Toast Burn

I disagree. Selling a "lite" version for considerably less than a bloated version is not "giving with one hand and taking away with the other." Many, many items are sold at different price points depending upon the options you choose. Toast is not alone in doing this and in this particular case, I am glad they chose to sell this lite version as I have no need for the bloated features in Titanium. Also, Toast Burn is unlike Apple's built-in burning software as it is MUCH faster, not requiring a temporary disc image to be built before actually burning a disc--- this is the primary reason I prefer it to Apple's built-in utility.

Burning optical media is gradually becoming history, that is why apps are getting cheaper and cheaper, as far as they are not free from the very beginning as some are. I burnt my last DVD two or three years ago, meanwhile I have got 4 external drives for storing data.

Yes, that may be the case for many. I have 12 offline data storage drives and burn discs less frequently, but I still prefer DL-DVD archives for much of my completed work. It is cost-effective, portable, small footprint and more reliable than traditional hard drives... And you have less fear of the data being overwritten or corrupted. I can archive individual client work to individual optical discs more cost effectively than using a traditional drive for each client. By separating the data and burning it to optical, it eliminates the chance of errant changes or data loss as is the case when using a drive with data from multiple clients. I prefer optical for archiving, traditional drives for back-up and SSDs for current work.

By the way, I recommend using Toast Burn with NeoFinder for an excellent near-line storage and archiving solution with exceptionally speedy search and retrieval.

The reliability of optical media is highly questionable ! I have brand name media, only a few years old, which I considered to be "reliable" archives, that are unreadable :( As to this cut down version of Toast… yes, the price is right, but there are bugs! For instance, I have been unable to convert a Bin/Cue with this, and had to com back to Titanium 11 to get the job done. Ya pays yer money… yer gets wot yer pay fer… as they say. Very disappointing :(

I'm not sure why you would think that the reliability of optical media is questionable... Most have at least a 25 year shelf life. I have old optical archives from the early nineties that work perfectly fine. Just don't scratch them or leave them in direct sunlight. Also, be sure to have your burning software verify the disc after burning and you should not have any issues. Also, I have found that the lighter colored media (vs some of the dark purple discs) tend to work better with a variety of drives and are less prone to mis-burns /"coasters". Also, use a good, highly rated disc burner, not the cheapest thing you can find on eBay. Finally, wipe your discs before putting them in your drive to keep out dust and contaminants.

"I'm not sure why you would think that the reliability of optical media is questionable... Most have at least a 25 year shelf life." I would think that because of my personal experience !! As a professionnal sound engineer, I've been burning CDs, DVDs and BRDs ever since these technologies were available to us in the sound business. I always buy respected "names" in optical media, always avoided those known (or thought to be known) to be troublesome, and I have written many thousands of optical discs during my career, so I probably don't need your advice for getting it right ! The "shelf life" is never guaranteed. You take your chances, like with any other media for that matter… Fortunately, I've been lucky enough never to lose archives due to failed optical media, as I've always made multiple back-ups (as one always should with important data),usually two optical plus one on raid drives. Yes ! I'm pretty finicky about saving my data ! In the meantime, anyone backing up important data to just one optical medium are taking chances !! It's a free world (supposedly!!), they do as they like. They should not however consider that that are making a totally reliable archive. "Rezstudios"… sound studios ? Maybe not… I can't believe you would take such risks with customer data, if you're a professional.

@FredB5779: My advice here wasn't just for your benefit... others read these comments and what I stated will hopefully be helpful to others. For instance, many of my clients are unaware of the various opacities of dyes and pigments used in optical media and the resulting difficulties of some lasers in penetrating the darker colored dyes... this is one of the most common problems when people complain about unreliable optical media. If you have all the answers and could not possibly benefit from what others have to say, you need not read anything here. I am sorry you have had issues with new, brand-name media. Yes, I agree that no media is 100% reliable and that multiple archives are a necessity to guard important information (and we should also include the necessity for off-site archives/back-ups, rotating back-ups, etc.) Don't make a bad impression on others by painting baseless assumptions and innuendos onto others.

@Rezstudios Oh come on !! I didn't come here looking for a fight, which is what you appear to be doing ! I don't see why your opinion should necessarily be the only one, and the right one. It's just another opinion. "painting baseless assumptions and innuendos " like yours you mean ? Not me. I'm just handing on my personal experience, and I think it's only fair to warn people that optical media is not necessarily the "ideal" medium that you are making it out to be. Important data requires consequent back-up. This will be my last comment on the matter… you have the forum to yourself to continue your childish insults. Live long and happy with your optical media !

@FredB5779: you are once again misattributing statements to me and projecting your own issues on others . You need to take a deep breath (and maybe a Xanax) and re-read what you wrote. Also, if you find optical media to be such a poor storage medium then why are you using it? You are confused. Seek help.