Roxio Toast 10 Titanium CD and DVD-burning software

Toast started out as a straightforward program for burning CDs and DVDs, but each upgrade sees it spreading its wings wider.

This latest version includes new features for capturing audio and video files, which you can then convert into various formats for use on an iPod or other portable device.

The Media Browser palette, which displays the music, photos and video clips stored on your Mac, now includes a Web Video option. This creates a list of video clips you can watch on sites such as Youtube. You can then download these clips and convert them into other video formats.

There’s a similar option, called Auto Music Capture, that can be used to record streaming audio from internet radio stations or other sources. This feature worked erratically when we tried it: we would sometimes receive an error message saying that the program couldn’t identify the audio file, and we also lost the ability to adjust the volume on our Mac until we had quit the program and relaunched it. Roxio said it was aware of these bugs and is preparing a patch to fix them, but we can’t help thinking that its testing wasn’t as thorough as it might have been.

Other new features include a simple editor that can be used to isolate and extract specific clips from (non-copy-protected) DVDs, a new selection of templates for creating DVD menus and an option for converting audiobook CDs into audio files with chapter markers, for use on an iPod or other portable player. There’s also a ‘Pro’ version of Toast now available for £119.99 that includes a number of additional programs for working with audio recordings and photo slideshows.

Toast’s features are as useful as ever, but Roxio needs to address the bugs we encountered if they are to maintain Toast’s good reputation.