Topic: Question about personally archiving GD shows...

[Swampy]

Hey all, so with all the recent happenings with the Dead stuff, I've been going like a madman and getting as many Dead SBDs off torrents and such as I can. The problem with these are is that it seems they were all transfered in the very early ages off lossless compression and the files are huge. In the interest of saving money, would it be considered not proper to take these SHNs, unzip them, re FLAC them and then burn to DVDs for personal storage? I wouldn't be trading the FLACs, I would only trade as audio, and just keep the FLACs for my own personal use... Thoughts? thanks!

[Patrick]

I am doing the same thing, sort of, and i don;t really see anything wrong with it.  Like you said, if you later trade the flacs things might not check up right. 

But if you're trading audio then go ahead!  I hate archiving huge audio files when they can be squashed down!

[OFOTD]

Hey all, so with all the recent happenings with the Dead stuff, I've been going like a madman and getting as many Dead SBDs off torrents and such as I can. The problem with these are is that it seems they were all transfered in the very early ages off lossless compression and the files are huge. In the interest of saving money, would it be considered not proper to take these SHNs, unzip them, re FLAC them and then burn to DVDs for personal storage? I wouldn't be trading the FLACs, I would only trade as audio, and just keep the FLACs for my own personal use... Thoughts? thanks!

Use a program like dbpoweramp that allows you to convert SHN to FLAC directly on the fly without the need to ever be decompress the files  into a wav.  This is a true lossless conversion.


EDIT:  In addition I would not kill yourself to get as many SBD's as you can in light of the GD policy.  It only refers to the IA and not trading of these shows.  There are millions of folks who have all the circulated SBD's and whatnot.  All the crazy shit coming out of NorCal will settle soon and people will stop freaking out about it.  Take your time.  They will always be there.

[Swampy]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Though I am not killing myself getting soundboards, I wouldn't be so sure that SBDs will always be freely downloadable via sites like bt.etree ect... They already took away the archive, I see no reason that they couldn't go after the bt sites next... I know stuff will always be out there, but it would be nice to have data of some stuff for myself....

[OFOTD]

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Though I am not killing myself getting soundboards, I wouldn't be so sure that SBDs will always be freely downloadable via sites like bt.etree ect... They already took away the archive, I see no reason that they couldn't go after the bt sites next... I know stuff will always be out there, but it would be nice to have data of some stuff for myself....

I hear what you saying.  I look at it this way.  How many sites do you know of or use that offer Bob Dylan shows?

As long as there is even ONE site hosting a Dylan show then there will be hundreds that still offer up Dead shows.  People are panicing right now but it will all settle down and will always be available.

[F.O.Bean]

I do this all of the time for MY collection alex, and just make sure you note the SHN>WAV>FLAC lineage and I see NO problem w/ even trading tho's, youre saving EVERYONE storgae when doing that

[OFOTD]

I do this all of the time for MY collection alex, and just make sure you note the SHN>WAV>FLAC lineage and I see NO problem w/ even trading tho's, youre saving EVERYONE storgae when doing that

There is NO reason why you need to have a WAV generation in there.  If you do a direct SHN > FLAC then it stays lossless.

[MattD]

There is NO reason why you need to have a WAV generation in there.  If you do a direct SHN > FLAC then it stays lossless.

It stays lossless either way, unless you have buggy software doing either of the conversions.

[F.O.Bean]

There is NO reason why you need to have a WAV generation in there.  If you do a direct SHN > FLAC then it stays lossless.

It stays lossless either way, unless you have buggy software doing either of the conversions.

exactly

[larrysellers]

Make an md5 for the wav files if you will be going the shn -> wav -> flac route. When it will be a no-brainer that the flac and shn archives both produce the same wav when decompressed.

[jefflester]

The problem with these are is that it seems they were all transfered in the very early ages off lossless compression and the files are huge.

As others have indicated, no problem switching to the SHN to FLAC. The files are *huge* because the songs are long and the shows are long. How much are you really saving going from SHN to FLAC? 5%? 10% Is it worth the effort?

[F.O.Bean]

The problem with these are is that it seems they were all transfered in the very early ages off lossless compression and the files are huge.

As others have indicated, no problem switching to the SHN to FLAC. The files are *huge* because the songs are long and the shows are long. How much are you really saving going from SHN to FLAC? 5%? 10% Is it worth the effort?

plus, IMO, FLAC is better over-all, and ive been using both formats for many years

the decoding in flac is enuf reason to use it IMO, if any errors are present, you are aware!

also, the latter versions of flac frontend align on sector boundaries, that alone is priceless