Macworld: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, ...

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42 Replies Last post: Sep 13, 2005 4:25 PM by skr Go to original post 1 2 3 Previous Next

itou

746 posts since
Sep 30, 2002

15. Aug 20, 2005 5:54 AM

in response to: mjacobson

Re: Bootable OS X Install Discs?

eh....Blu-Ray discs not yet being commercially available? they've been selling it for years now in Asia!

macuser25

58 posts since
Jun 11, 2004

16. Aug 20, 2005 8:51 AM

in response to: itou

Re: Blu-Rya

The BluRay discs in Japan are pre-release - the specs aren't even final yet.

1) The BluRay and HD-DVD formats are not final and both groups are still competing
2) The players - when they do arrive - are likely to be expensive
3) The recorders are going to be expensive when they finally arrive
4) The blank media is going to be $25 per pop - making dual-layer stuff look cheap

Peter's point is that with this DivX HD stuff in Toast 7 you can use the same CD or DVD burner you have today and the same affordable blank media and make a true HD disc (1280x720) you can enjoy today with players that sell for < $250 and show DivX and standard DVDs.

This is the real deal and the missing piece to the HD story that Apple is pushing on the Mac. Sure you can edit in iMovie HD and Final Cut HD, but you can't actually burn a disc to watch in your living room. DVD SP outputs files in HD format (H.264) but you can only watch those discs on a Mac with QT7 and Apple's Tiger DVD player. Not much of an HD story if you can't watch in your living room on your big screen TV.

Peter Cohen

4,605 posts since
Feb 5, 2003

17. Aug 20, 2005 10:46 AM

in response to: macuser25

Re: Blu-Rya

Not to mention that once Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players are out in the market, you're going to need to replace your existing recordable optical drive in your Mac with a recordable version of one of the new ones in order to burn those media.

Yeah, DivX HD is a nifty solution, if you have a DivX HD player and an HDTV.

Machound

866 posts since
Jan 4, 2004

18. Aug 20, 2005 12:36 PM

in response to: finchna

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

In reply to:<hr />
The Elgato support isn't new--it's there with 6.

<hr />

Full support of ElGato recordings was NOT present in Toast 6.x. There was no way to burn high definition MPEG2-ts recordings captured with an EyeTV 500 to DVD without downsampling to 480i. It ought to be a straight shot to burn an MPEG2 ATSC stream to DVD without transcoding but this was never previously the case. It's the single reason why I decided not to buy Toast 6.x.

One hour of unconverted 1080i TV content (7.6 GB/hour) ought to fit easily onto a dual layer DVD -- if Toast 7 allows this. At least the DivX support will give one option for those of us who already own a multiformat HD media player, such as I-O Data's LinkPlayer2, albeit not at 1080i and not without CPU-intensive transcoding. Full support of MPEG2-TS or MPEG2-PS at all standard resolutions is something I hope to see. Does anybody know if this will be a Toast 7 feature?

jstephe

116 posts since
Aug 16, 2004

19. Aug 20, 2005 1:26 PM

in response to: kc1ih

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

Considering there past practice, you can bet you will pay.

I purchased toast 5, then 2 months later Toast 6 came out and guess what, no real upgrade priceing, so I paid another $100 Canadian for 6, now 1 year later Toast 7 gess what another $100 Canadian thats if I get the $30.00 Mail in rebait (Been screwd by rebaites on many ocasions) they promised when they sent me the you are a great customer so we have a deal for you E-mail, why don't they have an E-mail in rebait in other words just sell it to me at the $69.00 US price, by the way that price seems a little high for an upgrade, considering I just paid $50.00 for most of the features when i purchased popcorn last month.

Software companies complain about Pirates and then they kick the people that actualy pay them in the teeth every chance they get. May be time to look at getting a P2P account.

macuser25

58 posts since
Jun 11, 2004

20. Aug 20, 2005 1:26 PM

in response to: Machound

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

The EyeTV support is not just the burning... it's the access to your saved recordings right from the Toast media browser - with Toast 7 you can now drag/drop 6 saved TV shows and burn to a single compilation DVD with a selectable menu style or to a hi-def DivX HD (for those who have the EyeTV 500).

With EyeTV current export from EyeTV software and Toast 6, you can only put one show per DVD I believe.

Peter Cohen

4,605 posts since
Feb 5, 2003

21. Aug 20, 2005 4:52 PM

in response to: jstephe

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

In reply to:<hr />
May be time to look at getting a P2P account.

<hr />

That's just lame. There's absoutely no excuse for piracy.

Machound

866 posts since
Jan 4, 2004

22. Aug 20, 2005 5:36 PM

in response to: macuser25

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

Exporting to a DivX is great but it involves downscaling from 1080i & transcoding to the proprietary and constantly changing DivX format. Why not just burn the MPEG2 source stream to DVD? That shouldn't involve any transcoding or scaling.

fluffster

1 posts since
Aug 20, 2005

23. Aug 20, 2005 6:53 PM

in response to: Machound

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

The DivX format continues to evolve, always with backward compatibility. If you make a DivX file today, or have one from a 2 years ago, it will play in a DivX certified device. Even though the new file may contain interactive menus or other features not supported in the device, the main title will remain and the device will continue to deliver the value it offered when you purchased it.

DVD's are 480p, you would have to transcode 1080i to 480p - a huge reducing in quality. With DivX you would transcode to 720p. Studies show that you only start to notice the difference between 1080p (not even interlaced) and 720p on 50+ inch TVs.

NeoX

483 posts since
Aug 27, 2004

24. Aug 20, 2005 8:48 PM

in response to: jstephe

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

In reply to:<hr />
I purchased toast 5, then 2 months later Toast 6 came out and guess what, no real upgrade priceing, so I paid another $100 Canadian for 6, now 1 year later Toast 7 gess what another $100 Canadian

<hr />

Hmm. I purchased Toast 6 after it came out and the date on my receipt is 9/3/03 so that makes Toast 6 2 years old. Did they release it a year earlier in Canada? And if I recall, Toast 5 was at least 2 years old when Toast 6 came out. So Roxio puts out a new version every 2 or so years and while I am not a big fan of the mail in rebate, it does work.

In reply to:<hr />
May be time to look at getting a P2P account

<hr />

Wow, so if you don't agree with a charge you resort to breaking the law and make it harder for paying customers to get upgrades? Sorry but this is just pure lameness. Support developers, they deserve to get paid for their work.

Peace Out!

john-d

90 posts since
Feb 1, 2001

25. Aug 21, 2005 3:17 AM

in response to: MW Forums

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

Looks like a good deal to me; I'll be in the queue to get it.

For others this may be a minor point, but I was hoping that Toast 7 would somehow be able to restore the DVD-RAM functionality lost in Tiger. Tiger treats all my new DVD-RAM disks as Read Only; I can't format them for backup use. I have an email into Apple, but who knows. A large thread discussing this loss of functionality over at the Apple Discussions Board has been locked; I'm hoping for a response in a point release.

jstephe

116 posts since
Aug 16, 2004

26. Aug 21, 2005 10:12 AM

in response to: Peter Cohen

Re: That's just lame. There's absoutely no excuse

Peter, you are correct, I am a programmer and would not actulay get a P2P for piracy, but at the same time in my opinion, there is absolutly no excuse for screwing your paying customers. I don't have a problem paying for software, as I indicated I have spent $250.00 on 2 versions of Toast and Popcorn in a little over 2 years.

Roxio, should take this into account when they send me a special offer, the price for an upgrade of this magnatude

should be around $30.00 - $50.00 (No stinking rebate), after all this is not OS X Tiger I am buying, or even iLife, it is also a download so the don't have the expense of packaging or a disk. Not to mention they want another $7 U.S. for me to be able to download the software for an extended 24 month period (Just in case I didn't Burn a backup of it to a disk).

Check out the link they sent me.

jstephe

116 posts since
Aug 16, 2004

27. Aug 21, 2005 6:37 AM

in response to: NeoX

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

My timeing may not be dead on (Time flies when your having fun on a Mac), but my point is I purchased 5 when I bought my iMac 1Ghz and 2 months later 6 came out, I had not seen anything on line that 6 was comming or I would have waited. then 2 months ago I bought Popcorn Direct.

I do support developers, that is why I have paid for all my software, by the same token, they should show there paying customers some respect and stop with the gouging.

I was on there site they day the sent me the e-mail ready to plunk down my Visa until I saw the Mail In Rebate bit, I have sent in at least 10 rebate forms in the last 2 years, and received only 3 back not to mention I get to pay the tax on the pre-rebate price. If you are going to give your paying customers a deal make it a deal not a maybe deal if you get everything just right and we pick your rebate form out of the hat.

Machound

866 posts since
Jan 4, 2004

28. Aug 21, 2005 11:37 AM

in response to: fluffster

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

In reply to:<hr />
DVD's are 480p, you would have to transcode 1080i to 480p - a huge reducing in quality. With DivX you would transcode to 720p. Studies show that you only start to notice the difference between 1080p (not even interlaced) and 720p on 50+ inch TVs.

<hr />

Not to argue, but converting to 720p may involve a 24 hour transcode to make a single DVD. I'm just guessing about the time factor... it might actually turn out to be more than 24 hours on my Powerbook G4. Simply writing the 1080i MPEG2 files out to a DVD disk with a few menus would put considerably less strain on my CPU and would reduce the frustration that occurs when the processs crashes 23 hours into a transcode. Granted, only HD capable media players could handle 1080i MPEG2 DVDs, but such players are becoming widely available. My I-O Data LinkPlayer2 has no problem at all handling 1080i MPEG2 files. If I could just find a burner that would put those files on a DVD, instead of having to play them over my 100baseT network, I could clear out a lot of hard drive space.

Clearly Apple is losing the race to provide the first truly accepted HD format. They bypassed MPEG2 for MPEG4 Layer 10 (aka H.264), thereby reaching for the stars while the mainstream has been moving in another direction. I have nothing against DivX except the transcode time and the (perhaps slight) loss of quality that results from a transcode. Still, it's a slap in Apple's face that Roxio isn't offering any H.264 option. H.264 capable players are soon to be released by I-O Data and some other companies. It's also a shame Roxio isn't offering a direct MPEG2 write-to-disk option that would constitute true EyeTV support, IMO.

Here's another question: Will Toast 7 be able to transcode 480i DV to DivX-DVD format, or to burn DVDs from previously converted 480i DivX files? This could be a boon to the home video enthusiast who hopes to squeeze more than 90 minutes of their family camcorder recordings onto a DVD.

macuser25

58 posts since
Jun 11, 2004

29. Aug 21, 2005 12:00 PM

in response to: Machound

Re: Toast 7 includes DivX, iLife browsing, much mo

Toast 7 offers...

Direct write MPEG2 to disc (you can set the video settings to not encode existing files - just mutli-plex)
Convert any file to H.264 and write to disc

Seems like Roxio just chose to go with DivX HD because it's here now, you can use your existing burner and media, and the players are pretty affordable. H.264 players are non existent/non starters.

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