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Provides: CD/DVD creation, along with copying and preparation of content for CD/DVD.
Developer: Roxio
Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X v10.5, G4/G5 or Intel processor with 1GB RAM, 1GB of disk space (up to 15GB of space for temp storage when in use), CD/DVD and/or Blu-ray recording device. [Note: you are only limited by what you do not have. That is, if you do not have a Blu-ray recording device, you cannot do Blu-ray recording, etc.]
Retail Price: $99.99 for standard version, $149.99 for Pro version (a $20 rebate from Roxio can be used for either product). For updates, the prices are $59.99 and $99.99 respectively. The Blu-ray plug-in is $20 with Toast 10, but included with Toast 10 Pro.

Why purchase a product to duplicate what the Mac Operating System can already do (and do for free)? Simply put, if you can get all your needs from what is already in the OS, there is no reason. But if you want more than what is provided by the Mac OS, a good place to start is with Roxio's Toast. To obtain an easier approach toward burning media, the ability to convert your media for other formats (iPods, Apple TV, iPhone, etc.), capture your computer's audio for future use on iPod, easy copying of disks, etc., Toast is good. In addition, Toast and Toast Pro provide the user a package of tools to make the stuff that you want to burn, better. So, rather than just burning your images, you can improve them and create a great slide show. Rather than just copy your old albums to iTunes, you can improve their sound before burning them. And, as long as you are creating DVDs of your families vacation, why not also add some music that's digital-rights free. It's all there in Toast.

Yes, you can burn CDs and DVDs with your Mac; it's a fairly straightforward and simple process. And, as long as you need to only do simple things, you are set. It's when you want to do something subtlety (or very) different that frustration comes to play and you want something better. Simply put, Toast provides options. For example, if you want to create a Hybrid CD, you can easily do so with Toast. [A Hybrid CD is a CD that when put into a Mac only, shows files for a Mac, and when you insert it into a PC, only shows files for a PC.]

Consider the controls in Toast, there are five main types of digital content to focus on when burning a disk—Data, Audio, Video, Copying, and Converting—and each of these has subcategories (and many of the subcategories have options). Consider the images below. I've done screen shots that reflect the range of potential options. Keep in mind that not all subcategories have options, and of those that do, not all have as many options as the following may have.

Were that all, it would be good, but there is more. New in Toast 10 is AVCHD Video Archive. What this does is back up any HD video you've taken directly onto DVDs or Blu-ray disks. Why is this important? If you do any photography, one of the basic work dictums that's drilled into you over and over at any symposium, lecture, or seminar you attend is to always back up your original images. Those should be left alone and stored separately. Doing that with video has always been a bit of a challenge. Now you can burn the original data onto DVD or Blu-ray with Toast 10 (assuming that your burner is Blu-ray capable).

You access your HD camcorder via the AVCHD Video selection from the Media Browser (Window (menu) -> Media Browser). Speaking of which, the MB now has direct links to your iLife media, and also has a new feature that's rather cool: Web video. Simply, you play any videos you want to burn on your Web Browser through to their end. These then show up in the new Web Video option in the MB. Then you can play them to verify that this is the video you want and if so, drag the item(s) you want to keep into Toast 10's window in the CD or DVD burning selection, chose your Menu style, and you are good to go. You too can have your own personal DVD of candy-coated-cute-kittens playing with a butterfly (just please do not show it to me). [Note: you might need the free Perian QuickTime plug-in to run some of the Flash web videos. Note2: any videos captured this way can only go to Toast and cannot be dragged directly to your computer.]

Toast, as an application, is mostly very "hackable." By that, I mean you can figure out much of the process of what to do (and how) by simply guessing, but the "Convert" option above goes against most of the other Toast precedents. In other Toast operations, you select the recording type, choose the options and then click the Record button. But when Converting, you select the type of operation, then click the Record button to access the options. The rest of Toast is so straightforward that I found this variation frustratingly different from other operations in Toast. As can be seen below, there is an excellent range of video options, but unless you read the manual, or this review, who would have thought that you'd access these options after you pressed the record button.

Other notable new features in Toast 10 include:

• The ability to convert Audiobook CDs into a format (m4b) that plays on your iPod (and merge the multiple files into one file).
• The ability to extract a small video clip off of a longer video (and do no damage to the original video).
• Over 20 new DVD menu selections for both regular and Blu-ray formats.

I've mentioned Blu-ray recording several times already, but there is a small caveat about this. Two, actually. One is that you do need a Blu-ray capable recording device to do such recording. The other issue is that if you've purchased Toast 10 (not the Pro version) you will have to pay a bit extra ($20) to have the Blu-ray burning feature. If you've purchased the Pro version, the Blu-ray recording capability is part of the package.

But this extra expense is only for Blu-ray recording. Otherwise, the standard Toast package has for a long time provided a varying collection of companion programs to provide better structure for what you purchased Toast for: burning CDs and DVDs. The following software items are bundled with Toast 10 so you have better things to burn. The various options have changed a bit over the years, but the current list now includes:

• Spin Doctor (my favorite): This can help you record from an analog source directly into your computer, and/or also help convert your old vinyl albums into digital music for CDs or your iTunes. It comes complete with features to enhance the sound, an equalizer, and limited ability to remove hiss, clips, and skips from vinyl records. The new version can also record any sound playing on your computer, and, when completed, will send that file directly to iTunes. Unfortunately, this is limited to only record any sounds playing on your computer, not any specific application. That means that if (for example) any other running application creates an "attention sound," that sound would be added to your recording. For more information on how to transfer your albums to CDs, see a "How To" article I wrote some time back called "12 to 12 in 12."
• Disk Cover 2 RE: A companion program of Spin Doctor is Disk Cover that helps you prepare proper CD/DVD labels and covers for Jewel Cases. Available are a number of clip art objects that can be used on your labels and/or jewel boxes, plus, you can customize all the text you want. Most important are about 350 templates for various peel and stick labels, plus you can customize as needed. [Note: "RE" stands for Roxio Edition and has fewer features than the product's standard version. An update can be purchased for a nominal fee. The RE version displays ghost images that are available in the updated version as a constant reminder and (somewhat annoying) enticer.]
• Streamer: This is a curious application that lets you stream videos from your computer via a special link on a sub-site from Roxio to people who can link into your stream via any wi-fi device, such as an iPhone, iPod touch or computer (connected to the internet). If your video is not in a format that is appropriate for streaming, Streamer automatically starts up Toast to convert the file into an appropriate format for streaming. Despite the limitation that your computer must be running for others to see the streamed videos, this can be handy when you want to show someone a video you are working on in progress.
• Get Backup 2 RE: If you need to back up parts of your "stuff" to make room on your hard drive, or you are backing things up to prevent loss of data, Get Backup is a nice place to start. It provides two different mechanisms or directions: one is a direct link from your iPhoto, Mailbox, iTunes, Documents (folder), and Address Book, or you can select any folder or file to archive. In addition there is a synchronizing option that lets you match two folders, for example one on your hard drive and one on a flash drive. This can be handy when you are working on a project at home and at the office and have a folder with many many files. You can drag the folder onto the flash drive and then drag the folder to the other hard drive, but instead of constantly replacing the folder on every move, by synchronizing the contents you might only be moving a few files instead of all of them. This movement can either go from the HD to flash drive, flash drive to HD, or bidirectional. There are some limitations, such as the facts that you cannot save any sets and you cannot exclude an individual item from a sync. [Note: "RE" stands for Roxio Edition, and has fewer features than the product's standard version. An update can be purchased for a nominal fee.]
• DiskCatalogMaker RE: If you are archiving images, files, and other items to make room on your computer, finding those items in the future is important. Every time you archive something from your computer, a catalog is created and is kept with DiskCatalogMaker. From the application, you can perform a very detailed search across all archives to help you locate the file(s) you want and what disk they'd be on. Of course, where you put that disk is up to you. [Note: "RE" stands for Roxio Edition and has fewer features than the product's standard version. An update can be purchased for a nominal fee.] The RE version can display embedded JPEG images, while the upgraded version will also display GIF, TIFF and other formats.
• Mac2TiVO: If you have a TiVO, any video that can be viewed with QuickTime can be transferred to your TiVO. Unfortunately any of these files have to be manually uploaded to your Tivo because Mac2TiVO cannot assign hot folders that automatically upload any files placed therein, as can the PC (only) product "TiVO Desktop." Mac2TiVO requires that you own a TiVO; a standard DVR (digital video recorder) will not work.

While these are generally great additions that let you significantly expand the potential uses of Toast, I found a few of the Roxio Edition formatted versions of the products a bit of a disappointment. In some cases, these limitations are completely irrelevant, such as in DiskCover (I almost never use clip-art, so the lack of backgrounds and enhanced type features is no loss to me). However, the inability to turn on or off individual items when doing a synchronization with Get Backup RE became an immediate deal breaker for my needs. Fortunately, these kinds of things are completely personal, so what is not good for me might be irrelevant to you, and vise versa. The good news is that these are complete, functioning applications that will not be nagging you to pay your shareware fee. And, if you want more, there is an option to upgrade to the full application. In addition, the upgrade fee is less expensive than purchasing the program from scratch. Plus, you can work with the Roxio Edition version for as long as you need or chose.

If you elect to go with the Pro version of Toast 10, you get four additional programs. These vary from the above programs in that each of them is the full application. Lightzone has a "Pro" version that can do batch operations, but the application provided with Toast 10 Pro is still the standard program. Likewise, SoundSoap has a Pro version which is considerably more expensive upgrade. Again, the intent that Roxio wishes to provide is that if you are going to go to the trouble of burning CDs and DVDs, you might as well have good things to burn.

The programs can be divided into three categories:

1. Images (image correction and enhancement (Lightzone)), and image presentation (Fotomagico)
2. Sound (sound enhancement (SoundSoap)), and
3. Movies (sound accompaniment (SonicFire)).

• Lightzone, by LightCrafts, is an image enhancement program. It is capable of handling TIFF and JPEG images and many raw formats. Lightzone utilizes LightCrafts' digital version of the "Zone System" initially created partly by Ansel Adams for film cameras. While this software is certainly no match for Photoshop, I found it much better than what iPhoto has to offer. On the other hand, Lightzone has two "views:" one for browsing your hard drive for images and another for editing an image that you've found. If you are in the middle of editing an image and then want to stop and look for another image for whatever reason, the program's default settings take the image on which you've been working and saves it at whatever point you were working on as a copy—leaving the original alone. While this is good, what you do get if you go back and forth between the Browse mode and Edit mode is a JPEG that's been saved multiple times. Fortunately you can select in the preferences for the image to either not be saved when flipping to the Browser and/or autosave the image as a TIFF to prevent JPEG degradation. (List price $130)
• Fotomagico, by Boinx Software is one of the premier slideshow software packages out there today. Sort of a cross between PowerPoint/Keynote and a slideshow package, you can vary individual transitions between images as well as have the Ken Burns Effect on any given slide. This is a big step up from most other slideshow programs that only allow one transition type for the entire slideshow. The display time for any individual slide can be controlled as well. However, I found it very difficult to pre-set the order of the images by labeling them with 001.jpg, 002.jpg, (etc.) prefix. Fotomagico didn't respect this numbering scheme despite Boinx technical support insisting that that approach was how to do such ordering. Ironically, "PhotoPresenter," also by Boinx software, does respect such a numbering scheme to maintain order in a presentation. While you can move images around after opening them in Fotomagico, I couldn't find any way to reliably maintain a given order from the Finder to the application. Another disappointment was the dynamic of playing music with your slideshow: the (seemingly) very simple request for having a slideshow last the length of one song cannot be done in Fotomagico. Needless to say, most of the things you can do with Fotomagico cannot be done with PhotoPresenter, while it's ironic that the two things you can do easily in PhotoPresenter cannot be done with Fotomagico. Despite these two limitations, Fotomagico can provide an amazing slideshow. (List price $49)
• SoundSoap is made by Bias Software, and is used to clean up noise in audio; for instance, the audio from a vinyl album you just converted into a digital file or the audio from a home movie where you want to remove the air conditioner noise rattling on in the background. SoundSoap is amazingly simple to use; with just two sliders and a few controls, it provides excellent sound improvement that can easily be used by the home user. My biggest disappoint with SoundSoap is that there is no equalizer for performing any fine-tuning across the frequency range of your sounds. SoundSoap Pro does provide an equalizer but at an upgrade price of some $400. Surprisingly, if your music requires any equalizer assistance, you can always bring the "cleaned up" file into Spin Doctor, already provided with Toast 10 and use Spin Doctor's Equalizer. (List price $129)
• SonicFire is made by SmartSound, and provides royalty free music that you can purchase. That oxymoronic-concept is important if you want to create home movies with music but also want to distribute those movies without any concern about anyone chasing after you with a legal pad under their arm. SonicFire's setup is not too different in concept from what you get at iTunes. That is, there are hundred and hundreds of sound samples that you can preview a one minute sample of the music. If there are any that you find appropriate, you can purchase the full sound piece for a reasonable amount of money and play it as often as you want, and give it away as much as you want with no concern about rights. When you purchase the music, you can do just about anything you want with it outside of claiming you wrote, produced, and/or played the music. The biggest issue (no pun intended) with SonicFire is that if you install every sample of music provided, it will occupy some 4.28 GB of space on your computer. That's space well occupied if rights-free music is important to you, and a warning if you do not have a demanding need. (List price $99)

Now let's take a look at this pair of packages. There's Toast 10 for $99 and Toast 10 Pro for $149 . If you want to burn Blu-ray disks, that would then be $119 and $149 respectively (remember, the Blu-ray feature is included in the Pro package). If you look at the costs of the added products with the Pro version, There's $407 of software you can include for an extra $30.

My only nit-pick that I've always had with Toast (in general) is the mechanism for the way they update their program(s), Roxio releases the whole kit and caboodle as a single replacement download. For example, if you update to the most recent release, 10.0.1, you will download a whole new Toast, Spin doctor, Disk Cover, Streamer, Get Backup, DiskCatalogMaker, and Mac2TiVO. Not all of these will be new, but you will have to download the compressed version and replace them new or not. It's a strange way to do things, but that's what Roxio chooses to do.

In short, this is either a great package or an irrelevant package. If you have read all this and are still scratching your head as to why any of this software exists, you should have saved yourself some time and read something else. On the other hand, if you want more than what Apple provides, you might be considering Toast or Toast Pro. One obvious potential problem with bundled software packages is that you may not need or want all that comes with the package. If you have Photoshop, you certainly do not need Lightzone. If you are a wiz with Garageband and can create your own music, SonicFire is not too important. That's the deal with bundled packages; there's a lot there, and some of it will be more important to you than other parts. But those are really side issues here. The fact of the matter is that Toast is a great product. Even if each of the bundled products individually is not as great as Toast is itself, the fact that they are bundled together makes it a "you can't lose" kind of situation.

Toast, by itself, is a great product. It does so much that to itemize everything would be more of a tutorial than a review. Wisely, Roxio separated the standard bundle from the Pro version (with an additional bundle of non-restricted software). Roxio was also very wise to bundle the Blu-ray plug-in with the Pro version. My only wish is that I'd like there to be a "Toast-Plus" version that provided the full versions of the various RE provided versions of the standard Toast package. There could also be a "Toast-Plus Pro" version that bundled in the Pro software as well.

We reviewers, we're never satisfied...

Nonetheless, to rate this package, one has to look not only at the ability of the application itself, but also at the value. As far as the application itself, Toast 10 delivers. As far as the value as a package, again, Toast 10 delivers. You might not want and/or need all of what Roxio has to offer here, but there's so much, some amount of it is bound to meet your needs to let you burn better stuff.

Applelinks Rating:

Buy Toast 10 Titanium

___________ Gary Coyne has been a scientific glassblower for over 30 years. He's been using Macs since 1985 (his first was a fat Mac) and has been writing reviews of Mac software and hardware since 1995.