Toast 6 is Weird
 

I was messin' around with Toast 6 at work, and it seems like a kiddie "feature stripped" version of the much cooler Toast 5. I tried to write a DVD-RW by dragging the Video_TS and Audio_TS folders to the "DVD" window. When I pressed "record" it re-encoded my sh*t! What the hell? Is there a way for Toast 6 to work properly? Or should I just stick with my beloved Toast 5.1?

I was thinking about picking up Toast 6, but maybe I won't now. I just picked up my G5 yesterday, and I can't even get 5.1 to run on it.

Version 5.x of Toast won't run on Panther. Ted what version of Toast 6 are you using? Did you download the update? What you may be seeing is a poorly worded software status message while Toast verifies the file. If you're running version 6.0 it may be re-encoding the files. If you're running the update (6.0.3) it is only verifying the files, but the message still says encoding.

I will check the version next time I can. Toast 5.x runs on all incarnations of Mac OS X I believe. My coworkers all have it on their 10.2.8 machines and there is one 10.3.2 machine (sadly mine) that it runs on as well. I also have it at home on my 10.2.8 machine (Toast 5.1).

The interface is a bit weird in Toast 6 as well. There are no more drop down menus to choose what type of media you'd like to burn (DVD, Video CD, ISO, etc etc etc) and I find it awkward.

Toast 5.x.x is supposed to have interface glitches in Panther (10.3.x). There may be other incompatibilities I'm not aware of. Toast 5.x.x will work fine in all versions of Jaguar (10.2.x) to the best of my knowledge.

It is 6.0.3. So you say that even though is says "encoding" it is really only verifying?

Yes, I need to be told twice. :)

Yes, it is only verifying it is a valid TS file. Version 6.0 will actually re-encode the files.

Just an update - I had version 5.1.2, which wouldn't run on my G5. I re-installed it, upgraded to 5.21, the again to 5.23. I've only tried copying a couple of CD's, but it seems to be working fine now.

Kirk