# Toast 9 released



## rileyrd (Nov 16, 2006)

All,

Just saw that Roxio has release Toast 9 for Macs as of this morning. Please post your reviews. I plan on purchasing this evening, so I'll know more later today.


----------



## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

Does it work as poorly as v8?


----------



## JohnBrowning (Jul 15, 2004)

rileyrd said:


> All,
> 
> Just saw that Roxio has release Toast 9 for Macs as of this morning. Please post your reviews. I plan on purchasing this evening, so I'll know more later today.


Bend over...


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

I'd like a report at how good the editing feature is.


----------



## PSXBatou (Aug 4, 2007)

I'd like to know if this is the "fix" to the audio being out of synch... I have a feeling the next ticket I submit about the audio synch issue will not only ask me for the 100th time to update QT and OS X (which are already current) but also to upgrade to Toast 9.... 

They need to FIX Toast 8 before I would even think of buying another Toast product.


----------



## cwoody222 (Nov 13, 1999)

Unless it lets me transfer HD content 100&#37; of the time (like it's SUPPOSED to), then no way will I spent $ on this.


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

failed HD transfers is the fault of the TiVo not Toast. TiVo has already said a fix for that is in the next update.


----------



## spaced (Jan 10, 2002)

Feeling masochistic, so I just bought it. Downloading now. Will report back as soon as I have a chance to test.

Upgrade price ($59) - 10&#37; coupon (404SAVE10) = $54 hopefully not thrown away.


----------



## spaced (Jan 10, 2002)

TiVo Transfer w/ Toast 8 version: 1.1.1
TiVo Transfer w/ Toast 9 version: 1.2.1


----------



## spaced (Jan 10, 2002)

I just downloaded and converted a 30 minute Simpsons episode with no noticeable audio sync issues. Also, sidenote, the new Streamer app included with Toast 9 is pretty slick. I'm now watching that Simpsons episode on my iPhone.

Downloading more shows to convert...


----------



## spaced (Jan 10, 2002)

So far 3 shows and counting with no audio sync issues. With Toast 8 I literally could not convert a single show without the sync issues.


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

Use coupon code ROXIO15 to get an upgrade purchase down to $50.99


----------



## cwoody222 (Nov 13, 1999)

SnakeEyes said:


> failed HD transfers is the fault of the TiVo not Toast. TiVo has already said a fix for that is in the next update.


I'll believe it when I see it.


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

cwoody222 said:


> I'll believe it when I see it.


The update or that it is TiVo's fault?


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

Looks like additional exporting features have disappeared.


----------



## kzrivera (Mar 18, 2008)

Yes - be warned but optimistic. Version 8 was pretty rough (many said a back step from 7) and several folks has problems with their Tivo files not syncing audio well. I stayed with 7 but I am tempted by what I am seeing in 9's features. If you do buy it, be sure to use a coupon code for a little extra off. I think "ROXIO15" or "ANNIVERSARY" is still active for a bit more off from Roxio. Good luck! We will be looking for your posts on how it goes!


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

kzrivera said:


> Yes - be warned but optimistic. Version 8 was pretty rough (many said a back step from 7) and several folks has problems with their Tivo files not syncing audio well. I stayed with 7 but I am tempted by what I am seeing in 9's features. If you do buy it, be sure to use a coupon code for a little extra off. I think "ROXIO15" or "ANNIVERSARY" is still active for a bit more off from Roxio. Good luck! We will be looking for your posts on how it goes!


Who is "we"?


----------



## kzrivera (Mar 18, 2008)

My husband and I, other folks waiting to drop the dollars checking this thread. I don't mind being an early adopter, but as a family, we try not to always be early spenders! Since we have 7, we face the full price. I had such a horrible customer experience with Roxio, I have been very hesitant to send any more $$$ their way. But I use my Tivo files to catch up when I am on travel and I wonder if this will be worthwhile to make it easier? I am a big fan of user reviews and not just a feature list!


----------



## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

I'm downloading it now.


----------



## epstewart (Mar 1, 2003)

SnakeEyes said:


> Looks like additional exporting features have disappeared.


I can confirm that.

Exporting is now done differently than in Toast 8. There is now a Convert choice in Formats and Settings in the Toast window. Click on it and then on Video Files under it. Then drag a TiVo file into the Toast window from the Media Browser. Then click on Edit, if you want to edit it. A drop-down dialog appears, in which you click Edit again. The file is opened in Toast Video Player in Editor mode. At the outset of the editing session it takes a while for "updating" to occur. Then you can start to edit.

The basic idea of editing is that you are going to identify which part or parts of the video you want to snip out -- which can be counterintuitive, if your assumption is that you're identifying which parts to leave in. You identify which sections to snip out through the use of pairs of markers you place in the time line of the video.

Doing that can be a bit of an adventure, for several reasons. One is that it's hard to position the markers precisely, even when you click on the "Fine" button, which you would (erroneously) think would enable fine-grained, frame-level control of start frames and end frames. But, no.

That it is hard to achieve pinpoint control is especially surprising since the Editor presents you with a swatch of still frames at the bottom of the window, with the one that is "current" outlined in blue in the center of the swatch. That might lead you to think you ought to be able to make any frame in the whole video "current," but I can't seem to figure out how to get that sort of thing to work. Another problem is that some of the shortcut keys, such as the right arrow for "Jump," seem to work erratically.

But the main problem I ran into was that I thought I was bracketing the movie itself, the one I had recorded from TCM and transfered earlier with TiVo Transfer, so as to snip off the intro and the extra stuff at the end. But only when I set the markers _and then chose Invert Markers_ in the pop-up menu on the lower right of the Editor did I get the results I wanted.

The good news is that I _did_ get the edits I wanted.

But the extra control over export and file conversion options, and over the _types_ of file conversions, of the sort that could be achieved in Toast 8 if you entered the right command in Terminal to modify the Toast plist file --- they seem to be gone.

After you get done using the Editor in Toast Video Player, you do a File-->Save, or you Quit TVP and do a Save when it asks you to before quitting. You go back to Toast itself and -- in the drop-down menu which is still alive, and from which you fired up the Editor session earlier -- you now click OK. You then click on the big red button in Toast. The Toast window shrinks to an exporting progress bar window. That window initially presents you with another drop-down dialog, in which you select your target device (such as Apple TV, Video iPod, H.264 Player, etc.). Depending on which device you select, you choose from a list of "quality" options such as "automatic," "high," "fastest," etc. You also choose a Save To location: iTunes, the Movies Folder, any other folder, the Desktop, etc. Then you click Convert, the drop-down dialog disappears, and the actual conversion and export operation takes place.

But there seems to be no way to fine tune the conversion/export process, at least not for .tivo files. For instance, there are no options for selecting horizontal and vertical resolution-in-pixels, or aspect ratio, or whether or not to deinterlace the video, etc. Worse, the output resolution for standard-definition TiVo material is limited to 480 pixels by 360 pixels, the "maximum allowed by TiVo." Yet worse, the exported video seems to have the audio out of sync with the video, again (or still). That drives me up a wall.


----------



## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

I'm a beginner with Toast 9 as I just (finally) got an iPod touch to put some videos on. The main problem I'm running into with Toast 9 is getting the TV Shows from TiVo Transfer over to iTunes. Some of the time it just does it automatically after the transfer is complete. Other times it simply transfers the TV shows from TiVo and doesn't convert them to iPod format. You have to figure out which shows it _didn't_ convert and then do them manually. Weird. Still in the end, I got all the shows over to my iPod. It's just a bit clunky and doesn't do things the same way every time. I guess I should be happy it works at all based on reviews from Toast 8. 

Question. Once I get the files onto my iPod can I delete them from iTunes to save space on my computer's hard drive? How do you guys manage your space?


----------



## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

Not sure if this is what you guys are talking about, but I found a way to choose some additional Export Options. Perhaps these are the missing options? 

At the bottom of Toast 9's screen there is a button for choosing the export format (ipod, AppleTV, etc.). Click on that and it brings up a dialog box that has a "quality" dropdown menu. Click on "Custom". This brings up a new dialog box with choices for:

Video Format
Data Rate
Frame Rate
Image Size
Key Frame
Aspect Ratio etc. 

There is also a "Video" button on that page that brings up some more options such as "Encoding Mode" and "Restrict Profiles".


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

We are talking about all the additional export options were available when using toast expert mode that was enabled using the terminal and Toast 8. At least 9 doesn't overwrite 8.

The additional formats and options you mention are not available for .tivo files.


----------



## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

I think you guys are on a whole 'nother level from me.


----------



## kas25 (Mar 10, 2003)

For an intermediate (i know the basics of Visual Hub and Handbrake) who is looking to convert .tivo files for use on my Apple TV, will toast do the trick? I don't even want to edit anything, just convert a .tivo file to MP4 with a high quality. Thanks.


----------



## kas25 (Mar 10, 2003)

spaced said:


> So far 3 shows and counting with no audio sync issues. With Toast 8 I literally could not convert a single show without the sync issues.


What format are you converting them from? Are you downloading from Tivo directly and then converting with Toast or doing both with Toast.


----------



## askewed (Sep 12, 2000)

bareyb said:


> Not sure if this is what you guys are talking about, but I found a way to choose some additional Export Options. Perhaps these are the missing options?
> 
> At the bottom of Toast 9's screen there is a button for choosing the export format (ipod, AppleTV, etc.). Click on that and it brings up a dialog box that has a "quality" dropdown menu. Click on "Custom". This brings up a new dialog box with choices for:
> 
> ...


Screen shots please? I'm not seeing this but WANT to! Thanks!


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

I just edited and burned a soccer game, from Fox Soccer, in Toast and the sync is further off than I had seen in 8. Not cool.


----------



## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

FYI I've been in touch with Sonic's (Roxio) PR woman regarding sync issues (v8 & v9) and she had this to say:



> We did indeed believe that we had addressed all the sync issues in Toast 9 and were planning to issue an update for Toast 8 customers. Post launch, we have become aware that some problems persist. As a result, we are going through the process of acquiring the problematic files and working to resolve any remaining issues. We fully intend to continue to work through all the issues and update Toast 9 and Toast 8 customers as required. We are asking for Toast 9 customers assistance. If a Toast 9 customer has experienced sync issues, we ask that they email [email protected], as we would like to acquire and test the problematic file. Thank you.


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

using tivodecode, editing in mpeg streamclip and burning in toast however did work for the same file. Can't say that about one file I played with for three days, prior to 9.


----------



## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

askewed said:


> Screen shots please? I'm not seeing this but WANT to! Thanks!


Here's a shot of both menus. In the upper menu and select "custom" and that brings up the window below it.


----------



## askewed (Sep 12, 2000)

Wow thanks for posting that...

I do not have those options. Did you do anything special/different to get them?


----------



## epstewart (Mar 1, 2003)

SnakeEyes said:


> I just edited and burned a soccer game, from Fox Soccer, in Toast and the sync is further off than I had seen in 8. Not cool.


I have made some careful tests and found that at least one of my exported files gets audio out-of-sync with video in Toast 9 because of a glitch in the original recording.

At the point where there is a glitch lasting a little more than a second in the original recording, Toast 9 is able to continue outputting video frames that have some minor blemishes, but it skips the associated audio. The _following_ audio is joined up with the _preceding_ audio, which was in proper sync. From that point on, the audio leads the video by about a second or so.

When I use Toast 8 to export the same original file, it skips both the audio and the video during the glitch. The audio remains in sync with the video.

The glitch probably happened because there was a hiccup in the cable-TV transmission.

I was able to edit out the glitch in the new editor in Toast Video Player, then re-export the program in Toast 9. It had proper sync all the way through.

Sadly, the TVP editor doesn't seem to let me gain much precision as to where edits start and end, at least for a .tivo file.


----------



## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

epstewart said:


> I have made some careful tests and found that at least one of my exported files gets audio out-of-sync with video in Toast 9 because of a glitch in the original recording.


Those of you willing to help out Roxio can drop them a line at: [email protected]


----------



## epstewart (Mar 1, 2003)

davezatz said:


> Those of you willing to help out Roxio can drop them a line at: [email protected]


I have done that, and I expect they will be getting back to me in a day or two. It would be a big help if others did it, too.


----------



## omelet1978 (Mar 7, 2006)

I like toast a lot. I've been able to burn DVDs, transfer tivo recordings to my Ipod, etc....and I got it off of eBay for $30!

My main gripe is the Toast Video Player. It seems to have a mind of its own when playing tivo recordings. I'll hit the skip forward button and sometimes it will skip like 5 seconds, then a minute and a half, and even go backwards. The fast forward is the same way.

Does Toast 9 fix this?


----------



## SnakeEyes (Dec 26, 2000)

askewed said:


> Wow thanks for posting that...
> 
> I do not have those options. Did you do anything special/different to get them?


You will not get custom options for .tivo files.


----------



## kas25 (Mar 10, 2003)

I am really struggling with the low resolution convert issues for my Apple TV. I guess my best option is to use Tivo Decoder to get the files in Mpeg2 format and then use Toast to convert to Apple TV/Mpeg 4 format. Any other suggestions?


----------



## askewed (Sep 12, 2000)

SnakeEyes said:


> You will not get custom options for .tivo files.


I know... Any word on a work around for that... like the one that exists for Toast 8?

BTW Toast 9 has crashed the last 5 times I've tried to use it...


----------



## Dave R (Jan 13, 2008)

omelet1978 said:


> I like toast a lot. I've been able to burn DVDs, transfer tivo recordings to my Ipod, etc....and I got it off of eBay for $30!
> 
> My main gripe is the Toast Video Player. It seems to have a mind of its own when playing tivo recordings. I'll hit the skip forward button and sometimes it will skip like 5 seconds, then a minute and a half, and even go backwards. The fast forward is the same way.
> 
> Does Toast 9 fix this?


I've had a little time with Toast 9's player, and this problem now appears to be minimized. It's still fairly inaccurate with respect to the amount of time it skips, but at least the buttons actually do what they should do. I did notice a new problem, however...

Although things work a lot better when simply playing files back, if you try to use the new "edit" feature, the playback controls behave in the same dodgy way they did in Toast 8. So... still some things to work out. (sigh)...


----------



## kas25 (Mar 10, 2003)

omelet1978 said:


> I like toast a lot. I've been able to burn DVDs, transfer tivo recordings to my Ipod, etc....and I got it off of eBay for $30!
> 
> Does Toast 9 fix this?


Can I burn dvds from Mpeg4 files which will be playable on my car's(2 year old honda) dvd player.


----------



## wtb (Dec 15, 2000)

I assume Toast 9 does not support sending video files back to the TiVo like TiVo Desktop does?


----------



## askewed (Sep 12, 2000)

Still no way around the output throttle down?


----------



## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

SnakeEyes said:


> using tivodecode, editing in mpeg streamclip and burning in toast however did work for the same file. Can't say that about one file I played with for three days, prior to 9.


I haven't gotten tivodecode to retain any audio for HD content. I end up with a silent movie.


----------

