Upgrade to Toast 6 worth it?

[nancy_rathke]

I have Toast 5.1.1 but never use it, because I continue to use iTunes to burn audio CDs. Wanted to burn videos but it doesn't seem to support that.

 

Is it worth my while to upgrade to 6 and 7? Is it easier to burn DVDs with that rather than iDVD? How high do I have to go? iDVD 4 can be such a problem, taking so long to burn, although I like the editing features of iMovie.

 

Also, is it possible to use Toast to compress audio files further from iTunes, to get more on a CD or DVD? I want to put large Podcast files on a CD, but using iTunes itself uses too many CDs.

 

Can anyone answer these questions simply, for an amateur?

 

I am running an iMac G4 flat-panel with over 50 GB of free space.

[tsantee]

I have Toast 5.1.1 but never use it, because I continue to use iTunes to burn audio CDs. Wanted to burn videos but it doesn't seem to support that.

 

Is it worth my while to upgrade to 6 and 7?

Toast 7 is superior to Toast 6 in a lot of ways. If your Mac meets the Toast 7 minimum requirement of OS 10.3.9 then I heartily endorse your buying Toast 7. I'm more luke warm about buying Toast 6.

Is it easier to burn DVDs with that rather than iDVD? How high do I have to go? iDVD 4 can be such a problem, taking so long to burn, although I like the editing features of iMovie.

You can use either Toast 6 or 7 instead of iDVD to make your video DVDs from iMovie. Again, Toast 7 is superior to Toast 6 for this. Toast is easier to use than iDVD because of Toast's simple menus. The MPEG encoding required as part of making a video DVD from iMovie will take a comparable amount of time compared with iDVD.

Also, is it possible to use Toast to compress audio files further from iTunes, to get more on a CD or DVD? I want to put large Podcast files on a CD, but using iTunes itself uses too many CDs.

There is no way to compress audio files and still have them play on a standard audio CD player. There are MP3 players that will play about 10 times more music on a CD. You would need to use iTunes to convert the tracks to MP3 format before burning to an MP3 CD. Toast and iTunes can burn MP3 CDs. You also may like the Music DVD feature in Toast 7 in which you can fit about 7 hours of uncompressed music and 50 hours of compressed music on a DVD that is playable in any video DVD player. See Roxio's description of Toast 7 for more info about this.

 

My opinion is that you should buy Toast 7. If you haven't yet updated to OS 10.3.9 or 10.4.x then wait until you do that update before buying Toast.

[nancy_rathke]

Thanks for the good information.

 

My problems with iDVD haven't always been for the same reasons--sometimes slide shows have coded and burned quite quickly. Usually not.

 

So the cheapest and easiest way to share large podcast files would be to get her an mp3 player, or to use CD-RWs, I guess.

 

Now I'll have to figure out whether to get a new Toast at all. But if I do, it will be 7.

 

Thanks again,

Nancy