I am using Toast 5.0.2 to burn DVD-RW's and DVD-Rs after DVD Studio Pro builds the content. I like the control Toast offers.

However, when writing short programs to DVD-RW to test out, it first writes the Lead-In which takes a minute, then the program, then the Lead-Out. The Lead Out takes FOREVER! What's going on? The shorter the program, the longer it takes to write the Lead Out. We're talking 20 minutes just for the Lead Out. I do not understand why such a HUGE Lead Out track would be necessary. Usually I just force quit Toast after it has written a few seconds worth of Lead Out and reboot. I eject the DVD (I removed the mirrored drive doors so I can eject discs whenever I want rather than be forced to wait until the computer boots up to eject with the keyboard... an INCREDIBLY STUPID Apple design, but that's another story). The disc always works fine.

I guess my question is what Toast is doing this entire time, and why the Lead Out must be so huge.

Toast also takes a ton of time to erase a DVD-RW or even a CD-RW with "Quick Erase". Is there anything for Mac OS that can erase a disc as fast as Nero for Windows?

I am using Toast almost everyday right now on a project. A 4.4Gb project takes about 50 minutes to write on a DVD-RW (at 1x) and half that on a DVD-R (at 2x). Lead-out has never taken 20 minutes, ever. Perhaps you should try re-installing Toast.

i think the current version of toast is 5.2.1, which is a free upgrade from 5.0.2. i would suggest starting there, as i have no speed issues with burning DVD's.

There is no problem with the actual burning speed, it just wants to create a giant lead out track. If I have a 50 minute project or larger, then the Lead Out track seems to be written much faster... say one minute.

It's not really a gigantic issue as I can always just quit Toast, eject, and it works, but I wanted to see if others experienced anything similar. Try writing a 2 or 3 minute project (nothing else) to DVD-RW and see what happens. If it works fine in 5.2.1, then I will upgrade. Otherwise Toast has been working 100% perfectly for me ('cept for this) and I see no reason to upgrade. When I am writing DVD-R's I always let them finish, however... just in case stopping it might mess it up in someone's player.

I've been dealing with this same situation for quite some time now (of course now Toast is well into version 6.x) but lately it has become frustrating. Everything works out exactly as Curtis discussed... longer sessions have short/normal lead-out burn times of about 1 minute, but shorter (5 minute video DVD) sessions insist on writing the lead-out for 20 minutes.
Internet, DVinfo, and Roxio searches provide lots of users experiencing lock-up during lead-out writing, but its not actually locking up for me... just taking a really long time.

Is anyone else still experiencing this? or solved this dilemma?