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Discography
Discography keeps track of every file on every disc you burn. You can instantly search through tens of thousands of burned files and find out info such as when it was burned, to what disc it was burned, and when it was last edited. If you find yourself constantly losing track of what disc your files are on then Discography will be a welcome addition to your toolset. Discography is always on and keeping track of your burns — so it’s only there when you need it.
Spanning
Have more files than you can fit on a single disc but don’t feel like manually weeding them out and dividing them? Well, Disco can handle it for you. If Disco detects the total size of the files you’re burning is bigger than the disc, it will try to divide them amongst multiple discs so that they fit. Through its beautiful UI, Disco visually indicates how many discs you’ll be needing, and then you simply feed it new ones as it handles the burning for you.
Smoke
With Disco we tried pushing the boundaries of interface, usability, and utter functional simplicity. Well, once you realize that Disco is emitting real time interactive smoke as you burn, we start redefining the boundaries. Want to push it out of the way? Blow into your microphone and the smoke will react accordingly. Or, go ahead and flick at it with your mouse. Remember, you’ll need a recent mac to play with the full interactive smoke.
Power Tools
Disco does more than just look pretty, though. Pro users will be glad that they can take advantage of the seamless multi-session support, many different file systems, and tons of disc image burning options. Disco can also handle creating a disc image from a set group of files, erasing rewritable media, VIDEO_TS burning, and it can even detect physical motion on laptops to prevent coasters.
Crossroads
We have dubbed the workflow technology we created for Disco “Crossroads.” Crossroads lets Disco assist you through the process with a beautiful animated interface, while also offering you full control. Crossroads doesn’t try to think for you, instead it works with and for you based on your actions. We sought out to make the most straightforward disc burning utility out there.
The Future..?
There are some amazing things in the works for Disco. First and foremost, as Apple adds support for Blu-ray and HD-DVD to their computers we intend to be right there with them. As soon as possible, Disco will support these new media technologies to the fullest. We’re also planning on introducing more innovative features in the vein of Discography, Spanning and the new Disc Naming.
For more information, visit www.discoapp.com.
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November 26th, 2007 at 1:24 am
From all the apps that I bought via MacZot, I must confess this one was the biggest disappointment. It has a beautiful UI and the visual effects are very much appealing, but the lack of updates (last one was in March, I think) and of will to address some bugs (if I correctly recall there was a problem with spanning) made this application less reliable for me. Maybe that will change in the future.
For me, I decided to spend some money in a much more expensive application, but that is trustworthy and a killler on its features: Toast. (The same one Disco defied on its release…)
November 26th, 2007 at 2:22 am
Yes, Disco had Toast for breakfast or something like that. I still use Toast but haven’t used Disco in months.
Burn is also another alternative, even though it has not been updated for a few months now. Worked better for me, and it is free.
November 26th, 2007 at 2:45 am
Disco was a major disappointment after all the hype. No updates since early 2007, questionable compatibility with Leopard, no fixes for existing bugs… it might have had promise, but I for one have gone back to Toast. Disco has literally gone up in smoke.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:02 am
I love disco. I’ve used a lot of burn apps and this one is my favorite. The only current problem I have is that it is unstable under 10.5. I’ve reported it and hopefully they will update the app. It keep crashing when you burn multiple copies.
November 26th, 2007 at 6:12 am
I’m a Disco license holder, but it’s not even installed on my computer. When I launch Toast, I know exactly what to do to get the result I want. Disco, on the other hand–and apologies if I sound mean–is precisely the sort of application that causes developers of substantial, effective, noteworthy software to criticise the “delicious generation.” I’m not saying Disco doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. What I hear is that it does what it does well; however, its substance is too well obscured by its style. It looks pretty, the smoke is neat, but how not to get a coaster is not immediately apparent to me.
This is a poorly designed, unintuitive application that hasn’t been updated in months. With Toast available at such a discounted price (keep your eyes peeled, they have mail-in rebates and such, which get the price down to about $35), I’d forgo this offer and get that instead.
November 26th, 2007 at 7:15 am
Also the devs never answer questions when a new update will be released. They even moderate their comments so that nobody says anything bad. This is pure vaporware! They are only using OS X built-in technology and add some smoke that’s it.
November 26th, 2007 at 7:37 am
I have to agree. This had such promise at launch, since almost everyone wanted to see the increasingly overweight Toast get some real competition from something sleeker and simpler. However, as the other posters have pointed out, the developers seemed happy to stop working, sit back and just take the cash.
Unless there’s something truly astounding on the horizon, they should be ashamed of how little their application has evolved – especially given the huge (financial) vote of confidence all the early buyers gave them.
They had a really great launch pad, and they blew it.
November 26th, 2007 at 8:43 am
To heck with Disco, I want to know where justG found Toast for $35 :)
November 26th, 2007 at 9:02 am
I liked the UI of Disco as well and it has worked well when I used it, but I have not used it very much. I agree that I have head of some issues, and apparently they are still issues from the comments above. I also noted that the comments above say it is not compatible with Leopard, yet if you look at their site right at the top below the name it says “Ready for Mac OS X Leopard”. Is this true? And the bottom of the MacZot explanation under Future, which is taken from their site as well, says great things are coming. When are they coming and is the MacZot a pre-cursor to a new version finally coming out? I will not go to Toast just yet, as burning needs have not yet required it but I do expect Disco to work with Leopard and eliminate the bugs mentioned above or I will be looking for Toast myself.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:11 am
I’ve used Disco and I’ve dumped it. Some of what I think should be readily accessible options such as disc format aren’t readily available and must be accessed through the preferences. I’ve actually dumped Toast as well.
I’m using Burn (http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/) and suggest to give it a try before committing to buy either Disco or Toast
November 26th, 2007 at 9:37 am
It’s… decent. Does nothing any free burner can’t do, though I must admit the workflow/interface is really clean and well thought out.
That’s not a reason to buy an app, though, in my book. Otherwise, I’d have hundreds of useless but cool apps on my computer.
November 26th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Certainly, try all your options before deciding what suits you best. You may find that of the three popular options, Disco is really what’s best for you; if that’s the case, it’s well worth taking advantage of today’s discount.
@ubrgeek: If you’re in the States, try buy.com. Right now it’s closer to $60, but just a few days ago they had a discount + rebate + free s/h thing that brought the cost down to about $37. With the winter holiday shopping season in full swing, you might want to keep an eye on that site and other e-tailers for some good discounts. Hope that helps.
November 26th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Hey everyone, I know we all talked about a few apps we’d like to see for sale. Well there seems to be a great sale from the devs for almost all of them.
http://www.givegoodfoodtoyourmac.com
I’m not affiliated but thought others might be interested. That said, I don’t think it is that great a discount so I’ll most likely wait for a Zot version. :D
November 26th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I love Disco. Odd, I didn’t think I was in the minority, but then again, more people will usually take the time to complain than to promote.
It is perfectly simple for my needs — drag what I want to burn to the Disco drop zone, click burn, it’s done! It automatically tells me how many discs are needed, spans appropriately, keeps an index of my burns, … and looks cool!
I don’t know … I guess at some point I’ll figure out something it doesn’t do well, but for now, it does what I need it to do.
What special stuff do you Toasters do that Disco can’t … not the once-in-a-blue-moon type of stuff, but the things you rely on Toast for, week after week? I’m curious!
November 26th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
“What special stuff do you Toasters do that Disco can’t”
Burning movies that play on a DVD player comes to mind. I don’t recall whether Disco can do that.
Other than that for me it has been a matter of reliability. I can trust Toast to work as expected. Disco often left me with coasters.
Add to that the hype and arrogance associated with Disco. I’m not a fan of those things and they just added to my disappointment.
November 26th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
@Rees Maxwell
What comes to mind for me is this:
-Spanning that actually works and can be restored on Windows or Mac
-Accurate disc size estimates. Disco screws this up much of the time
-Can’t remember the last time Toast created a coaster that wasnt from a bad disc. Disco creates way too many coasters.
-Disco does not make proper copies of discs, especially Audio discs. Toast can make a bit for bit copy
-You can create many more formats with Toast, IE: Divx, DVD, VCD, and many more that Disco cannot touch.
Bottom line is that at this stage in Disco’s development, I can’t rely on it to produce reliable backups, discs, etc. Add to that the developers seem to have gone on to other projects and Disco seems to be heading toward abandonware…
November 27th, 2007 at 4:19 am
PaulG,
Thanks for the detailed description! I actually haven’t had any coasters, and when I’ve bumped my laptop in the middle of a recording session, it gives me a coaster warning … I am guessing it looks at the motion-detection ability of the MacBook and (possibly) pauses the burn until the laptop is stable again (just a guess) … but I like what else you said about more formats and such with Toast. And abandonware sucks. I guess I’ll look toward Toast in a while if this puppy never grows up.
Wonder if Maczot will ever get Toast on here?