Just Returned Toast 12 - Major Deception Going On Here

[treehorn]

EDIT: Turns out the problem is that the installation of 12 zapped the HD plugin that I had purchased for 11 (and completely forgot I had done so...since it wasn't showing up on the "what I've purchased" page at Roxio and none of the customer support people were corruption my erroneous assumption)

 

Well this was an unpleasant surprise. I've been using Toast for over a decade (at least since version 5). I've purchased upgrades for 6 versions since then. It's my go-to recommendation for burning DVDs and Blurays as it just makes things easier.

 

I upgraded to version 12 last week, figuring it would take care of some stability issues (burning slows down to a crawl lately if I don't have Toast as the forefront window/application). And it did.

 

But it also took away a valuable feature...or rather made what should be a standard feature (the burning of a disc...in this case a Bluray) into a premium feature.

 

Since the Pro version is a bloated monstrosity full of 'pro' features that are better served by using actual pro software and all I want to do is burn DVDs and Blurays, I got the standard (which was still a hefty $60 to upgrade from 11). Only to find out that unless one buys a $10 plug in or pays $40 for the pro version, one can not burn a bluray - a feature that has been in the standard version for years.

 

And a feature that was not made clear would be missing unless one waded through the site and found just the right link to compare just the right set of features. Or talked to a customer service person via chat (the warning one gets trying to burn a Bluray makes it sound like the plug in they want you to buy is for creating HD content on a DVD or authoring a Bluray, not simply burning a pre-authored disc).

 

 

Even more puzzling and annoying is that the splash page of Roxio/Toast 12 clearly has "Burn CDs, DVDs or Blu-ray discs , create custom DVD compilations" as a feature of the standard version.

 

So returned it. Deleted the program from my system. And will use the perfectly useful older version until it is completely unusable (or discs are no longer an option).

[tsantee]

I feel I need to clarify a point. Ever since Toast began supporting burning Blu-ray video discs starting with Toast 10, a separate plugin is required to burn Blu-ray videos. The plugin is included in the Pro version but is extra cost with the standard version. That hasn't changed with Toast 10, 11 or 12 (except it is now automatically activated with Toast 12 Pro rather than a separate install). A change made in Toast 12 is the extra-cost plugin is unneeded to burn Blu-ray videos to standard and DL DVD discs. It only is needed if burning Blu-ray format videos to Blu-ray media.

 

The plugin is not needed to burn to data to Blu-ray media. It only is needed to burn Blu-ray format videos to Blu-ray media.

 

As for slow disc burning, that is a problem that started with Toast 11.1 and continues.

[treehorn]

I am in the process of figuring that out...and what happened (two hours with various customer service chat people has done nothing to clarify anything).

 

In trying to re-install 11, I discovered it wouldn't work either as it needed the plug in. Which made me go back and do research and discover that i had purchased the HD Plug in last year when I upgraded to 11. So...apparently 12 erased the plug in completely from my system upon installation last week.

 

Since the purchase of the plug-in doesn't appear on the registration page of my account, and since the download is no longer active...had to do a huge run-around to get the plug-in re-downloaded.

 

so...the problem seems to be that installation of 12 may (and in my case did) erase the HD Plug in. Re-installing it makes 12 work. And nobody in Customer Service thought to mention that I was wrong in saying the need for a plug-in was new to 12...

[tsantee]

That's odd. Toast 12 should continue to use the Toast 11 plugin. They are the same and you shouldn't have needed it again. Technically I don't think it is a plugin but merely an unlocking of that capability. What should have happened is the Blu-ray video option should have been available in Toast 12 after you launched it without your having to do anything about the plugin. By the way, that isn't the case with Toast 10's Blu-ray plugin which doesn't work with either Toast 11 or 12. I'll do some more sleuthing and may send you a private message.