Toast 6 as an iDVD replacement?

[Hoven]

I feel foolish asking this, but I've done some searching in the forums and I've checked out the Toast website, but I'm still a bit confused.

Can Toast be used as a replacement for iDVD? That is, does it have Themes you can add for the main menu screens? Does it import chapter marks from iMovie like iDVD does? I know it can do way more the iDVD, but I'm mostly concerned with how it is as a full, regular replacement for iDVD.

I'm having issues with iDVD (as do others... sound but no video after encode/burn, blank theme screen w/hidden buttons on some chapter selection screens, etc.). I've not found a good solution, but it seems that iDVD is sensitive to any issues in the clips/assets used. I thought maybe Toast would be more forgiving, but I'm not clear that it will let me set up DVD's the way iDVD does with the chapters and themes and such.

Many Thanks!!

 

[WinterMute]

Toast doesn't seem to allow you to create custom menus, but it does allow the creation of DVD's from raw content. I'm not sure what file types it will accept, i.e. does it require MPEG2 files or will it encode to MPEG2 from a .mov or a DV stream...

It certainly won't allow chapter marker import from iMovie.

Inevitably iDVD is a more sophisticated app, and your DVD's wil be more functional/pretty from there.

If your really serious about DVD's go get DVD Studio Pro, a steep learning curve, but relatively short, and the results are pretty good all round.

 

[cluthz]

The menu options in Toast is very limited.
Toast will use allmost any contents (it encodes it for you).

 

[Hoven]

Toast doesn't seem to allow you to create custom menus, but it does allow the creation of DVD's from raw content. [...]
It certainly won't allow chapter marker import from iMovie.

Inevitably iDVD is a more sophisticated app, and your DVD's wil be more functional/pretty from there.

The menu options in Toast is very limited.
Toast will use allmost any contents (it encodes it for you).
__________________
-tb

Well, that's what I thought but wasn't too sure. There's a lot of comments in the forum about really needing or prefering Toast. I guess if I'm mixing a ton of media formats it would come in very handy.

If your really serious about DVD's go get DVD Studio Pro, a steep learning curve, but relatively short, and the results are pretty good all round.

Mostly, I'm just importing 8mm or VHS tapes (via an analog-to-digital converter box) into iMovie, then building a DVD from them... ya know, coverting home movies from camcorder tape to DVD.

I was looking to Toast to avoid what I thought was an iDVD problem. I keep getting bad burns where part way through the movie the video stalls, but the audio keeps going. I'm beginning to realize that it is caused by a bad clip in one of the iMovie assets.
So, I'll stick with iDVD for now (although I'll look into DVD Studio Pro).

Thanks!