Toast 10 vs Encore

[Ben Holmes]

Although I have not had the pleasure of Encore in 12 months (I used the CS3 version and have not touched my CS4 copy), I can tell you that it used to be a disaster for Blu-Ray authoring on the Mac. Although I was eventually able to complete a few fairly simple 2 menu disc, there were a large number of bugs in the Mac release, such that menus did not link properly, buttons ‘disappeared’, switching outputs from DVD to Blu-Ray (as Adobe widely advertised) was fraught with project settings issues and so on. Builds were hit and miss. Reliability awful.

I could be charitable and assume that some of these issues have been resolved – although until Blu-Ray is officially supported by Apple, I fear it will not be a priority for Adobe. I may never know, since unless I have to, I plan to NEVER use Encore again.

IF it worked as advertised, Encore (although not as elegant a solution as DVDSP) would be a fully featured and fairly simple to operate Blu-Ray authoring tool that (unlike Toast) is capable of producing custom designed and fully featured Blu-Ray releases. Comparing the two products is like comparing quick time player to FCP – one is a simple output tool, the other an authoring solution.

In my experience, Toast works fine for burning Blu-Rays of QTs – and for burning ISOs made in Encore. I never had one failed BD-R copy.

Tragic as it may be – Encore is still the only ‘home studio’ priced solution for the Mac. What I will say is that if you keep the disks simple, and create an ISO you can burn in Toast, you WILL have a very clean and high quality Blu-Ray at the end of it – it’s a remarkably good quality delivery format, providing a ‘client-friendly’ HD output for those occasions when ‘open QT player’ is just too complex an instruction.

Ben

Edit Out Ltd
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FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
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https://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup

[Walter Biscardi]

[Ben Holmes] “I can tell you that it used to be a disaster for Blu-Ray authoring on the Mac.”

It’s still a disaster. Adobe sent me a note telling me they fixed all the bugs from CS3 in CS4. Nope. You can still only reliably make a single “Play Only” Button version BluRay disc.

We use NetBlender’s DoStudio for BluRay authoring here. It only runs on Windows, but we spent $1,500 on an HP computer, complete with BluRay burner and haven’t looked back since…..

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

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[Steve Eisen]

If $599 is too much, then $2000 for NetBlender is certainly not an option.

Your best solution to create simple BD’s is to use Toast 9 or 10. Keep in mind you do need to buy the Blu-Ray plug-in for both versions.

Look into Matrox’s Compress HD card for extremely fast h.264 blu-ray encode times. Yes it will set you back $495 but time is money!!!

NAB is 3 months away!

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Greg Barringer]

Thanks you both, It looks like Toast 10 is the answer. Is there an advantage to the Pro version?

[Greg Barringer]

Thanks, I just bought a Nikon D3S for $5,200 so I need to save up again.

[Jim Scott]

Toast 10 Pro includes the High-Def/Blu-ray Disc plug-in ($20 separately).

It also includes: Sonicfire Pro, SoundSoap SE, FotoMagico, LightZone if you’re interested in those. But when I asked them about those last year they said that they were special “bundle” versions (in other words not the full “normal” versions) and as such may not be upgradeable, or may be limited in features.

If you don’t care about those add-ons then the regular Toast plus the Blu-ray plug-in is cheaper.

[Steve Eisen]

It includes the blu-ray plug and adds some third party software. You have to decide if you need it.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group

[Ben Holmes]

https://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/default.html?rTrack=m_pro_toast

Click the compare button – see if any of that applies to you. The plugin is $20 otherwise.

Toast IS the answer if you just want to create ‘put disk in and play’ disks, or you are blind and so think the menus supplied in Toast are tasteful.

If you can deal with Encore’s ‘issues’, and keep it simple, due to the fact that you can use your own video backgrounds for a play menu, as well as design artwork in Photoshop and drop it straight in, you will certainly (eventually) achieve a much more professional look – as you would in DVDSP. Just without the ease of use.

I ONLY use Toast for autoplaying disks and burning ISOs – it’s on-screen options are ghastly.

Ben

Edit Out Ltd
—————————-
FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producer

https://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup

[Rich Rubasch]

We use Toast 10 to make first-play BluRay discs and so far they have played fine in ever player we could find. However a double menu version using Toast’s menu options would NOT play in almost any BluRay player we tried, and it only sort of played in a Sony.

So we are limited to First play BluRay discs and these are perfect if they are looping. If not we put a pile of black at the end so the player keeps playing but just shows black….eventually they eject the disc!

We also mostly burn these “BluRay” discs to standard DVD media which is the best “secret” of all! A simple 20¢ DVD disc makes a perfect BluRay disc every time as long as your content is under 30 minutes. Longer? Just use a BluRay disc. YOu can even burn these on a DVD burner.

Thanks Toast!

Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media Inc.
Video Production and Post
Owner/President/Editor/Designer/Animator
https://www.tiltmedia.com

[Steve Eisen]

I do not have problems with double menu BD’s created in Toast 10.

I have two different Blu-Ray players. Panasonic and Magnavox. The firmware on both units are up to date.

What is your workflow in Toast?

I create h.264 in Compressor. I also have the Matrox Compress HD card and Episode in my system. Encode times are just under realtime. Original footage is DVCPro HD, 720 or 1080.

I drop the h.264 into Toast, Toast asks for the ac3 file and I manipulate the menus. I’ll create a disc image if I need to make more than one copy. I’m using the Pioneer BDR-103 burner.

Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Vice President
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group