Overview

Roxio Toast is a popular Macintosh program for burning CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs. While it is most commonly known as a disc burning utility, the program also includes tools for producing movies, playing and converting media files, capturing Internet streams, and backing up data. Toast also integrates with iTunes and can export media for playback on different portable media players. Toast’s Titanium Pro edition includes advanced features, such as high definition video production and sound track customization.

User Interface

The Toast user interface is divided into five project categories: Data, Audio, Video, Copy, and Convert. To create a disc, users select a project category, add files to the project, and then burn the project to a disc. Users may drag files into the project window or use Toast’s Media Browser, which helps users locate music, photo, video, and other data files. Users may save a .TOAST or .ISO disc image file or a .DISC project file instead of burning the project to a disc.

Capabilities

Toast integrates with several personal media players and supports a large range of media file formats. It can export video clips for multiple devices, including Apple TV, iPhone, iPod, PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Xbox 360, BlackBerry and Palm Treo. Converted media files can be loaded directly into the iTunes library for easy organization.

Toast also enables users to create high definition videos and slideshows. It supports video from AVCHD camcorders, TiVo DVRs, and EyeTV, and can import several video and image file formats. Toast can also capture Internet TV programming and send video streams in real-time to a TiVo DVR. The built-in editing tools can be used for filtering out unwanted noises and trimming video segments. Captured and edited video can be sent to devices such as iPads, iPhones, and game consoles.

Toast includes several utility programs for managing discs and data:

• DiscCatalogMaker: A program that enables users to create a searchable database of all disc data that has been ripped or created.
• Get Backup: A Fujiwara Software title that allows users to backup and restore multimedia data.
• Disc Cover: A BeLight software title used for creating and printing disc labels.
• Spin Doctor: A utility for recording and digitizing analog audio from vinyl records or tapes.
• Mac2Tivo and TiVo Transfer: Two utilities used for managing multimedia data with TiVo devices.

User Community

Roxio Toast’s broad set of features are useful for both home and professional users. For example, home users might use Toast to create personal DVDs to share with friends and family, while professional users may use Toast to back up important data and create slideshows for clients. Toast is also growing in popularity among home users for integrating home entertainment systems with Internet TV and DVRs.

Screenshots:

Welcome	Video Disc	Extras
Data Projects	Video Projects	Convert Projects

Features:

• Burns music and video content to CD, DVD, and Blu-ray discs
• Converts, imports, and exports multiple video file formats
• Integrates with various personal media players
• Captures video and audio streams from the Internet
• Creates secure backups with password protection
• Allows users to publish video to YouTube, Facebook, or Vimeo

System Requirements:

Mac OS

• Mac OS X 10.5 or later
• Intel processor
• 1GB free disk space
• CD, DVD, or Blu-ray recorder for burning