When it comes to media authoring and conversion on the Mac, those in the know turn to Toast, the Roxio suite of utilities that lets you do a lot more than just burn files to a disc. The latest version of the software, Toast 10 Titanium, retains nearly all of the features of last year’s version (Toast 9) and adds some new ones.

Pros
Enables capture of Flash-based videos from the Web; automatically captures and tags streaming audio; can combine multiple audiobook CDs into one chaptered file; creates disc archives of AVCHD footage from HD camcorders; works nicely with iLife; supports older hardware

Cons
Requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later; Blu-ray and HD support cost extra; Flash video-capture function doesn’t work for all Web sites

Editors’ Take
Although Toast 10 doesn’t represent a complete overhaul from last year’s version, it adds a few useful new features and enhances some old ones.

Toast 10 Titanium Standout Features:

One feature we loved in Toast 9 was the Streamer utility, which let you stream video over the Internet from your Mac to your iPhone or iPod Touch’s Safari Web browser. In Toast 10, there’s now a native iPhone app for easier access. The CD Spin Doctor audio-capture utility can now automatically record any streaming music and identify and tag it for you.    

A nifty addition is the ability to capture Flash-based videos from the Web and convert them to DVD and various portable-player formats. It’s easy to do: Launch the option in your Media Browser, start playing a video from a site such as YouTube, and the video will appear in your Media Browser. From there you can drag the file to the content area.

Another feature, called Audiobook Conversion, is brilliant for those who listen to books on CDs. Because audiobooks usually span multiple discs, Audiobook Conversion rips all the CDs into one file that you can copy to iTunes and your iPod or iPhone. The finished file retains all the chapter markers, too.

If you shoot video using a high-definition camcorder that supports the AVCHD format, Toast 10 can help you free up space in your camcorder by creating a disc-based video archive. The files are saved in their original raw format, so you don’t lose any of the original quality, and the discs will play (in high definition) in Blu-ray players. (Roxio has dropped the support for the now-abandoned HD DVD format it had added in Toast 9.)

Other new features include TiVo support, new DVD menu styles, and file synchronization backup. With Mac2TiVo, TiVo users can stream video content from their Macs to their TiVo devices—your Mac essentially becomes a video server. And with the GetBackup app, you can back up and sync folders and files between devices and computers on a network, ensuring that each piece of hardware has the latest version.

Summary:

Toast 10 Titanium is designed for those who want to do a bit more with their media, and while you can get similar functions in other apps (most aren’t built into Mac OS X natively), Toast ties them all together nicely in one place. And it works well with iLife. That said, if you have no need for any of these features, there’s no reason to add Toast to your Mac or upgrade from an older version. But we think that once you have these utilities at hand, you’ll be surprised at how often you’ll use them. In addition, Buy Toast 10 Titanium now, you can SAVE $15 Instantly (Plus $20 MIR) with Coupon Code: 15T10!!!

Only $84.99; Save $15.00 (Plus $20 MIR) Coupon Code: 15T10 (Up to 2009-10-15)

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