Best Toast Version For Powerpc Mac? (Same Mpeg2 Encoder?)

[LenaBreadBurn]

Hello,

 

I am currently using Toast7 with Mac OS 10.4.11 (PPC).

 

Short question: which is the best Version for 10.4 (preferably) or 10.5 (PPC)?

Did the mpeg2 encoder change with the versions? (I read that it is actually the worst one can get and that iDVD would use a better mpeg2codec)

 

Background:

I ripped a DVD with Mactheripper and burned the files with Toast, using the "fit-to-DVD"-Option. I realized that, what Toast calls "great quality" is not actually "great" but with artifacts. "Excellent" is normally good. The percentage by which it was reduced was not correlating with the "adjectives" Toast uses to give a hint of what to expect. (I guess that just means, that sometimes it is possible to remove 12% of the data and sometimes it is possible to remove 23% of the data and it still looks "excellent" or "very good"" - and on the other hand that it would be possible that with another source file 12% would be needed to fit the DVD on one Layer, but the quality will suffer that much, that it will give only a "good" picture).

 

Unfortunately iDVD doesn't allow "fit to disc".

 

That would come down to:

1. use iDVD when wanting to make a playable DVD (mpeg2) from a DV-file (iMovie)

2. use any version of Toast (if same encoder throughout the versions) when needed to fit an existing mpeg2-DVD to one Layer.

 

Right?

 

(The DVDs of DV-files are for my brother, who has a Windows PC. Can I make an Image of the DVD I would burn with Toast and he could use that with Nero or should I give him the DV-files - from iMovie - on a hard drive and let him burn these on his PC?)

[tsantee]

I don't recall the last version of Toast that worked with PPC Macs. Maybe it was Toast 9. Roxio is using the same developer for the MPEG 2 encoder they were using with Toast 7 but I'm sure its been tweaked over the years. I doubt there is any change in the encoder within a version's incremental updates.

 

Roxio did improve the fit-to-DVD process over the years. I believe there are more options now to customize what gets included in the final DVD which may result in less "requantization."

 

iDVD has uncompressed PCM audio which takes up a lot of disc space compared with Toast's Dolby AC-3 audio. If you are going to have DVDs longer than 90 minutes you should see noticeably better picture quality with Toast. That's true with Toast 7, too.

 

If you make a disc image with Toast you can change the .toast extension to .iso in the file name and it should be burnable using a PC.

[LenaBreadBurn]

Thank you very much for you comprehensive answer.

 

I read that the first version of 10 will work, too, but one should avoid to update it since it is then no longer be usable under 10.4 PPC.

 

I will try to get 10 or 9, since you said that mpeg2 have been tweaked. Thanks!