doing an FDR here
until I hear otherwise.....

[DanSlagle]

Yes, currently I am running QT 6 player with the QT 7 libraries. Not the best idea but it seems to work for me.

I would stick with 10.3.9 and QT 6 given a choice.

[Frobozz]

A couple more things about Toast 7. It reveals the media codes if you insert a blank disc and choose Disc Info. It also reports a wealth of information about your drive if you choose Recorder Settings and click the tab that has the name of your drive.

[willrob]

It turns out anyone can get this special rebate deal—you can register as a new customer and do not need your previous user id/password or even a seerial number from another version. Still have no clue, however, if a CD/Manual is included.

[Mucx]

Damn!!

I just bought Toast 6 an Popcorn together about 3 weeks ago!...well that's p***ed me off a bit.

[willrob]

The MacWorld article about Toast 7 says:

"Tiger users also gain the Desktop Recorder Dashboard Widget, a handy utility that enables you to capture live audio using CD Spin Doctor, a companion
application that’s also included with Toast 7 Titanium. You can use it to record voice memos or audio from any analog source."

After buying and downloading Toast 7, this widget seems to be absent. CD Sping Doctor's recording audio feature is there, but no widget.

[Frobozz]

The widget is installed from CD Spin Doctor. It's in the CD Spin Doctor menu right under Preferences.

Also, someone posted on the Toast 7 Forum that Motion Pictures is missing its Help.

As for the manual, Toast has a very good Getting Started Guide that is essentially its manual. It is in PDF format for the download and is in book form when the packaged product comes out.

[macuser25]

Mucx - contact their customer support in Canada - if you 've purchased after 8/1 you can get Toast 7 for a reduced price. Just ask them for it.

[nordesmic]

I've got my copy of Toast 7 and was interested to hear of the popcorn features. I've ripped one of my dvds to my hard drive and want to compress it to a single layer version. It only seems to be possible to compress a dvd if you read directly from the dvd, which I can't do cos I only have one drive. I thought that the popcorn features would mean I could read from the ripped file and compress and burn in one step. Is it possible to do this, or do I still need DVD2oneX for now?

[londor]

I've got my copy of Toast 7 and was interested to hear of the popcorn features. I've ripped one of my dvds to my hard drive and want to compress it to a single layer version. It only seems to be possible to compress a dvd if you read directly from the dvd, which I can't do cos I only have one drive. I thought that the popcorn features would mean I could read from the ripped file and compress and burn in one step. Is it possible to do this, or do I still need DVD2oneX for now?

1-Select the Video tab and choose DVD-Video from Video_TS.
2-Drag the Video_TS folder onto the Toast window.
3-Make sure Fit-to-DVD video compression is checked in the options drawer.
4-Select the Copy Options.

[nordesmic]

Thanks very much Londor, I knew it had to be there somewhere

[Mauserman]

I wonder if it can rip a dvd with subtitles to divx? I doubt it, but it would be great.