Roxio Toast 8 Titanium (Mac) [OLD VERSION] Reviews

• Still the very best

  
  By A2RKWNE1LRQN6C on 2007-02-03
  Toast has always been the best burning software on the Mac and this version is no exception. I had skipped over version 7 and wasn't sure about getting version 8 since I had the impression that much of what Toast does is already built into the Mac. Boy was I wrong. What comes with the OS, iTunes and iDVD barely scratches what Toast 8 can do. There's a reason why people continue to recommend this as a must have app on the Mac - it's gone way beyond burning of CDs and DVDs.
  
  Likes:
  * Data Spanning - a must have for EVERYONE - if you have files that are too big to fit onto a CD or a DVD (and it's really pretty easy to have this now... think video files or your iTunes library) Toast splits them and burns a piece onto every disc.... and you can take those discs to any Mac or PC to use them.
  * Burn Catalog - this is cool - it keeps track of the contents of your discs - so you can see what's on them - even when the discs aren't in the computer anymore. I love this one...
  * Music DVD - puts 1000 songs on a regular DVD so you can play it in your home theater system and see menus and album info while the song is playing.
  * Photo Disc - my wife loves this one... makes great looking photo disc slideshows to send to PC users
  * EyeTV - I use EyeTV to get TV shows onto the Mac - and this is THE ONLY way to burn DVDs of your recorded show - and it's fast.
  * DIVX - I like to download DiVX files but iDVD can't turn them into DVDs - but this Toast can
  * DVD copying - Roxio put all of the other product Popcorn into Toast - so if you want to copy DVDs or convert DVDs for iPod... don't get Popcorn - get this.
  * Labeler - I like to make case inserts of the DVDs I burn and this labeler in Toast is really top notch.
  * Printed manual - YES you read this right, it comes with a printed user guide... how cool is that?!
  
  Dislikes:
  * New look - I'm not such a huge fan of the "new and improved" UI... I was used to the old one in Toast 6 and it will take some time to get used to the new... I guess that the price you pay for progress.
  
  Overall I'm really happy with this purchase. There aren't too many other apps you need to use the Mac, but this is one of them I think. If you've recently switched from a PC to the Mac and you're looking for a burning program - this is the one to get.
  
  

• Just so you're aware... "TiVoToGo" feature may not work.

  
  By A3TUZOJZM9008Y on 2007-01-17
  Toast 8 Titanium is a worthwhile upgrade for the program. The GUI for the program has changed somewhat. Significantly enough that you'll notice. But not so much that there would be a learning curve to get around when using it. The whole thing is pretty much plug-n-play. If you're familiar with Toast 7, this will be a snap for you. If not, everything is fairly well spelled out, if not obvious for a mid-level Mac user. If you can do drag and drop functions, you can use Toast 8.
  
  One of the big selling points for this program is the integration of TiVoToGo capabilities. This has been elusive to Mac users up until now. For many, it will still be elusive. What you will find out upon installation is that it will work with properly equipped Series 2 or Series 3 boxes. However, it will not work with DirecTv supplied TiVo units. Also, you should be aware that not all TiVo units have their USB ports enabled. Thus causing an issue with connecting to your existing network. There are work-arounds for these issues. But using them may void the waranty on your TiVo.
  
  Overall, I'm happy with the purchase. The program works faster on my Intel iMac than Toast 7. But I still wish the TiVoToGo would work in my home.
  
  

• Titanium 8* Solid software, but... A Critical Review.

  
  By AIFLY2HF8NS8U on 2007-05-12
  This is another product that I wish Amazon would allow us to give half (1/2) stars because I would rate the Toast 8 at four and one half stars as opposed to a perfect five.
  
  For someone to give a product 5 stars, it is presupposed that the product is outstanding with no unrealistic flaws. There a few that you should be aware of. First of all...
  
  Toast 8 is a bundled software package. Until now, it was just the premiere cd/dvd burning software for the Mac. Period. And, it is still the most economical and best multi-platform burning software for the Mac, only this time
  Roxio has decided to combine several little add-ons to make Toast 8 a more attractive buy. Indeed, it does. We've used earlier editions of Toast in various functions such as in providing the local print shop with our files for advertising and promotional material for our theatre. Never a problem. We've used Toast to back up files on the harddrive and archived them. Never a problem. Making crisp clean copies of audio cd's, excellent, except in the version we had, one could not go back to I-Tunes to burn files once Toast was installed. It seemed as if Toast "bogarted" the cd-burning ability from I-Tunes.
  
  Toast 8*
  The cd/ dvd functions, excellent as always. But, you're (we're) now able to use I-Tunes to burn files we have on file without having to go to Toast. Great. Roxio kept a perfect software in tact.
  
  CD Spindoctor*
  Unless I'm wrong, but I think Roxio has used their "PC" name for the Mac-version of their audio filtering software "Jam". That created just a little confusion, they should have just said "Jam," because they marketed it as being included in Toast 8. With that being said, you should know that THERE ARE NO INSTRUCTIONS FOR ANY OF THE OTHER FREE SOFTWARE INCLUDED EXCEPT FOR THE ORIGINAL TOAST SOFTWARE. The booklet that comes in the box has instructions for only the cd burning, Toast. If you're not familiar with the other software like I was "CD Spin Doctor ("Jam"), Disc Cover Re, Disc Catalog, Motion Picture HD or TiVo to Go, then you'll have to find instructions on-line. Spindoctor/ "Jam" is excellent for what it does. I've used several times to restore and back-up old cassettes that I worried would break. This particular software used to come as a stand-alone software about 6 months after the latest version of Toast would appear, bringing the combined cost of Toast and Jam to about $150. It's now free! (I spoke to a rep. at Roxio concerning some directions on using Spindoctor and she told me afterwards that Roxio was discontinuing "Jam" and decided on adding it to Toast.)
  
  Spindoctor instructions-- you'll need to have in addition to the audio device (ie, turntable/cassette deck) an RCA 1/8 audio input jack. The 1/8" input goes directly into the MacBook/ PowerBook or MacPro etc. jack. The red and white (right and left) channels goes into the "Line Out" of the audio device. Once you open Spin D, you'll have to decide if you want to record from the computer's internal mic's or the input module. Unless you're recording a discussion in the room, I'd suggest the input. Once you do that, you'll notice in the bottom section, right, the time remaining on the computer's harddrive for recording. *It doesn't give you the file saving option yet, as it automatically saves it as an uncompressed WAV file.
  
  After you've done your recording, you'll have to engage the "wand" device to see the spectrum. Spin will automatically break the recording into sections. You'll move the triangle to the spot where you'd like to make some adjustments. Correspondingly, you'd have to look to the bottom where the numbers correspond to the colored sections, if you would. Hitting delete removes that section of the audio file. Beware... when editing, only the audio in the colored (red, yellow, blue, etc) will be transfered to Toast for burning and/ or I-Tunes for storage. It's not always easy to determine what's been deleted as the background is a pale grey.
  
  When finished, you can either add equalizer enhancements (a small tab in the upper right-hand corner) or send to Toast and or/ I-Tunes. There's a box in spin that says "Path". This is important, because if you want to delete the uncompressed WAV file, you'll need this information to find it to delete once you've archive the uncompressed to cd/dvd and the compressed file in I-Tunes. Both, you'll have to engage from the drop-down menu.
  
  *Disc Cover RE-- You can use this, if you have a disc that allows for burning images on the top.
  *Disc Catalogue-- This is great if you'd like to know what you've burned and when, but it won't tell you where the file is if you've followed the Path and deleted the original file.
  
  *I haven't used Tivo-to-Go, but a friend said the resolution left something to be desired.
  
  With the exception of the lack of supporting instructions for the free, bundled software. This is absolute worth upgrading to. If nothing else than for software that you'd probably buy separately.
  
  

• It does what I need

  
  By A186GX1WIRGO7Z on 2007-02-02
  Toast 8, just does what I need. I bought Toast because I needed support for a new DVD burner that neither the basic OS (10.4) nor my slightly old version of iDVD would support. It offers easy to understand interface that I've come to expect from a first class Mac app (and have found lacking in Disk Copy). Toast burns my dual layer DVDs just fine. It burns everything else I've thrown at it just fine as well. It also solved a problem that I had just accepted before. When making backups for remote storage, it seamlessly spans multiple CDs and DVDs. It tells me how many disks I'm going to need before I get started. It guides me through the entire process.
  
  One of the bundled apps that I didn't expect to use is Deja Vu, the backup/mirroring/etc. Utility. I have several shareware backup utilities and was reasonably happy with them. I've found however, that they cannot compare with Deja Vu for flexibility, power and ease of use. It has become the new backup standard at my house.
  
  There is a ton of other capabilities in this package that I just haven't gotten to use yet but I an extremely pleased with this package and would not hesitate to recommend it to other users.
  
  

• Useful but not sufficient

  
  By A6FIAB28IS79 on 2007-04-28
  While iTunes is great for downloading and burning files, Apple users will no doubt discover that the included programs can be slow and cumbersome at other tasks, such as copying CD and DVD discs and recording analog sound and converting it to digital. Toast will copy audio and video files as well as legal audio and video discs reliably and quickly (Toast 8 does so faster than Toast 6 and really ramps up the graphics). And give Roxio credit for once again providing a hard-copy manual for this edition.
  
  But Spin Doctor 2 is still Spin Doctor 2. It's fairly accurate in sensing the tracks in an LP. And conversion is relatively problem-free providing you don't start fooling with the filters. Perhaps the problem of "cleaning up" those distorted, snap-crackle-pop vinyl discs is the same with any program. For every gain, there's a loss--in frequencies, presence, naturalness. I've found that it's not worth the hours of experimentation, though others may appreciate the feature, or know how it compares with similar programs.
  
  The main problem with Spin Doctor becomes evident upon trying to edit, say, an hour-long radio broadcast. Why Roxio would leave this bundled program unattended for the past several upgrades is a mystery. I have yet to hear of anyone who actually found the bright and colorful wave formations practical for any sort of editing. Even when editing by the clock instead of the visual wave, it's impossible to attain precision accuracy. Finally, unlike some other programs for recording FM analog programs to computer, Spin Doctor does not yet have a timer for starting an automated recording.
  
  Unfortunate, because Toast is a user-friendly program, but if you're a Mac person looking for Cool-Edit precision plus automatic start, the comparably-priced Sound Edit is probably the best bet. I'm presently dependent on iTunes, Toast 8, and Sound Edit. With any luck, maybe by the time Toast 9 or 10 arrives, two will be plenty.
  
  
• Toast 8
  By ARSXN4C2KU4X3 on 2007-01-25
  I recently encountered a problem with the purchase of Toast 8 Titanium and have had problems with Roxio in the past. Well, things appear to be changing. I had the pleasure of dealing with a caring Roxio employee who took care of my problem in an efficient, effective and extremely friendly manner. After some discussion with this person, I came away with the feeling that things are changing for the better. My experience could not have been better.
  
  I still think that Toast is one of the best pieces of software ever written for Macintosh. I especially like the new feature in version 8, the ability to create CDs of photos that one can give to friends and family. The recipient can play a slideshow on either PC or Mac with no need for any additional software, not even Toast. This feature, alone, is worth the upgrade to me. A great piece of software, and a company that looks to me like it will be providing first rate customer service.
  
  
• ok but not great...
  By A2Y1WNETD9AYHO on 2007-01-24
  I have been using toast 7 and was hoping toast 8 would offer more for the upgrade price than it does....
  
  The divx encoder is still not the latest version that support multi-core processors - major bummer
  
  If your a new user then toast is by all means worth it... but if your an upgrader welllllll toast 7 is just fine..... this should have been a 15 dollar upgrade because its just not that much more powerful.... sorry Roxio but these high upgrade charges should mean more product.
  
  
• I miss Alsoft's version
  By A3OHZN8T4VEX1J on 2007-07-21
  Deciding to upgrade my old standby software for my new ProMac the installation of Toast8 has been nothing but trouble for me.
  The look of this app. is great but the actual usage was a nightmare.
  I have spent over 3 hours on the phone with Roxio's Tech. Support but they have been unhelpful and finally useless for my issue.
  What happened to me was, with Toast's new automatic media finder.
  Every time I wnated to burn an old MP3 file (that had always worked with the Alsoft version)
  this NEW TOAST would not only change the name of the disk info I would list but would RENAME the actual file!!
  Toast would take my original file, example: "My Voice" to be burned on a disk called "My Disk".
  I would end up with A disk called "Purchased" (taking that title from an iTunes folder title)
  and Toast would rename the burned file as "Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho!!
  The actual playback of this newly named file WAS the "My Voice" track but it had been burned and stored with this new name.
  This happened over and over again with different files being given different names.
  I emailed tracks to Roxio (who doesn't support their product directly but sends you to a subcrontracted support site) who had the same problems.
  They tried a few fixes and reinstalls but no luck. The final work around that Roxio gave me was to drag my files into Toast
  but Manually give each one a completely NEW NAME before burning.
  While, this does work, it was hardly convenient for backing up music files that I would want to have their original names.
  I have now completely uninstalled Toast8's application and
  have happily reeturned to using Alsoft's version with MAC Classic OS.
  A ADDITONAL WARNING: Roxio does not give ANY free installation support. You will be given to
  a secondary company who charges $35.00 for any technical issue!
  
  
• No Customer Service
  By A7ZJYWFKIHBNX on 2007-07-18
  Couldn't get it to work. I wanted my tivo programs to download to my Mac so that I could take my TV shows on the road with me. I wanted to be able to burn to a CD. Couldn't get the Tivo, Mac and Toast to pair up. What really bugs me is, OK so I am not the most proficient computer person out there, I am fairly knowledgeable. Well, Mac wouldn't help on a 3rd party, Tivo could get me hooked up on their end, but then Toast has no customer service....unless you want to pay $35.00 for the call. Sorry, I like my purchases to have a bit of complimentary support. I returned it . Oh yeah, and the rebate was only if you were upgrading from a previous version. That was not clearly marked in the information before I bought it.
  
  
• NO customer service
  By A12RKMDF9U815Y on 2007-01-27
  The Toast CD is defective. Once on my hard drive, Toast will not boot. There is no phone number for customer support, and emails and on line inquiries have been ignored.
  
  A total wast of money for a worthless disc.
  
  
• Use a DVD recorder instead to offload your Tivo
  By A18WUD1F0AHUB3 on 2007-01-18
  My husband and I got Toast 8 so we could save time offloading and archiving our Tivo recordings to DVD (we currently transfer the shows to our DVD recorder, which you have to do in real time). We reasoned we should be able to quickly download wirelessly from our Tivo to our iMac G5, then use Toast 8 to create DVD's easily from the transferred files. We were wrong.
  
  Here's how it works in reality: You use Tivo Transfer which comes with Toast (make sure you have your media key - which you get online from your Tivo account - to connect to your Tivo). Once you select the shows you want to transfer to your computer, you then initiate the transfer (ours took 35 minutes for a 1 hour TV show).
  
  NEXT, you then drag the files you transferred into the content area of Toast, decide on the menu look and feel and then select burn. This is where our assumptions fell apart.
  
  Two problems here:
  1) We only could fit two one-hour shows onto our DVD disk. Our DVD recorder allows a max of 6 one-hour shows (onto a 4.7GB DVD-R disk - the same media we use to burn disks on the G5.
  2) Before the burn to disk even occurs, the data has to encode. I started encoding at 3:10pm, and at 3:44pm, the encoding for the two one-hour shows is only 17% complete. (Update - it took 3.45 hours to encode completely)
  
  So, not only can we fit fewer shows onto the same DVD media, it takes AGES longer to do so.
  
  Otherwise, the interface is simple to use, and the functionality as good as earlier Toast versions.
  
  I haven't tried exporting from Tivo to my 80G iPod yet. I hope this works. It will be the only real reason for me to keep this product.
  
  
• TivoToGo problem
  By A2B1ZBPR2ONSNV on 2007-01-27
  I agree that the program is overall a nice upgrade, but if you check the forums on Roxio and Tivo, you'll find that at the moment (Tivo is supposedly working on a fix) there are problems with transfers of programs from the Tivo to your Mac: Basically, if the Tivo has to change channels in order to record your show, and it ends up recording that channel change right before your show starts, TivoToGo (the Toast 8 program that handles this stuff) sees the channel change as something like an "end of file" and thus only transfers those first couple of seconds BEFORE the channel change, not your show. Hopefully this will be fixed soon. If you experience this problem, a work around is to change the channel manually just before your show starts.
  
  
• Must Have Tool
  By A2ZBQBABWUM52M on 2007-07-27
  We put off buying this for our Macs for 2 years. Now we are kicking ourselves. The first three uses - archiving, making Music DVDs (a strong challenge to using Apple TV for showing your music on the big tube), and making photo discs for the relatives -- all worked like a charm.
  You're going to like this product a lot better on Intel Apples than on G4 Power Books, but we are pleased on both, and we like the interface.
  Buy the boxed version and get the book - looking up how-to in the manual is much faster than scanning the electronic version for help.
  We hardly ever say that any product is a 5.
  
  
• Great Program and TiVo-To-Go an unexpected +
  By A8L62WTCYAZOJ on 2007-02-06
  I just up-graded from Toast 7 Titianium. As expected Toast works great and has some very nice new features (disk spanning, iPod, PSP support). I didn't even realize until I installed that it included TiVo To Go. I did the install on my MacBookPro C2D. Opened the program, typed in my TiVo media code, and was able to see both of my TiVo s right there om my desktop! Wow - transfer was easy - just a click. It just works. So, I transfered my TiVo copy of the most recent 24 to my laptop, then used Toast to compress for an iPod. Except for taking some time for the transfer and codec, could not be easier. Cheers - Jim
  
  
• So so
  By A36DSZZST9T1RQ on 2007-05-19
  Toast is a great buy if you don't already own it. If you own Toast Titanium 7 I'd hold off for the next version, unless you absolutely need the added features like TiVo functionality.
  
  The good:
  
  Burns/copies/creates DVDs and CDs wonderfully, as it should. Very functional. Looks pretty, but....
  
  The bad:
  
  The slick graphics are pretty superfluous if you ask me. I like Toast 7's interface more, since it doesn't go overboard trying to wow me with shrinking windows and sliding panes. This stuff just eats processor power. That's what we call "bloatware".
  
  I owned Popcorn before, and Popcorn had a much easier system for exporting to iPod/PSP. Just drop in your TS folder, select your quality setting, and watch it go. Toast 8's similar functionality is mired in the "DVD-Video" menu, and it isn't even obvious where you need to go to accomplish your task at all, until you go to save it, THEN you can select an ipod export format. I don't see why they couldn't have had a portable device tab like they do for Video, Music, etc, or even a menu item within the Video tab. Just don't bury it for god's sake!
  
  Why do these programs insist on saving disc images in their own proprietary formats? Nero has it's own, and apparently so does Toast, unless it's a straight ISO format with a different file extension. Maybe someone has tried renaming and buring as an ISO?
  
  In summation, much like many other version upgrades with other software *cough* Vista *cough* save your money if you have the next step down (Toast 7) unless you REALLY need slick those graphics and Tivo support.
  
  
• happy with the product but caveat
  By ANE7OSLT7X5NM on 2007-07-31
  The software performs well, but if you are attracted by rebates, caveat emptor. I sent everything off correcetly, yet my rebate was denied as "Missing Proof of Previous Ownership" (of what it doesn't say). I bought the program, not an upgrade or update, so whyy on earth would I own it previously? I called and of course got a run-around. There is by the way a discussion of the rebate problems on Roxio's discussion boards, so apparently rebate denials are routine. See .
  
  
• Hard to rate it when it won't even open!
  By AW4FVOIC8IY5D on 2007-05-08
  Beware Mac users who are not using OS X 10.4.8 or higher! It may say all you need is OS X, but I bought my computer shortly before the release of Tiger, so I am running OS X 10.3.9 and Toast will not even open! So now I guess I'm looking at paying another $130 to upgrade my OS. Hope I won't be throwing good money after bad, as they say!
  
  
• Don't Buy for Tivo-to-Go
  By A55PCTJ6NINET on 2008-01-05
  If you are thinking of buying Toast 8 to use the Tivo-to-Go feature to encode Tivo files for your iPod or to burn onto DVD, do not spend your money before checking out Tivo and Roxio discussion forums to see if some well-documented problems have been fixed.
  
  Toast 8 worked well until the Tivo Fall '07 update was pushed out in October. Tivo files transferred since the update will usually play on your laptop or desktop, but there are serious problems with the export for iPod and DVD functions. At first, the export functions would not work at all in many cases. Roxio eventually got a fix out that allows it to work most of the time, but there is a continuing problem with audio synchronization. Audio is often out of sync with video by anywhere from a half second to three or four seconds.
  
  The annoying thing is that it's completely unpredictable; some programs encode perfectly, some are all but unwatchable. There is no pattern except that 30-Minute programs seem to encode correctly more often than longer shows. My own experience is that you have about a 50/50 chance that it will work correctly.
  
  There are alternatives out there; they may not be as fast or convenient as Toast 8, but they actually work every time. Popcorn 3, by the way, has the same set of problems.
  
  
• Great so far
  By A1HWT524LGQ58Z on 2007-02-14
  I might have given this five stars, but haven't had time to test all its components. The primary feature I bought it for -- TiVoToGo for Mac -- works as promised, though. It does what it's supposed to do (and, I imagine, a lot simpler than TiVo's Windows version), although don't expect to transfer a movie to to DVD in an hour. For me to move a two-hour movie to my Mac took about two hours itself, and burning it to a DVD took three to four hours. (But then, I only have an 800 Mhz Power Mac G4, not exactly a speed demon in this day and age.) Once it finished, however, the final product was as good as could be expected for a bad print of a 1942 film recorded off of cable. I was skeptical, but the DVD played fine (and with no loss of quality) in my 6-year-old Sony DVD player. In other words, it looked just as good as it would have looked viewing it from TiVo's hard drive -- only now it doesn't take up precious drive space.
  
  
• Fantastic
  By A2I3OH2QVEURW8 on 2007-02-12
  Exactly what is advertised and more. This program allows the creation of all types of DVDs and CDs with ease, it works seemlessly with OS X and is a joy to use.
  
  
• STINKS!!!!
  By A19KN8QOS8X4KW on 2007-03-22
  My last Roxio product was "Easy CD Creator 5." When I switched to a Mac I naturally expected "Toast" to be the Mac version of this product. I am extremely disappointed to find that the crippled video editing features in my (many years old) version of CD Creator is miles ahead of what they include with the most current and up to date version of "Toast" which I unfortunately own. It allowed me to edit video clips, create several levels of customizable menus, customize the size of compression, and burn to a DVD which played on my standard DVD player. Toast can create one uncustomizable menu level, has NO editing, and locks up every time you drag a file into it. They (in the product description) say it reads mpegs but it's more like it freezes every time it sees an mpeg. It doesn't even read every mpeg reliably. The only thing I can find that Roxio adds to Toast that isn't in my old version of CD Creator is more enhanced MP3 and music features (which isn't what I bought it for). I may have been better off using "Parallels" in combination with CD Creator. I am sorry but compared to Roxio's CD Creator (which is basically the same price), Toast seems to have been designed by total IDIOTS. And I always thought that Mac software was better for working with multimedia!
  
  
• EASY. Fantasic. Great. Worth the $$$.
  By A2T8H3IJ8OVKG3 on 2007-05-19
  i tried to burn a DVD of a home video. I could not make the Apple Software work on my mac. (dunno what i did wrong). tried some other software (shareware, & Dragon Burn). i failed to get a burn. So, i purchased Toast 8, here at Amazon. It works with ease. Now my Home Made Wedding Video is on DVD disc. & i feel that the $$$ spent on Toast 8 were well spent. Toast is EASY, EASY, EASY.
  
  
• No Manual or Tutorial for CD Spin Doctor
  By A1G1VMPQHAKKU3 on 2008-01-22
  Purchased this product for use in converting LPs and cassettes to CDs. Had been doing this work with Audacity, which is freeware, and thought CD Spin Doctor would be a step up. Found that there was no manual or no tutorials for how to use Spin Doctor and responses to my two questions to tech support indicated I should check out the Toast on-line forums, rather than expect an answer my question. Spin Doctor was apparently an application that was just dumped into the Toast package without any need seen to offer support or training on how to use it. After using Spin Doctor for awhile, I discovered that it was not possible to do the kind of fine-tuned editing I had come to expect from Audacity and after doing some more exploring of Audacity, I found that I could do everything I needed to with Audacity, including automatically dividing a recording into individual CD tracks and exporting multiple tracks all at once. At that point it became clear that Spin Doctor not going to do the work I needed it to do, and I returned the product for a refund.
  
  
• Broken Tivo-to-go
  By ARPP0CUQFJ6N6 on 2007-03-23
  I have a mac, and I have a TiVo. Obviously I wanted to take advantage of the tivotogo transfer capability. Well, I'll tell you, am I disappointed! The "extra" program is called "TivoTransfer" and it has some nice eyecandy. It's very similar to the open-source TivoDecode Manager some of you are use to. On my very first try, the software is unresponsive. On my second try (after closing the program prior to installation) it works. Unfortunately, just as the StarTrek episode I had it upload to my mac was finishing, it causes my TiVo box to crash and reboot (which takes about 5 minutes. It's very annoying.) This is completely unacceptable! I'm in the middle of watching a show on my television set, and the TiVo CRASHES for the first time in 9 months "coincidentally" at the same time as toast is finishing the upload. I'm not sure what the problem was, but I called the store, and was able to get a refund on the grounds that it did not work as advertised. I cannot comment on the PSP video coding (which is the main reason I bought the software) I simply didn't get that far. 1 star.
  
  
• Bad choice if your serious about converting analog to digital
  By A29SQOECN91J45 on 2007-10-05
  I was most in need of software to convert vinyl to MP3. The software bundled with Toast 8 for burning vinyl is called Spin Doctor and will probably suffice for a lot of people. I have many 16 channel recordings that I wanted to get the best sound from them, and Spin Doctor falls very short. I purchased Sound Studio 3 and the difference is like a transistor radio verses stereo in my opinion. Toast 8 seems to be excellent for DVD and CD to MP3 and relitively easy to use. I bought Toast 8 based on reviews from their website, wrong place for review. For me Toast 8 was a waste of money.
  
  
• Toast stays on top
  By A3UN1G8WVV5NOX on 2007-02-13
  I have always found Toast to be the method of choice for burning discs, either CD or DVD. It provides fine control with ease of use in the finest MacOS tradition. This edition adds new refinements, more choices, more file types, and it even gets out to the way while it is busy. I use Toast many times a day, and it is never a fight, just a drop in a disc and some files, a few clicks, two "pings", and you're done. DVDs, VideoCDs, MP3 disks, CDs, whatever. It just works!
  
  
• Fun interface, works well
  By AM1AIMJ3WHFXR on 2007-03-10
  It's Toast. If you've used it, you know it and probably like it.
  
  But holy wow, does this version use a LOT OF RAM!!! Don't expect to be running Parallels, a web browser, and Toast at the same time, even if you have 2GB of RAM (as I do). For that reason, I withhold one star.
  
  "What's that sound? Oh, it's my hard drive thrashing away because Toast just gobbled up 800GB of RAM" Yikes!
  
  
• Don't buy this
  By A1C45OO5AC1ULD on 2007-08-09
  No support.
  Lousy manual.
  I cannot do with this product what I wanted to do because no one will answer my e-mail to help me. It is not user friendly.
  I made a mistake thinking this would work for me. I am a spinning instructor and purchased it to put together my spinning music. I wanted to use the fade in and fade out feature and cannot figure out how to do it. I have googled to see if there is any help out there and have not had any luck. I followed the limited instructions provided and it is a no go.
  
  
• Good but... little bit disappointed
  By A367Q4GBFZURIW on 2007-03-08
  I was anxiously waiting for this Roxio Toast 8 for my new mac book, and I got it as fast as I can after its release.
  I am pretty much satisfied with its quality and functions.
  It's faster than the old and has many good and new features.
  However, I was disappointed little bit that I could rip my DVDs for my iPod.
  I tried serveral DVDs that I own for iPod, but it didn't work.
  Really disappointed...
  So, I downloaded Handbrake which is free software on internet. it worked great for me.
  
  Overall, Toast 8 is good and works for me!
  
  
• It's just okay
  By AD3WNLE4T7TDS on 2007-03-10
  I bought Toast 8 for the Tivo feature and it works adequately - although the controller, based on EYETV software, isn't as complete as I'd like it - in terms of fast forwarding, rewinding, speed, etc. And there is something I can't figure out, even with the instructions, in terms of burning disks. No matter what I try to burn, Roxio tells me there isn't enough room on the DVD. So it is only fair. iDVD works more easily than Toast.
  
  

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