Toast 11 Announced: Redesigned Toolkit

I saw this on MacWorld and Tuaw.com this morning.
Seems like Roxio is trying to keep it Revelation,
and in the face of Apple shying away
from installing blu-ray optical drives in their machines
(opting to follow M$ into "the cloud"), they are bundling more
software with the PRO version to try and get it to sell.

On the surface:
I would like to see the new engine in action on building DVDs,
and if it works like they say, being able to convert flv video to DVD
( without having to dumb it down to DV Stream format first)
would be worth the price.

I  also would like to have another alternative to VisualHub 
in converting to iDevices.
VisualHub is my go to app for that, but with Lion looming on the horizon,
VisualHub may or may not work under Lion.
So Toast 11 may be a nice alternative to that.

I also like that (*FINALLY*) Roxio will be giving us the ability
to burn to multiple disc drives, from one project, making repetitive burns a snap.
Now, if it also will allow sequential multiple disc burning for
spanning of large data
( being able to span to two discs, and have each burner set to queue
one after the other to burn) THAT would be something!

I'll probably plunk down for the Standard version as always to
see how it performs. Now, just got to wait for Amazon pricing
to appear....( Toast's high price and rebate bait and switch is crap).

Being Helpful: New Post to videohelp.com

In the interests of keeping this blog alive,
I've decided that I will start cross posting my answers I post
to the othe site I frequently contribute to, the wonderful
videohelp.com. Hopefully, this will keep my posting ratio
up, and energize me to write a bit a more.

here is my latest entry where I help a poster with a question
on how to get PDF Data onto an authored DVD he made in DVD Studio Pro 4:

My problem is:
I've authored a DVD in DVD Studio Pro, the size is 9GB, I then burnt this to a single layer
DVD with Toast 10 using fit to DVD compression,
the client now wants me to add a few PDF's to the disc, so that when they open the disc 
from the desktop they can access the PDF's,
I've tried adding the PDF's to the Disc's root folder, so they sit alongside the 
AUDIO & VIDEO_TS folders, then dragging the folder to 
Toast's Data tab >DVD-ROM and making a disc image from this,
I then mounted the image and used Toast's Copy tab > Image file 
(with Fit to DVD compression) to burn to a single layer DVD,
problem is the burnt disc does not include the PDF's when i open up the mounted disc
on the desktop, I understand that if my DVD came in at under 4GB I could just add
the content and burn, but I don't know of any apps outside of Toast that will 
re-compress to fit,
Any ideas?

I have DVD Studio Pro 4, Toast 10, Burn, LiquidCD and DVD2OneX
OS X 10.5.8

My answer in its entirety:

Toast will throw out the DATA folders when doing the Fit to Recompression.
This has been a long standing "bug" since the days of Toast 8
(i'm sure I've posted about this before, but I haven't had my morning cup of joe)

The trick is to do this in the following order. You use for the compression DVD2ONEX,
becasue on the recompression step, it is easier.
You then use Toast just for the burning to Disc:

(using DVD2ONEX)

1. Open DVD2ONEX

2. Select the 9GB Authored DVD from DVDSP4, select it's Video_TS folder

3. Set recompression to Custom, input 4220 in the size field
Select all appropriate audio, subs, etc.
Click and set Output as "File Set", not "image" or "Burn".
Click "OK" to re-author/compress.

4. When done, perform a "Get Info" on the newly created Authored DVD.
It should be about 4.12 GBs. ( if not, then there is an errant file ( either audio,
or video on a sub menu, or perhaps an "extra" of video that didn't re-compress correctly.
You may have to go back to DVSDSP to fix that)
Now, with that checked, Open the newly created Authored DVD.

5. Add Data folder of PDFs ( make sure they do not exceed 1.1GB in total data, if so, go to Acrobat Professional,
and recreate the PDFs, using its Compress PDF feature) to the newly created Authored DVD.
Close the folder. Check size using Get Info.

If it doesn't exceed 4.33GB you are good to go.

6. Open Toast, select DATA, select DVD-Rom (UDF) and drag and drop newly created Authored DVD w/data folder to window.
Click Burn. Insert Blank, click Ok. 

link to original post.

Interesting Toast Titanium Article

How to get your Camcorder video into Toast to burn
Archive DVDs, or to use directly as a media
browser to get your footage onto your mac.

Toast Titanium Tutorial: Importing video from your Camcorder.

it's a pretty quick and dirty way to get
your video off the camcorder, and
quickly to a DVD to view on the TV,
among other things.

Tech Tip Tuesday: Recording What Plays on my Mac to a DVD

Occasionally, you get a video file, either via your own
creation through say iMovie or FCP, or you acquire it from
the web, and you want it to end up on DVD, so instead
of watching it on your computer, you can watch it
on DVD, and have it also preserved for posterity.

I do this on a semi regular basis with stuff that will
play on my Mac, say in either Safari or Firefox,
but for some reason hoses when trying to convert
through Quicktime or VisualHub to DVD.
I use a DVD-R Recorder ( non Hard Drive based)
to record the content to a Blank DVD-R.

To accomplish what I'm about to describe to do,
You'll need two things:

1. An Apple DVI to Video adapter, or this one if you have a mini dvi jack, and if your DVD Recorder
accepts video via S-Video, an S-video Cable like
this one here at Radio Shack.

2. A Y Plug ( Stereo mini 1/8in on one side, that goes "Y" to two RCA stero
(R/W) plugs, to hook into your Mac's Headphone port.
Again, Radio Shack carries what you need.


Now For the playback.

1. With Video adapter in, set your Mac to Mirror Desktop out to the input
ports of the DVD Recorder.
With a TV or a Monitor hooked to the DVD Recorder's Video Out,
make sure video signal is recieved. If not, set video inputs
on DVD Recorder until you get the Mac's Desktop displayed.
This may take setting the Video Input on the DVD Recorder
to accept S-Video input, if it naturally doesn't do so, or
setting the input, rear or front, to accept Video in.
Check with your recorder's manual for settings.

2. Hook up "Y" stereo cable to mac headphone out to
the DVD Recorder's audio Inputs.

3. Play the Video on your Mac.
If the file is say Flash Video, if you have downloaded it from
the website, you should be able to play it back in either
Quicktime Player or MpegStreamclip, with the Perian
Quicktime component.
You can then play it back Full Screen on your
Mac, and thus get Full Screen out to the DVD Recorder ( make sure
to hide the dock first, and turn off any screen savers, and apps
that might bounce in the dock like System Updates, Entourage, Mail,
etc.) I mostly use MpegStreamclip for this, as it allows for Full Screen
Playback Natively. Quicktime Player would have to be upgraded
to the PRO version to enable this feature.

if you are getting good playback, and you are getting good sound
(Keep the System sound up at 70% or higher)
then after one run through to make sure everything
goes out ok, you'll be ready to record directly to the DVD Recorder.
Insert a Blank DVD-R, (I prefer Tayio Uden blanks), and
record.

If you cannot download the video file,Say it is a video streaming file
embedded in a browser, you could try and record the stream
by playing it back in QT Pro or MpegStreamclip, but buffering issues
will cause you to have some skips and stutters as it fills the buffer.
Just be aware of that and know that will be your trade off
if you can't download it to the Mac and have to play it streaming.

Staying Relevant When Your Product Isn’t

Today Roxio, makers of the long stalwart app for the Mac,
Toast Titanium, announced a new version that would incorporate
Blu-Ray Authoring Capabilities; Streaming Video Capture
(think burning your favorite Youtube clips to a Highlight DVD);
A new interface that includes an NLE that looks like an older
version of iMovie; the ability to capture Streaming Audio
to burn to CDS; and four new “Pro “ version apps for Soundtracks,
Photo Editing, Sound Conversion / Cleanup, and creating HD Photo SlideShows.

What’s really telling about this upgrade is that Roxio felt it
was necessary to add more items that...well, somewhat relate
to burning CDs and DVDs, but aren’t much comparison to
tools that already exist on the Mac, all in an effort to keep their
product relevant to today’s marketplace.

What would have simply been wrong with offering a Burning
Application for the Macintosh, that:
*Has all the latest current drivers for every model of DVD
& CD drive ever made?
*Has A Templates Customizer that enables you to author
decent looking Menus for your DVDs and Slideshows?
*Can handle input of any file type, audio or video, without
having to buy third party add-ons or plugins?
Integrates well with EXISTING Products, and doesn’t
try to compete with them?

To me, that would be what Roxio needs to focus and deliver on,
and with that it would stay relevant for Mac users.