Toast 8 Titanium released

Roxio today launched Toast 8 Titanium, enabling Mac users to burn TV programs from TiVo as well as EyeTV to disc alongside support for converting TV shows for viewing on Apple's video iPod or Sony's PSP. The updated software supports creating audio CD mixes as well as music DVDs, and introduces Blu-ray disc burning. Further enhancements include automatic disc cataloging, cross-platform data spanning, and disc restoration. Toast 8 Titanium also offers streamlined visual feedback via a media browser, easing drag-and-drop disc burning capability. Roxio's burning software supports personalized labels and covers to accommodate cover art as well as inserts, featuring full drawing and text editing tools with more than 600 clip-art images. Toast also supports LightScribe drives and media while incorporating Google image search functionality. Toast 8 Titanium is available for $100, and requires Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later. Roxio adds that special pricing and unique discount bundles are available at the company's Macworld expo booth #314 as well as its 'virtual' Macworld store through January 14th.

Toast 8 provides DJ-style crossfades, volume normalization tools, sound enhancing plug-ins, track trimming capabilities, and other features previously found in Roxio's Jam software, according to the company. The application includes a new CD Spin Doctor Assistant that guides users through setting up the equipment and burning a disc or converting tracks for portable devices.

The Toast 8 Disc Recovery Tools allow users to potentially recover data from scratched or damaged discs that are unreadable in the Mac OS X Finder, and the software offers a means to backup an entire 9GB DVD to a standard 4.7GB DVD using Fit-to-DVD compression. Toast also features Director's Cut custom compilations, allowing users to select specific video, audio, and languages desired for recording or converting individual video files for use on a portable video player.

Toast's 'Dynamic Writing' feature uses a Blu-ray recorder like a hard drive, allowing users to drag-and-drop content directly onto the disc icon on the desktop to add or remove files. Toast 8 Titanium optionally catalogs the contents of discs for tracking the contents when the media is no longer in the drive. The technology works with discs created in Toast, previously burned discs, and commercial discs such as audio CDs.

Roxio provides a data-spanning feature that backs up files by automatically splitting files and folders across multiple discs, maintaining the exact folder and file structure for retrieval on any Mac OS X, Windows XP, or Windows Vista system.

by MacNN Staff