Toast 10 Titanium imports video direct from most AVCHD and DV camcorders, while Easy VHS to DVD for Mac digitizes video from analog camcorders and VCRs. In this tutorial, we'll show you how to capture digital video with Toast. For analog video, see our separate tutorial on capturing with Easy VHS to DVD.

AVCHD Camcorder Import

You can import video clips from your AVCHD camcorder in two ways. If you just want to archive your clips to disc so you can erase and reuse the storage in your camcorder, choose "AVCHD Archive" under the Video project tab. Then attach your camcorder to your Mac. With most AVCHD camcorders this means connecting it via a USB cable and turning it on in playback mode. (You may also need to make some selections on your camcorder screen. See your camcorder's manual for full instructions on how to put it in the right mode for communication with your Mac.)

Once your camcorder is connected properly, it will show in the project window, and Toast will tell you how much space it will take to burn to disc. You can choose CD, DVD or Blu-ray discs for archiving. Toast will span multiple discs if needed. Finally, click the Burn button, and your video will be captured to disc for use in your future projects.

Burning an AVCHD Archive disc.

The other way to capture clips from your AVCHD camcorder is to import them directly into your video project. First, connect your camcorder as described above. Then choose DVD-Video or Blu-ray Video under the Video project tab, and open the Media Browser from the Window menu. Your camcorder will show as "AVCHD" in the Media Browser menu. Select the clips you'd like to import, and drag them to the project window. Now you're all set to create projects such as DVD and Blu-ray discs that can be played back in your set-top Blu-ray player.

Importing AVCHD clips into a video project.

Similarly, if you'd like to convert your videos for playback on your iPhone or iPod, or upload them to YouTube, simply drag your AVCHD files from the Media Browser into the Convert>Video Files project window instead. For YouTube, choose the "MPEG-4 Player" device type in the Player setup dialog. The resulting MPEG-4 files can be uploaded directly to YouTube in your Web browser.

DV Camcorder Import

When importing from DV camcorders, use Toast's handy Plug & Burn feature, which lets you quickly create DVDs or disc images of your video clips for archiving or use in other projects. You can import an entire tape at once, or a portion of it. After importing, you can immediately start recording your disc, or add other video or slideshows from your hard disk before recording.

To import with Plug & Burn, start a new DVD-Video or Blu-ray Video project. If you will want to burn your disc immediately after capturing, also choose your DVD options at this time, such as menu styles and encoding quality, from the bottom left of the Toast window. Next, connect your DV camcorder as directed by the manufacturer (typically via FireWire) and set it to playback mode. In a few seconds, a camcorder icon will appear in the Content area.

Connecting your DV camcorder.

Use the camera controls in the Toast window, or on your camcorder, to fast-forward or rewind to the point where you want to begin recording. Now, click the Import button. The Plug & Burn options dialog box will appear, where you can choose to record the entire tape, or a certain number of minutes. You can also give the clip a name, and rewind the tape if necessary.

Finally, you can select whether to import and then record immediately, or just import. Choose Import if you want to record more clips or add video from other sources to your project.

Choosing Plug & Burn options.

If you chose to record immediately, you'll also be prompted to insert a blank disc, and you can leave the project unattended until it's done, making it easy to archive your DV tapes to disc. If you chose to Import only, the finished clip will appear in the Toast project window, where you can trim it if needed, and use it in your video projects.

The finished clip, ready to use in Toast video projects

The sharing options are endless, too. Invite friends and family to watch your shows on your personal Roxio Web page, embed your shows on your blog or on other sites like Facebook and MySpace, burn your shows to a DVD, even podcast your favorites and watch them on your mobile device of choice! Your shows can be as private or as public as you like.

Basic PhotoShows are free to create and share. However, a Premium PhotoShow account brings many benefits like video support, hundreds more custom styles, music and artwork, and the ability to create PhotoShows offline, using the matching desktop software.

So how does it all work? The best way to learn is simply to create a PhotoShow! Here, we'll go through the process on PhotoShow.com.

Getting Started with Roxio PhotoShow

To begin your PhotoShow, simply click the button labeled "Start Your PhotoShow Now," which brings you to the first step: adding your photos.

At this point, click the Sign In button at upper right, if you aren't signed in already. Or click Sign Up to create a new account. Now click the Add Photos button so you can upload your pictures. You can select as many files as you like at one time; just hold down the Control key (or Command key on the Mac) to select additional photos in the same folder.

Continue adding photos until you have everything you need. You can import photos from Facebook, Flickr, and Shutterfly, too. If you have a Premium account, you can also select video clips from your camcorder to upload.

Customizing Your PhotoShow

Now the fun begins! You'll be asked to enter a title for your PhotoShow, as well as a creator and "star(s)." These credits will be shown at both the beginning and end of your show. Be as whimsical or serious as you like, depending on the subject matter. Then default PhotoShow styles will be applied, and you'll see a preview of your PhotoShow. At this point, you pick an overall Style for your show, such as Father's Day, Graduation, Summer, and more. Here, we've picked Photo Cards, a fun theme that works well with many types of photos.

Another excellent general-purpose style is Pan & Zoom, also known as the "Ken Burns" style, which he used to great effect in his Civil War series. You can quickly preview your show with any number of styles to see what is best for you. You can also customize the timing for each slide, if desired, letting some slides stay onscreen longer than others.

With the basic style down, it's time to add some background music (notice that we're simply following the tabs at the top from left to right -- although you can select tabs in any order). We chose a free track from John Lee Hooker, but with a Premium account, you can also choose any DRM-free MP3 track from your own music collection.

Next, we'll arrange the photos and videos in the order that we want them to appear by dragging them around. Note the camcorder icon on the last thumbnail. This signifies a video clip.

Moving on down the line, we come to the Captions tab. Captions can be added in any style or size of text, and positioned independently anywhere on your image. This makes it easy to customize captions for each slide. Captions are where you can get really funny and creative, bringing your photos alive for your viewers.

The fun doesn't stop there: you can also add speech bubbles, more titles, stickers, and borders. Stickers are basically animated graphics, in tons of fun shapes and themes. You'll find everything from hopping Easter bunnies to scary pumpkins in the sticker library.

Sharing Your Show

You can continue to play with your show and add or change elements. But we're finished, so we'll click the Done button and start sharing! There are four basic sharing options: you can email a link to view your show to friends and family; post the show to your Web page or blog; purchase your show on DVD; and even broadcast it to cable TV with certain providers. With a Premium account, you can also save your show to your hard drive in MP4 format, for viewing on your iPod or other portable player.

When your recipients click the link in the PhotoShow email, they'll be brought to the PhotoShow site to view the show. If they don't already have an account, they'll be prompted to create one, since an account is needed to preserve the privacy of your shows. At that point viewers can also do things like buy photo prints or a DVD of the show, or download it for viewing on a portable media player, depending on whether they have a standard or Premium account.

We hope that's given you a taste of how easy it easy to make a PhotoShow! You can also upload photos directly from your iPhone with the PhotoShow iPhone app, or use the PhotoShow Uploaders on BlackBerry and Windows Mobile phones. It's never been easier to share your adventures securely and privately.

Using iMovie and Toast you can also edit your recordings, add titles and transitions, and create projects combining analog footage with that from digital camcorders.

Easy VHS to DVD for Mac includes the hardware and software you need to capture and convert almost any analog video. The video capture hardware is a small USB stick with connections for both composite and S-video sources. Simply install the software, plug in the USB stick and connect your VCR or camcorder, and you're ready to start transferring your tapes.

The program is not just for tapes. Here are some common analog video sources you can capture with Easy VHS to DVD for Mac:

• VHS tapes from your VCR
• Analog camcorder output (VHS, S-VHS, 8mm or Hi-8)
• The composite or S-video output from your TV (when viewing live standard-definition channels)

Easy VHS to DVD for Mac is also perfect for recording shows from standard-definition DVRs that don't have PC transfer capabilities. Otherwise your shows are trapped forever in the DVR. (If you're lucky enough to have a networked TiVo, you can send shows to your Mac with TiVo Transfer, then burn them with Toast. TiVo Transfer is included with Toast 10 Titanium.)

Here's how to get started with Easy VHS to DVD for Mac:

Step 1: Capture Video to Your Mac

After you've installed the software and plugged the USB device into your Mac, open Easy VHS to DVD. You'll see the following screen:

The Easy VHS to DVD for Mac Introduction window.

Here you enter some quick information about your video: name, approximate length, and desired recording quality. The approximate length is not binding -- you can start/stop your recording at any time -- it just helps to determine the disk space that will be required for your recording. For example, if you have an hour-long video, and choose 90 minutes and high quality, the program will tell you that you'll need about 4GB of hard disk space.

In the next screen, you'll select your source video (composite or S-video) and check that it is playing correctly in the preview window. If not, make sure you have connected to a set of analog output jacks on your VCR or camcorder (input jacks look the same, but will not work), and that all plugs are tight.

Connecting and checking your video source.

Now it's time to check the audio. Make sure you can hear it through your Mac's speakers or headphones, and that the green lights are blinking in the preview window. If you have no audio, check that the red and white RCA cables are plugged into output jacks on your VCR or camcorder. If you'd like to mute the audio, and only capture video, you can do that too, by clicking the mute button at the upper left corner of the video window.

Checking your audio source.

Now it's time to start recording! Cue up your video again to the beginning, and click the red record button to start capturing. If you'd like to automatically stop recording after the amount of time you specified at the beginning (90 minutes in this example), check the box at the bottom. Leave it unchecked to stop the recording manually by pressing the button again.

Starting the recording.

When the recording is finished, it will be saved to your Movies folder with the name you gave it at the beginning of the project, and you'll see the following output options:

Easy VHS to DVD for Mac output options.

You can burn your recording to DVD with Toast, send it to iMovie for editing, or save it to QuickTime Player format. You can also go back and capture more videos. QuickTime Player output will be saved to the Easy VHS to DVD folder (inside your Movies folder) in MPEG4 format, and can be dropped right into iTunes for playback on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

For YouTube, it's even easier, the capture files saved to your Easy VHS to DVD folder can be uploaded directly, no additional conversion necessary. Just sign into your account in your Web browser and click the Upload button. Then select the desired capture files in Easy VHS to DVD folder.

We'll go ahead and burn our recording to DVD with Toast Basic (which is included in the Easy VHS to DVD package).

Step 2: Burn the Recording to DVD

Now that you've digitized your video, it's time to burn it to DVD. When you click the "Send to Toast" button, Toast will open with the DVD project type selected and your video already in the project window, as below.

Burning to DVD with Toast.

At lower left, you'll see options for customizing your DVD, such as Menu Styles and whether your disc will start to play automatically on insertion. Click the More button to do things like change the Menu title of your DVD.

You can also add more videos to your DVD project using the Add button (the bar at the bottom will tell you how much space you have left on your disc, whether single or dual-layer). Finally, you can trim your videos and set the menu button title and thumbnail picture by clicking on the Edit button next to each video in the project window.

When you've got your disc set up the way you want it, click the Burn button at lower right and you're all done.

When you've got your disc set up the way you want it, click the Burn button at lower right and you're all done.

You can clean up music you've digitized from your aging vinyl and tapes with Toast's CD Spin Doctor application. Or massage the audio tracks from your video recordings, eliminating wind and background noise to make your dialog loud and clear.

Virtually any type of background noise can be scrubbed out quickly and easily with SoundSoap, leaving you with clean, crisp audio that sounds like you remember it—or maybe even better!

Step-by-Step: Cleaning Audio Files with SoundSoap

1. Get Started

To begin, launch SoundSoap SE from your Application folder. Then open the file you want to clean up from the File menu, such as a recording made by CD Spin Doctor. The file can be in almost any standard digital audio or video format, including QuickTime, DV (camcorder format), AVI, WAV, AIFF, MP3, MP4 (AAC) and more.

Choosing the audio or video file you want to clean.

2. Get a noise education

You're ready to start cleaning now, but first, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the different types of noise typical of sound recordings, since each one will be tackled by a different tool in SoundSoap.

The four major types are: Broadband Noise, such as tape hiss and air-conditioner noise; Hum, typically associated with faulty or ungrounded electrical circuits and power lines; Rumble, a low-frequency noise like that from a turntable motor; and Clicks & Crackles, which are commonly found in recordings made from scratched or dirty vinyl records.

To learn more about these noise types and how to identify them, see Chapter 3 of the SoundSoap 2.2 User Guide (downloadable here).

3. Remove Click & Crackle

In the SoundSoap window, you'll be working from left to right to clean up your recording. While the various tools can be applied in any order and combination, it's best to remove certain types of noise before others. Background noise before hum, for example. And clicks and crackles first of all, since they are usually easily identifiable as abrupt peaks in waveforms.

The big "Wash Window" in the middle is a visual representation of your sound file. Red represents noise, and blue represents the desired audio. In general, the bluer it gets, the better (although your ears are the true judge). You'll see the bands move and change as you play back your file and work the noise controls.

To begin, make sure the Broadband Noise filter is off using the button at middle left. Next, start playing your audio file using the controls at the bottom. Now gradually raise the "Remove Click & Crackle" slider just enough to reduce the clicks without affecting the rest of your recording. Run through the recording a couple times to make sure of your choice. Note that this tool mainly applies to LP and tape transfers. If you are editing a video soundtrack, you can probably skip Click & Crackle, unless there was some unusual background noise.

Adjusting the Click & Crackle slider.

4. Reduce Broadband Noise

Now let's move on to the broadband noise-reduction tool, something you'll probably want to apply to every sound file, whether from an LP or videotape. Broadband noise is the most common type of noise you'll find in videotapes, and cleaning it can make a huge difference to your sound quality. If you're recording outside on a windy day, in a moving car, or inside with a fan, refrigerator or air conditioner in the background, broadband noise reduction will help voices come to the fore and make your audio listenable.

First, find a location in the sound file that is silent except for the background, a couple seconds, if possible. This will often be at the beginning or end of an LP or tape transfer. Move the playback head to that point and pause. Then click the "Learn Noise" button in the center of the window and start playback. SoundSoap will analyze the broadband frequencies causing the noise, and clean them automatically.

Clicking the "Learn Noise" button before turning on broadband noise reduction.

5. Adjust the Noise Tuner Knob

Now click the "noise only" button, and start playing your file from the beginning. If you hear anything BUT noise (voices or music), turn the Noise Tuner knob on the left slowly counterclockwise until you hear JUST the unwanted noise. This is to adjust the frequencies that noise reduction is applied to, to make sure it doesn't take away sounds you want along with the noise.

Clicking the "noise only" button to check noise tuning.

6. Adjust the Noise Reduction Knob

Next, adjust the Noise Reduction knob on the right. Turn the Broadband mode button to On and start playback again. This time, turn the Noise Reduction knob the minimum necessary to remove the background noise. If the material being cleaned is dialog, also click the Preserve Voice button at the left. This filter will automatically remove sounds outside of the range of human voices. Now you've finished cleaning broadband noise. Notice how the Wash Window, formerly mostly red, is now turning blue?

Adjusting the noise reduction level.

7. Remove Hum & Rumble

If you are cleaning a file digitized from an LP or tape and you know you have hum or rumble (not typically found in video), you can remove them with the buttons at lower left. Click the 50Hz or 60Hz buttons to remove hum (50Hz is for Europe, which has 50Hz power, while 60Hz is for the US and other 60Hz power countries), and the "Remove Rumble" button to remove turntable rumble. Be sure to listen to your recording after applying each tool, to make sure it has the desired effect. Finally, click the Apply button to save all your noise reduction settings thus far. (Don't worry, your original file will not be altered.)

Clicking the Remove Rumble button.

8. Enhance your recording

You've now cleaned the noise out of your audio file, but SoundSoap has one more goodie for you, the Enhance feature. This slider at far right enhances the tones in degraded sources like LPs and tapes. It's great for music tracks that sound washed out. Start playing your cleaned file, and move the slider up and down until you find a pleasing balance. Now click Apply again, and choose Save As from the file menu to save your work to a new file, leaving your original untouched.

Adjusting the tone enhancement slider.

9. Use your cleaned file

Now that you're all done, you can use your sparkling clean audio file in your music or video project. Just import it into Toast, iTunes or iMovie as you would any other audio file. You'll be amazed at the difference!

10. Just for fun

Want to see what a cleaned sound file looks like, compared to the original? Open your pre- and post-SoundSoap files in Toast's CD Spin Doctor and check out the waveforms. You should be able to clearly see the difference, especially i areas of silence.]]> http://www.myroxio.com/enu/articles/mac/audio,video/2009/04/cleaning_audio_with_soundsoap_for_mac.html http://www.myroxio.com/enu/articles/mac/audio,video/2009/04/cleaning_audio_with_soundsoap_for_mac.html Mac Audio,Video 2009-04-23T17:11:59Z Need a soundtrack for a family vacation or road trip? Unlock your family's musical past by converting old LPs and tapes to MP3, then create mix discs or iPod playlists customized for everyone on your list. All you need is Toast 10 and a turntable. You can dig up your old one, or borrow one from a friend. The process is quick and painless.

Toast 10 makes it easy to get great results with its CD Spin Doctor app. Even better, once you've made your recording, you can put away those LPs, preventing further wear and tear, and preserving them for future generations. You can also go on to make CD and DVD compilations of your musical memories -- perfect for family reunions, anniversaries and birthdays -- even combining them with tracks from digital sources like CDs or Internet radio (which Toast 10 can now automatically capture from your Web browser!). This article shows you how, step by step.

One note before we start. If the LP or cassette you want to transfer to CD has been published on CD, you may want to buy the CD rather than make a copy. This is not for copyright reasons -- you are perfectly within your rights to make a CD copy of an album you already own for personal use. The fact is that a commercial CD will likely be far better quality than copying an LP or tape to CD, even with a top-notch turntable. That said, if you have records that were never issued as CDs, or family audiotapes you want to preserve, transferring these analog sources to CDs makes perfect sense, and Toast 10 makes it simple.

Step 1: Use a Clean Source

When digitizing an analog audio signal it's important to make sure you get the best signal into the computer before recording. While Toast's CD Spin Doctor has clean-up filters, they should be viewed as secondary. Make sure that you wipe your LPs (with a soft, lint-free cloth or record brush). If you have a lot of material to record, you might also consider replacing the needle in your turntable if you can't remember the last time you did so. Similarly, make sure your cassette deck heads are clean, and that you engage the same noise-reduction technology (Dolby B or C, etc) used when the tape was recorded. Not all decks support all technologies.

Step 2: Connect Things Up

Depending upon whether you have a record or cassette, you will have to use a slightly different technique to connect your sound source to your computer. For tapes and other line-level audio sources, including TVs, VCRs, DVD players, stereo receivers, and MP3 players, you should ideally use a player that has line-out jacks (usually two RCA plugs), and connect these jacks to the line-in minijack of your Mac. (If your Mac doesn't have an audio input jack, you will need to buy a third-party USB audio interface.) If your portable tape player lacks line-out jacks, you can also use a headphone output; though this will require more work in adjusting levels (see Step 3).

If you're recording from an LP, you'll likely need to run it through a receiver or amplifier with a "phono preamp" first because most turntables put out a signal that is much lower than a standard line signal. Connecting this directly to the computer will not work. Most home receivers and amplifiers have a special input for connecting the turntable. You then use the line-out from the amplifier (often labeled tape out) to the line-in of your Mac. If you don't have a receiver with a phono input, you can buy dedicated phono pre-amps at electronics hobby stores. Finally, there are newer USB turntables that provide a direct USB input to your Mac. These are the easiest to connect.

Step 3: Choose Recording Input and Adjust Levels

Now you're ready to begin recording! Open CD Spin Doctor, select New Recording, and click the Continue button. You'll first see a diagram summarizing our connection tips above, then you'll be prompted to choose an input device (choose Line In or USB depending on your equipment). If things are hooked up correctly, you'll see the input level meter light up, and you can also monitor the source using speakers or headphones.

Choosing your input source.

Next, you'll adjust your audio input level, or gain. Setting the correct input volume is very important. When recording, you want to get as high a level as possible without "clipping." If this happens, the audio may be noticeably distorted. To adjust the level, watch the two bars in the middle of the recording window as you are playing the loudest passage in your source. Adjust the gain slider so that the bars stay in the green portion, and go into the yellow only at the peaks, avoiding the red region altogether (where clipping occurs). Note that if you have used the headphone connection of a tape recorder or amplifier as your source, you can also adjust the volume on your tape deck or amp. For best results, the output from the source and the Spin Doctor input slider should both be set about halfway. (If you are using a USB input, the gain slider will be fixed and you can skip to the next step.)

Adjusting input levels.

While you're checking levels (using quality headphones or external speakers if possible), also check for hum -- you may need to ground your source deck. Most turntables come with a special ground wire for this purpose. Also make sure that the computer and source equipment are plugged into the same power strip, and that power cables and sound cables are not bunched together. Keep sound cables away from CRTs, televisions and other sources of electronic noise.

Once you've adjusted the input level, you'll choose a recording quality: CD, DVD, or DVD High Quality. Choose as appropriate depending on what type of disc you want to make, and continue.

Choose CD recording quality.

Finally, it's time to press the record button! Cue up your source to the beginning, press the record button in Spin Doctor, and then start your source. Don't worry about recording blank space at the beginning; you can remove that later. Make sure you have enough disk space before starting, though. CD audio is uncompressed, and runs about 10MB per minute (or 600MB per hour). Spin Doctor cleverly tells you exactly how much recording time you have available. You can either stop the recording manually, or tell it to automatically stop after a given amount of time, which is handy for unattended recording.

Making the recording.

Step 4: Identify Tracks and Clean Things Up

Once you've made your recording, it will appear as a single waveform in the Spin Doctor main window, where you can edit it and apply filters like noise reduction. If you have recorded an entire LP or tape with multiple tracks, the first thing to do is divide up the tracks. Spin Doctor can do this for you automatically. Simply click the Auto-define Tracks magic wand at the top. This will define tracks based on passages of silence in the recording. You can set the sensitivity and other parameters in the CD Spin Doctor Preferences dialog. You can also set Spin Doctor to automatically define tracks after every recording, which is the default.

Next, click the Identify button at the top to automatically retrieve artist and track names from the GraceNote online database. It works amazingly well. We were only able to stump the database a few times. The Info button at top right lets you view and edit track data.

Editing track information.

Finally, click the Filters button at top right. Here, you'll find noise reduction, sound enhancement and EQ filters that you can apply to your entire file, or selected tracks. Keep Noise Reducer settings as low as possible to reduce noise without muting the overall sound too much. It's often useful to test noise reduction settings on a quiet passage (such as the spaces between songs) where noise is easily distinguished.

Applying noise filters.

The Sound Enhancer filters let you adjust the dynamics of a recording. This is particularly useful for restoring some dynamic range to tape recordings as well as MP3s created with low bit rates. Why is this necessary? Compression (as with MP3 encoding) tends to make highs not as high and lows not as low. Similarly, tapes often don't have the dynamic range found in records and CDs due to a lower signal-to-noise ratio. The Sound Enhancer manipulates the signal to expand the differences again (you can think of it like increasing contrast in a photographic image).

Step 5: More on Defining Tracks

CD Spin Doctor's Auto-define Tracks feature analyzes the recording, looking for quiet passages, and splits tracks automatically. If it doesn't match the original tracks correctly, you can manually define the tracks in one of two methods: click-and-drag (left Track Mode button), and single-click (right Track Mode button) In click-and-drag mode, you define a track by clicking on the lower waveform where you want the track to begin, dragging to the right, and then releasing the mouse button where you want the track to end. Your newly created track is displayed on the timeline as a colored rectangle and appears in the track list just below the waveform. This method is also useful for snipping off unwanted portions at the beginning or end of your tracks. Note that the entire selection must be outside of any existing tracks.

In single-click mode, the first track automatically starts at the beginning of the recording and ends at the point where you click the lower waveform. Clicking again defines the end point of your next track, which will begin right after the previous one. This method is the easiest when you don't need to trim tracks.

Note that the track list is separate from the sound file you digitized. You can have two tracks that use the same portion of your audio track. You can also delete tracks from the track list. By selecting only the regions with sound when you define tracks, you also eliminate any silence at the beginning, and the gaps between songs. The gaps will be added back when you burn your audio CD. Toast automatically puts in 2-second pauses, but you can customize them.

Step 6: Burn or Export Your Recordings

Once you have defined your tracks, simply select the ones you want to transfer and press the Toast or iTunes button at top right. Toast or iTunes will be launched and the track(s) you selected added to the Toast Audio CD project list or your iTunes library. In Toast, you can then adjust the gaps between tracks and complete your CD setup before burning. You can also drag tracks from Spin Doctor to Toast, and combine them with digital tracks from other sources.

When combining tracks from multiple sources, try the Normalize Track function found in the Disc menu. Normalizing all tracks on a CD helps equalize the volume of tracks taken from different sources, which can be annoyingly loud or soft. (However, normalization should not be used as a substitute for setting levels correctly during recording. Once a sound is distorted or clipped, you can't restore it.)

Now it's time to press the Burn button! You've just made the best possible recording of your LPs and tapes. Don't forget to transfer that beautiful album cover art to your new CD too. Toast 10 Titanium includes Disc Cover 2 RE, which makes it easy to create perfect labels and covers.

With Streamer, you won't need to use up any of your precious phone storage space, and you can have access to a much wider variety of shows and movies than you could ever fit on a portable player. Even better, you can stream any type of video that Toast can handle: your latest home movies, EyeTV recordings, and shows transferred from your networked TiVo DVR via TiVoToGo.

You'll need a high-speed Internet connection at both ends (such as Wi-Fi or 3G cellular), but once videos are added to the Streamer content list, they are available for remote viewing at any time. Non-H.264 video will automatically be converted by Toast. You can even have TiVo shows automatically transferred via TiVoToGo and added to the Streamer list as soon as they are recorded! You could pay big bucks for special streaming hardware to view your TV shows remotely, or you can get it all free with Toast!

Setting Up Streamer

The first time you use Streamer, you'll need to set it up with a user name and password. Assuming your router is UPnP or NAT-PMP enabled (as both the AirPort Extreme and Express are), it will be configured automatically. Otherwise take note of the TCP port number given under the Advanced heading and open that port on your router for the computer you intend to stream from.

The Streamer setup screen.

Once you've created your account, the Streamer window will open. Choose Preferences under the Streamer menu to configure a few key settings, such as whether you want Streamer to launch every time you log in to your computer, and whether you'd like to start the Streamer server automatically on launch. If you want to be able to stream videos on demand to your iPhone, iPod Touch or laptop on the go, we recommend checking these two boxes so that Streamer is always at the ready. (You'll also need to leave your computer on, of course.)

The Streamer Preferences window.

The Advanced tab under Preferences allows you to set the streaming video quality (which should depend on the upload speed of your connection -- higher speeds are capable of streaming higher quality video). The maximum data rates allowed are: Low (about 330Kbps), Medium (about 550Kbps), and High (about 760Kbps) quality. Trying to send a high data rate stream over a low rate connection will result in broken up or failed streaming, so be sure to test and adjust your stream as necessary. Choose low or medium quality for viewing over iPhone 3G connections. High quality is usually fine for Wi-Fi connections. Also note the Mail preferences tab, which lets you set an email address to be notified automatically when new videos are added to your Streamer list.

Streamer Advanced Preferences.

Adding Videos to Streamer

Now that you have Streamer all set up, it's time to add videos to your streaming list. There are two ways to do this. The first way is add them directly to Streamer by dragging and dropping files to the Streamer window or clicking the Add Video button to select them. You can do this for QuickTime files with a QuickTime extension (such as .mov), as well as EyeTV and TiVo files. If any conversion is needed (to adjust the data rate, for example), it will be handled automatically by Toast. For other video formats, such as DV and AVCHD camcorder files, you'll need to drag them into Toast first, then use the Convert project tab to send them to Streamer (simply choose Streamer as the playback format at bottom left of the Toast window).

Converting video files in Toast to send to Streamer.

Once the files have been converted, they will appear in your Streamer list. You can click on any video to play a preview, if desired.

The Streamer list shows the files available for streaming.

Next, click the button to "Start streaming" if not already started. You will see a green light at the bottom of the window when the server is running, and the URL to use to access your videos remotely. Make note of this URL, which is of the form: http://streamer.roxio.com/username

Playing Back Streamer Clips

Now that the prep work is done, it's time to play back your videos! From your Mac or PC, enter the Streamer URL in your Web browser. (Be sure you are using a Wi-Fi or other fast Internet connection.) You'll get a login page that asks for the password you entered when you created your account. After entering the password, you'll see the Streamer list.

Logging into Streamer from a remote browser.

Choose a video, then click to play it back. The video will open using the QuickTime player. (Be sure to install QuickTime on your Windows PC, if you haven't already. If you have iTunes on your PC, you also have QuickTime.)

Playing Streamer videos.

On your iPhone or iPod Touch playback is even easier, thanks to the free native Streamer app for Wi-Fi. After you've downloaded and installed the app, on first launch it will ask for your user ID and password. From then on you can simply launch the app from the Home screen, and you will be automatically logged in and taken directly to your Streamer list. (Note that if you only have a 3G connection on your iPhone, rather than Wi-Fi, you can use the Web URL streaming method above in Safari instead of the Streamer app. EDGE connections are too slow for Streamer.)

The Streamer iPhone app.

To browse available shows, simply use your finger to scroll down the list. Buttons at the top of the screen let you switch between viewing by title and date. You can also tap on Search and have search results presented as you enter characters. Multiple episodes of the same show will be grouped automatically into a virtual folder, reducing clutter. Tapping a folder name brings up a list of all the episodes inside.

Once you’ve found the show you want to watch, tap on it and you’ll be shown a synopsis of the episode. Finally, click the play button located at bottom right and your video should begin playing in a few seconds. While your video is being played, you can review the show synopsis by tapping the screen.

Playing Streamer videos on the iPhone.

Setting Up Automatic Transfers of TiVo Shows

That's all there is to it! Once you have Streamer set up, it's easy to add more videos. If you have a TiVo and use TiVoToGo, also take advantage of the ability to automatically send new recordings to Streamer. First, open TiVo Transfer (in the Toast Extras menu). Then select a television show that appears on your DVR and click the "Create Auto Transfer" button at bottom right. This will automatically transfer all new recordings of the selected show to your Mac.

Next, Open the TiVo Transfer Preferences and enable "Automatically export transferred TiVo recordings to Toast." Finally, open Toast Preferences and select the Audio & Video tab. At the bottom of this tab you will see an option called "Default for Automatic TiVo Exports." Click on the Change button and select Streamer, then click OK. All your automatic TiVo transfers will now be exported to Streamer immediately for viewing anywhere in the world you have a fast Internet connection!

1. Bring in Your DVD

Open Toast and click on the Convert tab, then select the Video Files project type. Add a non-encrypted DVD disc or DVD-Video folder (VIDEO_TS folder) to your project by dragging it into the Toast window.

Bringing your DVD into Toast.

2. Open the Toast Video Editor

Now open the Toast Video Editor by clicking on the Extract button on the right of your DVD movie. The editing window will open up showing the video with a timeline at the bottom.

The Toast Video Editor window.

3. Select Your Clips

The Toast Video Editor includes a pair of in/out markers on the far left and right of the timeline. Drag these to mark the beginning and ending points of a clip you want to extract. If you want to extract another segment from the same video, first move the cursor above the timeline to a point outside the original selection, then click the marker button centered below the timeline to add an additional set of in/out markers.

Selecting DVD clips in the Toast Video Editor.

Repeat the process for each segment you want to select. You can move, clear or invert your markers at any time if you change your mind or make a mistake. Finally save your changes by choosing "Close Editor" from the View menu.

Use the Clear All and Invert Markers options at lower right to change your selections if needed.

4. Convert & Export Your Clips

Now that you've marked your desired clips, all that's left is to convert and export them. Click the big red Convert button at bottom right, and a dialog box will open where you can select output options.

Video output conversion options.

First choose the device or format you want to save to, such as iPhone or QuickTime movie. Then select a quality level (we recommend using the default options for your output device). Finally, choose a destination for your video, such as iTunes, your Movies folder, or the Desktop. Click the Convert button, and you're done!

Now enjoy your DVD clips on your portable player, upload them to the Web, or use them in your other video projects, including iMovies.

• High-Def/Blu-ray Disc Plug-in for burning and converting video from your HD camcorder;
• LightZone™ for visual photo editing;
• FotoMagico™ for creating high-definition slideshows;
• SoundSoap™ SE for audio noise reduction and enhancement; and the
• Sonicfire Pro® for movie soundtrack creation;

Read on to learn more about each of these programs.

High-Def/Blu-ray Disc Plug-In

The High-Def/Blu-ray Disc Plug-in, which lets you edit, burn and convert HD video content from AVCHD camcorders and EyeTV recordings, is an extra cost option in Toast 10, but comes standard with Toast 10 Pro. With the Plug-in, you can burn your home movies or EyeTV recordings onto DVDs and Blu-ray Discs for playback on any standard Blu-ray set-top box or PlayStation® 3 game console. You don't even need a pricey Blu-ray recorder to burn high-definition DVDs, so you can get the full benefit of your high-def camcorder and HDTV with the DVD burner you already have.

If you do have a Blu-ray recorder, the High-Def/Blu-ray Disc Plug-in is indispensable for creating Blu-ray movie discs on the Mac. It supports both AVCHD and HDV camcorder sources, and lets you archive AVCHD camcorder video to disc in one easy step.

The Plug-in also allows you to edit your high-def videos, and crop out unwanted portions using a simple timeline interface. You can burn the results to disc using 20 new HD menu themes, or convert them for playback on your iPod, iPhone, Apple TV or portable player. Take your EyeTV shows and home movies on the road!

Editing high-def AVCHD video in Toast 10 (click to enlarge).

LightZone

This Macworld Editor's Choice award-winning photo editor is an essential tool for digital camera enthusiasts. Sophisticated features like zone mapping and relight yield professional quality light and color balance, and all operations are live -- no waiting for effects to render, as with other programs. What you see is what you get. All operations are non-destructive, too, so you'll never have to worry about your original files. LightZone is the perfect complement to Aperture and iPhoto, which have only basic editing tools.

Here are a few of the things you can do with LightZone:

• Edit RAW format images, to take advantage of today's high-end cameras;
• Perform advanced selection and masking, so you can apply filters and effects to just the right portion of your photo;
• Work with unlimited layers, for unlimited creativity;
• Perform batch processing tasks on multiple files and folders at once, for huge time savings; and

The LightZone editor showing the Relight and Spot tools (click to enlarge).

FotoMagico

The slideshow features in iPhoto are great, but when you want more control over things like transitions, music and special effects, it's time to take a step up to FotoMagico. FotoMagico turns your pictures into spellbinding stories and presents them in high definition -- taking full advantage of all those megapixels in your new digital camera. Innovative text, transition and alignment tools ensure astonishing results. With Toast 10 Pro, you can also burn your high-def slideshow to DVD or Blu-ray Disc for easy viewing, send them to your portable player, or convert them for emailing or publishing on your website.

Creating a high-def slideshow with FotoMagico (click to enlarge).

SoundSoap SE

Want your sound recordings and LP transfers to sound as good as the originals? Use SoundSoap SE to remove all types of unwanted sounds from digital audio files: hiss, room noise, rumble, electrical hum, clicks and crackles. You can clean up music you've digitized from your aging vinyl and tapes with CD SpinDoctor's Recording Assistant. Or massage the audio tracks from your videos, eliminating wind and background noise to make your dialog loud and clear. Virtually any type of background noise can be scrubbed out quickly and easily with SoundSoap, leaving you with clean, crisp audio that sounds like you remember it.

Cleaning up noise from analog recordings with SoundSoap SE.

Even better, SoundSoap SE is very simple to use, just bring in your recording, then tweak your audio using the buttons and sliders. You can preview the results both sonically and visually, making it easy to get great results.

Sonicfire Pro

Want to set the right mood for your home videos? Create a Hollywood-style soundtrack with Sonicfire Pro. Music and sound effects can turn a ho-hum video into a riveting thriller or an uplifting story, but few of us have the ability to record our own backing tracks. That's where Sonicfire comes in.

For example, using Sonicfire, you could create a soundtrack for a wedding highlight video that includes selected dialog like the wedding vows and reception toasts, as well as a unified background music theme, where otherwise there would be no continuity (not to mention poor recording quality).

Creating a wedding video soundtrack with Sonicfire Pro (click to enlarge).

You can tweak Sonicfire tracks to match the length, mood, and theme of your video. A huge library of professionally produced music in styles ranging from classical to hip-hop ensure you can create the perfect soundtrack without knowing how to read a note.

Give yourself an extreme media makeover with Creator 2009 and Windows Vista. There's no pain involved! Creator 2009 integrates neatly with Vista's powerful playback and management features, making it simple and easy to import, edit, enjoy and share all types of media. Here are just a few examples of how Creator 2009 enhances Vista's media capabilities (click on the links for more information and tutorials):

Video

With Creator 2009, you can import video from all the latest camcorders, including high-definition AVCHD and HDV models. Even transfer your old analog video too! Once captured, you can transform your video into Hollywood-style productions in minutes with CineMagic, or use VideoWave's powerful timeline editor to get it exactly the way you want it.

Once edited, share your movies over your home network using Windows Media Player 11, part of Windows Vista. Play them on other PCs, or send them to your Xbox 360 or Windows Media Center Extender for viewing on your big-screen TV.

Creating a DVD (click to enlarge).

To share with family and friends, burn a DVD or Blu-ray Disc with Creator, in either standard or high-definition. Or convert your movies for playback on your smartphone or portable media player. With Creator's handy SyncIt! gadget, you can drag-and-drop to convert video and send it to your player right from the Vista desktop! SyncIt! works with photos and music too.

Music

Creator and Vista are the perfect musical duo as well. Windows Media Player 11's powerful music library can handle literally millions of tracks without missing a beat, and lets you organize and enjoy music from all sources, include online stores, CDs, and downloads. Key features include the ability to sync your collection across multiple PCs, identify unlabeled tracks, find and display album art, and create intelligent Shuffle playlists from your favorite albums. You can even play back your tracks from any PC on your network.

DVD Music Discs.

With Creator 2009, you can also convert your old LPs and tapes to digital, create DVD Music Discs that hold hundreds of tracks and artwork (perfect for parties!), convert CD audiobooks for listening on your portable player, make professionally beatmatched music mixes, capture streaming audio from almost any online source, and use your tunes as soundtracks for slideshows and videos.

Photo

Vista and Creator 2009 can also tame your photo collection. Use Vista to automatically import photos from your camera and display them in the Windows Photo Gallery. Then automatically share them with family and friends over the Internet using Windows Live, or view them on your TV with your Xbox 360 or Media Center Extender. By adding tags, labels and comments to pictures and clips in Windows Photo Gallery, you can get your library organized and make it easy to find that special photo using the handy integrated search feature.

Roxio PhotoShow

Then do more with your photos with Creator 2009: edit and enhance them with PhotoSuite, create sweeping panoramas, make greeting cards and calendars, create amazing slideshows, send them to your portable player, and, perhaps most important of all, safeguard your precious memories by backing them up onto CDs and DVDs.

Together, Creator 2009 and Windows Vista let you share and enjoy your media everywhere: on your PC, TV, portable player, cellphone, game console and the Web.

Easy VHS to DVD includes both the hardware and software you need to capture and convert almost any analog video. The video capture hardware is a small USB stick with connections for both composite and S-video sources. The editing and burning software is based on the top-rated Roxio Creator suite, so you know it's polished and easy to use. Simply plug in the USB stick, then install the software, and you're ready to start transferring your tapes.

The program is not just for tapes, though. Here are some common analog video sources you can capture with Easy VHS to DVD:

• VHS tapes from your VCR
• Analog camcorder output (VHS, S-VHS, 8mm or Hi-8)
• The composite or S-video output from your TV (when viewing live standard-definition channels)

Easy VHS to DVD is also perfect for recording shows from standard-definition DVRs that don't have PC transfer capabilities. Otherwise your shows are trapped forever in the DVR. (If you're lucky enough to have a networked TiVo, see our tutorial on burning TiVo shows with Creator here.)

Here's how to get started with Easy VHS to DVD:

Step 1: Capture Video to Your PC

After you've plugged in the USB device and installed the software, connect your source to the USB stick using a composite or S-video cable. Now open Easy VHS to DVD. You'll see the following Home screen:

The Easy VHS to DVD Home screen.

The Home screen gives you various options for common tasks. To transfer tapes to DVD, you can choose either "Plug & Burn," or "Capture Video." Plug & Burn is for when you want to go directly from tape to DVD as quickly as possible, without editing the video or saving it to your hard disk. It only takes a little longer than playing back your video to complete the burn, and is the fastest way to transfer a large number of tapes.

To use Plug & Burn, you simply insert a blank DVD, choose a menu style and title if desired, a quality level (1 hour of high-quality video will fit on a single-layer DVD, 2 hours on a dual-layer disc), and start capturing direct to DVD. You can capture multiple pieces of video, up to the capacity of the disc, then click "Finish" to finalize the burn. That's all there is to it!

Transferring a video to DVD with Plug & Burn. (Click to enlarge.)

If you want to do more with your recordings, such as edit them, upload them to YouTube, or convert them for playback on your iPod or PSP, it's best to use the Capture Video option, which saves your recordings to hard disk for subsequent use in all types of projects, including burning DVDs. This option also allows you to select other digital formats than MPEG-2 (the DVD format), such as AVI and VCD. It takes longer to transfer a tape to DVD with Capture Video, since capturing and burning are separate processes, but if you have the hard disk space, and think you might want to do more with your video than just burn a DVD, the extra time is worth it.

Choosing "Capture Video" from the Home screen brings up the Media Import window, as shown below. The first task is to select your video capture device from the drop-down menu. (If your PC has a built-in webcam, that will usually be the first device in the list.)

Selecting your video capture device. (Click to enlarge.)

After you select your USB stick, you'll see a preview window of the video currently being played on your source (VCR, camcorder, TV or DVR). (You may need to choose either Composite or S-video from the Input menu if you don't see a picture.) Before you click the Capture button to start recording to hard disk, choose a format (such as DV, DVD HQ, DVD SP, DVD LP or VCD). If you want to edit your video in VideoWave or CineMagic, choose DV. If you only want to burn DVDs, we recommend recording in DVD HQ format for top quality if you have the disk space (Media Import will tell you how much space you have available). Otherwise you can choose one of the more-compressed (lesser-quality) DVD options, such as DVD SP and LP. You can fit about 1 hour of HQ, 1.5 hours of SP, or 2 hours of LP video on a single-layer DVD. Dual-layer discs hold twice as much.

Setting up your recording. (Click to enlarge.)

Other options to choose include a capture length (so you can record unattended), a title for the recording, and video enhancements like contrast and brightness. Now click the Capture button to start recording. You'll see the progress of the recording in the Status area. When it's done, the finished video will be saved to your Videos folder (or whatever destination folder you selected), and will show up in the thumbnail list at right. Keep recording videos in this manner until you have all the material you need for your project.

The finished recording in the movie list. (Click to enlarge.)

Step 2: Burn the Recording to DVD

Now that you've digitized all your videos, it's time to burn them to DVD. Go back to the Home screen, and choose "Create DVDs." This will start the MyDVD application, which is a full-featured DVD authoring package.

Starting up MyDVD and selecting a project type. (Click to enlarge.)

MyDVD will first ask you to select a project type, such as a standard DVD with menus, or a DVD without menus that starts playing automatically when you insert it in your player. Next, add your recordings to your project by clicking the Add Movie button and selecting them from the browser. Add as many movies as you need for your project. They will appear in a list at lower left.

Adding the recorded movie to the DVD project. (Click to enlarge.)

If desired, you can now customize your DVD with menu styles, titles, backgrounds and chapter markers. See our MyDVD tutorial for more on what you can do with MyDVD. Once you've gotten the DVD the way you want it, press the Burn button at top right.

Burning the DVD.

In the Burn dialog box, you can choose your recording speed if desired, and enter a label for the disc. You can also save to an Image File on your hard disk, which is useful if you may want to burn additional copies of the disc later, or prefer play it back from your hard disk or media server.

Step 3: Do More with Your Recordings

Capturing video and burning it to DVD only scratches the surface of Easy VHS to DVD's capabilities. Once you've captured videos to your hard disk, you can also do things like:

• Trim and cut out unwanted portions from your recordings.
• Add titles, transition, soundtracks and more in VideoWave, the full-featured video editing program included with Easy VHS to DVD.
• Convert them for viewing on your iPod, iPhone, PSP, or other portable player
• Post them to YouTube
• Share them online on your own secure Web page with Roxio PhotoShow.

Finally, Easy VHS to DVD also includes disc label creation software, as well as the popular LP & Tape Assistant program for digitizing analog audio. Once you've converted all your old analog video and audio to digital, you'll never go back!

If you've got an iPhone, iPod, AVCHD camcorder or TiVo, listen to audiobooks, or frequently play YouTube videos, read on to see what Toast 10 can do for you!

Capture & Convert Web Video

Ever wish you could save YouTube or other Flash-based streaming Web video to your hard disk for offline playback? Or wanted to put YouTube clips on your iPod, PSP or other portable player? Now you can, with Toast 10's Web video capture feature.

To start, open Toast, click the Convert tab, and choose the Video Files project type. Next, open the Media Browser by clicking on the icon at top right, or selecting it from the Window menu. Finally, select "Web video" from the drop-down list of media types. Now Toast is all ready to capture.

Preparing to capture Web video (click to enlarge).

To start capturing video, simply open your Web browser and play the video you want to record. Toast will automatically capture it for you, and then add it to the Media Browser Web video list. Continue playing and capturing as many clips as you like. Below, we've captured several YouTube clips.

Captured clips displayed in the Media Browser (click to enlarge).

Now drag the clips to the project window to convert them to the desired playback format (the Flash-format captures will not be saved after you quit Toast, so be sure to convert them first). Click the Record button, and you'll be prompted to select your playback device and quality level. You can save the converted videos directly to iTunes if you like, or to a folder. We've opted to send our videos to iTunes below, so we can transfer them to an iPhone.

Sending captured video to iTunes.

Now you can preserve and enjoy your favorite YouTube videos anywhere, without an Internet connection!

Back Up AVCHD Camcorders in One Step

If you have an AVCHD camcorder, this feature alone is worth the upgrade to Toast 10. AVCHD is the most widely used HD camcorder format, and also great for burning high-def DVDs and Blu-ray Discs that you can play in your set-top DVD player, such as a Sony PlayStation 3. But AVCHD camcorders record to on-board hard drives or memory cards that typically hold only a few hours of video, so they need to be emptied frequently. All that HD video can quickly overwhelm even the biggest hard drive, however, so it's best to save the raw footage to DVDs or Blu-ray Discs for archival purposes. Toast 10 makes it one-step easy.

To create an AVCHD Archive disc, click the Video tab and choose the AVCHD Archive project. Then connect your camcorder via USB and make sure it is set to playback mode. You may also want to plug the camcorder into an AC outlet to make sure the battery doesn't die during the transfer. (Some camcorders require this for computer connections.) Once connected, the camera should be available in the drop-down list at the top of the Project window. In the screen below, it is called "No Name," which is the default name of the memory card in many Canon AVCHD camcorders.

Creating an archive of the contents of an AVCHD camcorder's flash drive (click to enlarge).

Next, choose the type of disc you are going to archive to (such as DVD, DVD-DL or Blu-ray) from the menu at bottom right. If the contents of the camera won't fit on one disc, Toast will automatically split it into multiple discs. Also check the box at lower left to "Save Video Preview in Movies Folder." This is an incredibly useful feature that creates video "thumbnails" so you can keep a virtual index of all your archived videos on your main hard drive. That way you won't have to hunt through a pile of discs to find a particular clip.

Finally, click the Burn button, and your camcorder will be at the ready to record more video!

Convert CD Audiobooks for iPod/iPhone

Who needs a Kindle when you have an iPod or other portable music player? iTunes, iPod and iPhone have custom features for playing back audiobooks, such as chapter skipping, pause/resume and book cover art, using the special iTunes .m4b audiobook file format. But converting CD or MP3 audiobooks to iTunes audiobooks used to be difficult and inconvenient. The new Audiobook CD conversion feature in Toast 10 makes the process easy, and even keeps the chapters and bookmarks that would be lost with a manual transfer.

To convert an Audiobook CD to iTunes audiobook format, open Toast 10 and select the Convert tab, then choose the Audiobook project type. Insert your CD, and click the Record button. Toast will convert the Audiobook and send it to iTunes. Sync to your iPod or iPhone, and you'll have the ultimate portable audiobook player!

Converting CD audiobooks to iTunes audiobook format (click to enlarge).

Stream Videos from Mac to TiVo

Toast has been able to transfer shows from your networked TiVo to your Mac for years now. But in Toast 10, we've added the capability to copy and stream videos back from your Mac to your TiVo! Now you can view those home movies you transferred from your digital camcorder on the big screen easily. Here's how:

First, open Mac2TiVo in the Toast 10 applications folder. You'll be prompted to enter your TiVo Media Access Key in order to authorize file transfers. (The Media Access Key is available in the Messages & Settings>Account System Information area of TiVo Central.) You'll only need to do this once. Now simply drag video folders to the Mac2TiVo window, and they will be converted to the necessary format automatically. Finally, click the "Start Server" button to send the videos to the Now Playing list on your TiVo.

Streaming video using the Mac2TiVo application.

Choose from 20 New Menu Styles

Just purchased an HD camcorder? Toast 10 now has 20 new standard and high-definition menu styles to choose from for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. With Toast 10 and the HD/BD Plug-in, you can burn high-def video onto standard DVDs that will play right in your set-top Blu-ray player, so you don't need to buy an expensive Blu-ray burner for shorter videos.

Toast 10 has 20 new menu styles for both standard and high-definition discs.

We hope we've whetted your appetite for Toast 10 with these five must-have features. Look for more in-depth coverage of Toast 10 and Toast 10 Pro in future Hot Topics articles.

The USB Video Capture hardware integrates seamlessly with the various programs in Creator 2009. It consists of a small USB stick with connections for both composite and S-video sources. Simply install the driver software and plug in the USB stick when prompted, and you're ready to start transferring your tapes.

USB Video Capture is not just for tapes, though. Here are some common analog video sources you can record using the device:

• VHS tapes from your VCR
• Analog camcorder output (VHS, S-VHS, 8mm or Hi-8)
• The composite or S-video output from your TV (when viewing live standard-definition channels)

USB Video Capture is also perfect for recording shows from standard-definition DVRs that don't have PC transfer capabilities. Otherwise your shows are trapped forever in the DVR. (If you're lucky enough to have a networked TiVo, see our tutorial on burning TiVo shows with Creator here.)

Here's how to get started with USB Video Capture and Creator 2009:

Step 1: Capture Video to Your PC

After you've installed the capture device, connect your analog source to the USB stick using a composite or S-video cable. Now open Creator, and choose the Video-Movies tab. You'll see the following list of tasks:

The Creator 2009 Video-Movies task list. (Click to enlarge.)

To transfer tapes to DVD, you can choose either "Plug & Burn" or "Capture Video" under the Import heading. Plug & Burn is best for when you want to go directly from tape to DVD as quickly as possible, without editing the video or saving it to your hard disk. It only takes a little longer than playing back your video to complete the burn, and is the fastest way to transfer a large number of tapes.

To use Plug & Burn, you simply insert a blank DVD, choose a menu style and title if desired, a quality level (1 hour of high-quality video will fit on a single-layer DVD, 2 hours on a dual-layer disc), and start capturing direct to DVD. You can capture multiple pieces of video, up to the capacity of the disc, then click "Finish" to finalize the burn. That's all there is to it!

Transferring a video to DVD with Plug & Burn. (Click to enlarge.)

If you want to do more with your recordings, such as edit them, upload them to YouTube, or convert them for playback on your iPod or PSP, it's best to use the Capture Video option, which saves your recordings to hard disk for subsequent use in all types of projects, including burning DVDs. This option also allows you to select other digital formats than MPEG-2 (the DVD format), such as AVI and VCD. It takes longer to transfer a tape to DVD with Capture Video, since capturing and burning are separate processes, but if you have the hard disk space, and think you might want to do more with your video than just burn a DVD, the extra time is worth it.

Choosing "Capture Video" from the Video-Movies screen brings up the Media Import application, as shown below. The first task is to select your video capture device from the drop-down menu. (If your PC has a built-in webcam, that will usually be the first device in the list.)

Selecting your video capture device. (Click to enlarge.)

After you select your USB stick, you'll see a preview window of the video currently being played on your source (VCR, camcorder, TV or DVR). (You may need to choose either Composite or S-video from the Input menu if you don't see a picture.) Before you click the Capture button to start recording to hard disk, choose a format (such as DV, DVD HQ, DVD SP, DVD LP or VCD). If you want to edit your video in VideoWave or CineMagic, choose DV. If you only want to burn DVDs, we recommend recording in DVD HQ format for top quality if you have the disk space (Media Import will tell you how much space you have available). Otherwise you can choose one of the more-compressed (lesser-quality) options, such as DVD SP and LP. You can fit about 1 hour of HQ, 1.5 hours of SP, or 2 hours of LP video on a single-layer DVD. Dual-layer discs hold twice as much.

Setting up your recording. (Click to enlarge.)

Other options to choose include a capture length (so you can record unattended), a title for the recording, and video enhancements like contrast and brightness. Now click the Capture button to start recording. You'll see the progress of the recording in the Status area. When it's done, the finished video will be saved to your Videos folder (or whatever destination folder you selected), and will show up in the thumbnail list at right. Keep recording videos in this manner until you have all the material you need for your project.

The finished recording in the movie list. (Click to enlarge.)

Step 2: Burn the Recording to DVD

Now that you've digitized all your videos, it's time to burn them to DVD. Go back to the Video-Movies screen, and choose "Create DVDs-Advanced." This will start the MyDVD application, which is a full-featured DVD authoring package.

Starting up MyDVD and selecting a project type. (Click to enlarge.)

MyDVD will first ask you to select a project type, such as a standard DVD with menus, or a DVD without menus that starts playing automatically when you insert it in your player. Next, add your recordings to your project by clicking the Add Movie button and selecting them from the browser. Add as many movies as you need for your project. They will appear in a list at lower left.

Adding the recorded movie to the DVD project. (Click to enlarge.)

If desired, you can now customize your DVD with menu styles, titles, backgrounds and chapter markers. See our MyDVD tutorial for more on what you can do with MyDVD. Once you've gotten the DVD the way you want it, press the Burn button at top right.

Burning the DVD.

In the Burn dialog box, you can choose your recording speed if desired, and enter a label for the disc. You can also save to an Image File on your hard disk, which is useful if you may want to burn additional copies of the disc later, or prefer play it back from your hard disk or media server.

Step 3: Do More with Your Recordings

Capturing video and burning it to DVD only scratches the surface of Creator 2009's capabilities. Once you've captured videos to your hard disk, you can also do things like:

• Trim and cut out unwanted portions from your recordings.
• Add titles, transition, soundtracks and more in VideoWave, the full-featured video editing program included with Creator.
• Convert them for viewing on your iPod, iPhone, PSP, or other portable player
• Post them to YouTube
• Share them online on your own secure Web page with Roxio PhotoShow.

Finally, Creator 2009 also includes disc label creation software, as well as the popular LP & Tape Assistant program for digitizing analog audio. Once you've converted all your old analog video and audio to digital, you'll never go back!

BackOnTrack can schedule backups of selected data, or one-time backups of entire drives, and create disaster recovery discs that boot your computer while you restore from your backup. Backups can be made to CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc, or to external or network drives. For total protection, first create a disaster recovery set, then perform regular scheduled backups of your data files.

Here's how to get protected:

Create a Disaster Recovery Set

First, open BackOnTrack by choosing "Backup Drive" from the Roxio Home screen Data-Copy tab.

Choosing "Backup Drive" from the Creator 2009 Data-Copy tab.

You'll be taken directly to the Backup Drive task in BackOnTrack. Select "Disaster Recovery Set" from the drop-down menu at the top, and choose a destination for the set, such as an external or networked hard drive, or a DVD recorder.

Creating a BackOnTrack Disaster Recovery Set (click to enlarge).

Now click the Record button at bottom right. If you chose DVDs (or Blu-ray Discs if you have a Blu-ray recorder and the Creator HD/BD Plug-in), you'll be prompted to insert as many discs as needed to complete the project. One of the discs will be an emergency boot disc. The others will contain the entire contents of your hard drive, including the system, so you can restore the full drive if necessary. Perform a new full drive backup every so often to keep up with major changes to your system and applications. If disaster strikes and you need to restore your drive, insert the recovery disc and then follow the on-screen directions.

Schedule Regular Backups

Now that you have your full disaster recovery set tucked away, also schedule regular backups of your working files like documents, email, music, photos and video. These will take much less space than the full drive backup. Network or external drives are perfect for scheduled backups since they can run unattended. If you want use DVD or Blu-ray Discs, you'll need to be present to insert them at backup time, or make sure a blank disc is in your drive.

To schedule regular backups, choose the File Backup task in BackOnTrack, then select the folder or types of files you want to backup. Also select a frequency (daily, weekly or monthly), and choose the destination drive from the menu at the bottom of the window. Then click Save to save your backup project. Note that BackOnTrack will not overwrite existing files at your destination, so you may want to use two rotating backup discs or drives, and erase the older backup each time.

Starting a System Restore operation (click to enlarge).

To save space, or make sure noone can read your backup files, you can also compress and/or encrypt your file backups. Click the Advanced button to set these options. If you choose to encrypt your backups, be sure to store the password in a safe place. Your data will not be accessible without it.

Compression and encryption options for File Backup projects.

Restoring Files

To restore files from your scheduled backups, first find the backup file (which will have a .sib extension), and double-click on it. BackOnTrack will then launch, with the Restore Drive project selected. To perform a selective restore, switch to the Restore Selected Files project and follow the directions. If your Back Up Drive project is saved on a set of discs, the catalog for that backup set is contained on the last disc in the set. The Restore Selected Files project will ask you to insert this disc so it can find the files or folders you want to restore.

Now that you've seen how easy it is to get protected with BackOnTrack, make a New Year's resolution to backup regularly!

• First, Toast 10 includes Get Backup 2 RE, a powerful, yet easy-to-use utility that helps you schedule automatic backups of selected files and folders to a local hard drive, a network volume, or to a blank CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc.
• Second, Get Backup lets you automatically synchronize folders between two machines, so you'll always be up-to-date.
• Finally, for everyday quick backups, you can just drag and drop files and folders into a Toast Data project window and press the Record button to burn them to a CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc, or save them to an image file on your hard drive. (Blu-ray recording requires the High-Def/Blu-ray Disc Plug-In.)

With any method, you can also use Toast 10 Titanium's unique ToastAnywhere feature to burn CDs, DVDs and BDs to networked recorders, a perfect solution for sharing an expensive Blu-ray recorder among multiple Macs. Below, we'll show you how to use each of these powerful backup tools.

Using Get Backup

Using Get Backup 2 RE, you can back up any number of files or folders manually at the click of a button, or automatically on a scheduled basis. To get started, just open Get Backup from the Toast folder. You'll be presented with the following window:

The main Get Backup window.

To create a backup project, simply add the files and/or folders you want to back up to the list on the right by clicking the "+" button at middle left. You can also click the handy icons at top to add some common folders. Your screen should now look something like this:

The Get Backup window showing various folders in a backup project.

At this point you could simply click the blue backup button to start burning. But first, hit the Properties button at middle right and take a look at the options. Here you can choose the destination for your backup, such as a DVD, external hard disk, or even a network drive, as well as the backup method: full, incremental, or versioned (where old versions of files are not deleted when changed). You can also choose to have your data compressed, which greatly reduces space needs (Get Backup uses the standard TAR file format for archives and GZIP format for compression, so backups can easily be opened by other utilities). Finally, you can set your backup to perform on a regular schedule (more on this below).

Setting the destination and format for your backup.

Scheduling Backups

To schedule a backup so that it runs automatically, click the Schedule button at the bottom of the Properties window, then select a daily, weekly or monthly interval, and a time of day.

To make sure your backup runs even if the program is not open, you also need to open Get Backup Preferences and check the boxes for "Enable Schedule" and "Use Agent" at top right. With these boxes checked, a background agent will launch the utility at the appointed time and begin the backup process.

Setting Get Backup Preferences.

Note that you don't have to have Get Backup open for scheduled backups to take place, but they may not occur if your machine is sleeping/hibernating. You can change your Energy Saver system preferences to prevent this from happening.

Synchronized Backups

Clicking the double arrows in the top right corner of the Get Backup window takes you into folder synchronization mode, where you can set up sync jobs on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.

Creating a synchronized folder.

To set up your sync job, simply choose the two target folders using the buttons at the top. The contents of the folder will then appear in the list below, and you can click the blue button to perform the sync. Also choose the direction of syncing using the drop-down arrows in between the two targets. You can sync in one direction (keeping the source folder unchanged), or two-way.

Scheduling your synchronized folder.

To schedule folder syncing, click the Properties button. You'll see options for daily, weekly and monthly syncs. As with backup jobs, you should make sure that the User Agent is turned on in the Preferences window.

Finally, note that you can set up multiple backup and synchronization projects with individual schedules for each. Just click the New Project tab at the bottom of the window to start a new

Using ToastAnywhere

Toast 10 Titanium's ToastAnywhere feature lets you share CD and DVD recorders over a network (or the Internet), so you can back up even if you don't have a CD or DVD recorder connected to your Mac. It's a perfect solution for small offices, schools, and home networks to share expensive resources like Blu-ray recorders.

Here's how it works: both the sending and receiving computers need Toast 10 Titanium installed, and the receiving computer must turn on "ToastAnywhere Recorder Sharing" in the Toast 10 Preferences to share their recorder with other Toast 10 users on the network.

From there, the process is simple. As the sender, you set up the disc you want to burn in Toast just like you normally would, then select the shared recorder from the pop-up list when you click the Recorder Options button. To access a recorder on the Internet, choose "Other Shared Recorder," then enter the IP address of the remote machine (you may also need to adjust firewall and port settings). Finally, click the red Record button.

Share your DVD or Blu-ray recorder over a network by turning on the ToastAnywhere feature in the Toast Preferences window.

That's it. The person sharing their recorder will be prompted to insert a blank disc, and Toast will then record your content to disc over the network. Of course, Toast must be also be open on the remote machine.

Now that you know how to use Toast 10 Titanium to back up and synchronize your precious media files, you can keep those New Year's resolutions!

SonicFire's unique mood-mapping technology lets you automatically generate music that follows the action in your videos, getting softer, louder or more intense to fit your script. Want the music to lower behind your dialog? No problem, just add a mood point. You can add sound effects too, using the powerful multi-track editor.

In this tutorial, we'll be editing a soundtrack for a wedding video created with CineMagic (another program in the Creator suite). It's about 5.5 minutes long, and includes highlights like the walk down the aisle, the exchange of vows, and scenes from the reception. We decided to create a whole new soundtrack for several reasons. First, while there was music in the church and reception, it didn't record very well. Second, since our edited video only included snippets of each scene, there was no continuity in the music. Finally, the clips from the reception had a lot of crowd noise.

All these problems are typical of home video editing. In these situations, it's best and easiest to simply toss out the audio (except for key dialog or musical performances), and then add your own backing track. Here, the only bits of dialog we'll be keeping are the wedding vows and best man's toast. Around that, we'll add a soundtrack specially generated by SonicFire to match the length, mood and theme of our video.

Step 1: Import Your Video

To start, choose SonicFire Pro from the Windows Start menu (in the SmartSound folder). The program will open to a blank project. Next, import the video you want to create a soundtrack for, by clicking the "Choose Video" button at lower left. Ideally, your movie should be completely finished except for the audio, since you will be matching the soundtrack precisely to various points in the video. If you later make changes to your video that affect the length or key points in the action, you'll probably also have to go back and regenerate the soundtrack.

Importing a movie into SonicFire Pro. (Click to enlarge.)

You can import your video in many popular formats, including AVI, MOV, MPEG-1 and WMV. If you have DV or AVCHD-format video from a digital camcorder, first use the Video Copy & Convert tool (found under the Video-Movies tab on the Creator home screen or in the Roxio Applications folder in the Start menu) to convert it to one of the supported formats.

If you have to convert your video, don't worry, you can still use the original high-quality video in your finished production; SonicFire simply employs the imported video as a reference guide for producing the soundtrack, which you will add back to your original video later in VideoWave.

While our wedding video was originally shot in DV, the edited version was created in CineMagic and saved in MPEG format, so we were able to import it directly without conversion. After import, your video will appear in the bottom right pane of the SonicFire window, and you can play it back at any time to locate particular points in your video and see how the soundtrack syncs up to the action.

Step 2: Select Your Main Background Music

Now comes the fun part, choosing music from the vast SmartSound libraries. A set of "Core Foundations" tracks come with SonicFire Pro, covering a wide range of styles. These will be all most home users need for occasional editing, especially since they can be supplemented with music from your own audio CDs.

But to take advantage of the full power of SonicFire Pro, such as ability to generate music that changes in mood and intensity along with your video and matches the length of every scene perfectly, you'll want to explore the full SmartSound library. To preview and choose music for your soundtrack, click the Maestro button at top right.

Opening the SonicFire Maestro tool. (Click to enlarge.)

Now the Maestro window will pop up. Here you can browse around the SmartSound library, and listen to previews of all tracks available in the online store right from the program. If you find one you want to use, you can buy it individually, or as part of a set. The style and keyword search tools help narrow down your options. For our wedding video we wanted classical music that was uplifting. After listening to a few options, we chose Handel's Pavane. As well as fitting the wedding theme, Pavane has the added attraction of being a multi-layer track (indicated by the 3-line icon next to it), which means you can change the mood of the track over time. We wanted to have different moods for the church and reception scenes.

Choosing music via the Maestro window.

Adding the Original Soundtrack

While the SmartSound music would be used throughout, in place of the original church and reception music, we wanted to keep the actual spoken wedding vows.