Just got the boxed version of Toast Titanium 8 in and I’m quite confused, yet happy, yet trepidatious. I’ve always liked Toast — it’s simple, straightforward, and it burns solid disks with little fanfare. But what’s all this TiVo stuff then?

For some strange reason, Toast 8 comes with a TiVo Transfer program for OS X. Why, you ask? Because TiVo couldn’t pull off their own OS X version and so enlisted the help of Sonic to build the software into their latest version. What does this mean for those with a TiVo and no money to buy Toast 8? You have alternatives. But if you want official encoding and decoding with a minimum of fuss, you’re kind of stuck. Roxio has made a strong, basic product for those who don’t want to futz with a command line or Applescript windows.

The TiVo Transfer program is fairly straight forward. You simply type in your Media Access Key, select the TiVo you want to work on, and pick a few shows. You can send the shows to Toast for burning or export to PSP or iTunes. The interface is considerably upgraded with a number of often-used tasks and settings front and center rather than buried in tabbed windows.

So should you upgrade? If you have a TiVo, yes. I suspect, and this is just conjecture, that someone will crack Toast 8′s TiVo functions or that TiVo itself will offer it as a one-off download once Roxio has earned back its investment. I’m betting on the former rather than the latter.

Otherwise, Toast 8 is considerably upgraded with Blu-Ray burning, one-click DVD/CD copy, file recovery, music mastering software, and photo disk burning being some of the major improvements. The software is $79.99 online right now, so take a gander.

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