Toast is an
optical disc authoring
Optical disc authoring, including CD, DVD, and Blu-ray Disc authoring, is the process of assembling source material—video, audio or other data—into the proper logical volume format to then be recorded ("burned") onto an optical di ...
and
media conversion software application
Application software is any computer program that is intended for end-user use not computer operator, operating, system administration, administering or computer programming, programming the computer. An application (app, application program, sof ...
for
macOS
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
. Its name is a play on the word ''burn'', a term used for the writing of information onto a disc through the use of a laser.
Discs can be burned directly through
Mac OS X
macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...
, but Toast provides added control over the process as well as extra features, including file recovery for damaged discs, cataloging and tracking of files burned to disc. It also provides support for audio and video formats that
QuickTime does not support, such as
FLAC
FLAC (; Free Lossless Audio Codec) is an audio coding format for lossless compression of digital audio, developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation, and is also the name of the free software project producing the FLAC tools, the reference software ...
and
Ogg Vorbis
Vorbis is a free and open-source software project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The project produces an audio coding format and software reference encoder/decoder (codec) for lossy audio compression, libvorbis. Vorbis is most common ...
.
History
Toast was conceived of by Greg Kerr in 1993, then CEO of
Astarte
Astarte (; , ) is the Greek language, Hellenized form of the Religions of the ancient Near East, Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart. ʿAṯtart was the Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic language ...
, who outsourced development to Markus Fest. In 1997, the product and team was purchased by
Adaptec
Adaptec, Inc., was a computer storage company and remains a brand for computer storage products. The company was an independent firm from 1981 to 2010, at which point it was acquired by PMC-Sierra, which itself was later acquired by Microsemi, ...
, and later transferred to
Roxio (then a division of Adaptec).
Toast 4 is the last release that can run on
System 7 with a
68k CPU. With version 5, Toast was renamed "Toast Titanium" and merged with a formerly separate application, Toast DVD. Toast 5 Titanium introduced support for
Video CD
Video CD (abbreviated as VCD, and also known as Compact Disc Digital Video), (not to be confused with CD Video which is a type of Laserdisc) is a home video format and the first format for distributing films on standard optical discs. The f ...
and
DVD burning, which was improved in version 6 by addition of
MPEG-2
MPEG-2 (a.k.a. H.222/H.262 as was defined by the ITU) is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods ...
encoding.
Version 6 also added
DVD authoring
DVD authoring is the process of creating a DVD video capable of playing on a DVD player. DVD authoring software must conform to the specifications set by the DVD Forum.
DVD authoring is the second step in the process of producing finished D ...
features, enabling the creation of video and photo DVDs with menus and buttons. Unlike Apple's
iDVD
iDVD is a discontinued Mac (computer), Mac application made by Apple Inc., Apple, which can be used to DVD authoring, create DVDs.
iDVD lets users design DVD menus (like a main menu and chapter selection menu) and burn movies, slideshows, and ...
, it supported external DVD burners. Its "ToastAnywhere" feature let users burn discs inserted in another Mac running Toast on the local network, through Apple's
Rendezvous protocol. It also gained the ability to compress and encrypt files before burning them.
Toast 6 Titanium included another Roxio app, CD Spin Doctor 2, which can clean noise from an audio track.
Roxio announced Toast 8 Titanium in January 2007. Toast 8 Titanium added multiple features including
TiVoToGo and
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
support.
Features
Main features of the Toast 6 are: video and photo DVDs can have menus and buttons; package includes ToastAnywhere, that uses Apple's
Bonjour protocol to support burning discs from other Macs on the local network; compression and 128-bit encryption of files and folders before burning; support for all audio and video codecs supported by
QuickTime; improved interface; creation of
slide show
A slide show, or slideshow, is a presentation of a series of still images ( slides) on a projection screen or electronic display device, typically in a prearranged sequence. The changes may be automatic and at regular intervals or they may b ...
s with panning, zooming, transitions, and a soundtrack using the "Motion Pictures" feature.
Reception
In a 2003 review of Toast 6,
Macworld described Toast as "venerable" and the "reigning champ" of Mac disc-burning software.
References
External links
Roxio's homepage* Version History from Roxio
*
Adaptec Toast 3.8 announcement*
*
*
{{Disk image emulators software
MacOS CD ripping software
Optical disc authoring software
Roxio software