convert shn to flac before upload to archive.org?

[dgodwin]

I've been uploading shows that I originally torrented on stg in shn format to archive.org.  Should I be decoding them and re-encoding them to flac format before uploading?  Thanks

[bgalizio]

It's just personal preference. SHN is still a valid format, though most people prefer FLAC now.

[dorrcoq]

You can do a direct SHN to FLAC coversion (with bit-identical comparison/verification) using foobar2000

[Kindguy]

I don't see the point.
I'm sure I'll be in the minority on this one.

[Lil Kim Jong-Il]

I don't see the point.
I'm sure I'll be in the minority on this one.

A lot of player firmware supports ogg, ape, and flac but I don't recall any supporting shn directly.

[Nick Graham]

I don't see the point.
I'm sure I'll be in the minority on this one.

A lot of player firmware supports ogg, ape, and flac but I don't recall any supporting shn directly.

Exactly. For instance, the iRiver will play FLACs - no portable player I know of offers SHN support. Also, a lot of new burning programs (Toast Titanium 8 for example) will burn FLAC to audio discs automatically, no decoding needed.

[greenone]

If it's my original SHN source, yes, I convert to FLAC before I upload. If it's someone else's, I leave it however they uploaded it. The only exception is if there's some sort of SBE - then I sbefix and shn>flac at the same time (yay xACT), note it in the info file, and upload it.

[Kyle]

You can do a direct SHN to FLAC coversion (with bit-identical comparison/verification) using foobar2000

How do you do this? Thanks in advance!

Kyle

[dorrcoq]

You can do a direct SHN to FLAC coversion (with bit-identical comparison/verification) using foobar2000

How do you do this? Thanks in advance!

Kyle

Kyle - excellent, easy to follow tutorial here at The Traders Den

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1112&highlight=foobar2000

Piece of cake once you get foobar set up.

Dennis

[balou2]

6, to 1/2 dozen the other.  SHN is still viable, but FLAC is supported more.  Existing downloaders may have Shorten software, but newer collectors may not.

On a similar note, why the hell do people still encode to APE?  I've read all the literature, and understand the format, but so few people use it, I just don't understand why someone would choose to encode APE and not FLAC.

[travelinbeat]

For reasons already discussed (namely the accessability issues surrounding playback of shn's), I prefer FLAC in a landslide.  It may be noeworthy too that I prefer to archive data rather than Audio CD's, so if I trade physical media and receive an Audio disk, I generally rip it down and archive it into FLAC, and in the fingerprints I include the explanation that the show was received audio, and that these fingerprints refer to files rip'ed from that audio CD (I also include all the lineage of the rips / converts)


and totally off topic but balou, I just read your sig-- that's freaking HYSTERICAL

Nice one, very nice =)

[greenone]

You can do a direct SHN to FLAC coversion (with bit-identical comparison/verification) using foobar2000

How do you do this? Thanks in advance!

Kyle

You can also do it with xACT - just drop SHNs on the "encode" tab, choose FLAC as the output.

[rowjimmy]

SHN = proprietary format which will cost vendors money to add to their players.

FLAC = FREE Lossless Audio Codec = No expense for vendors to add it to their players.


FLAC has tags and built in checksums, the arguments are long and many but there is a clear winner for new material. I don't see any reason for people to keep making SHNs other than their lack of motivation to get with something that is new (to them. FLAC has been around for a while, now.)

Anything that I produce is in FLAC. I re-encode every shn that I get but I do keep the original md5 information in the .txt file and note any alterations (SBE fixes, generally,) as well.

Now, specific to the topic: Would I up my re-encoded FLAC to archive.org? Doubtful. I'll leave that to the original seeder. If the original is not forthcoming and all that, I'd consider it.

[George]

I went thru the process of re-converting all my shn shows to flac and re-burn them to dvd's.  Flac's are a little smaller than SHN, imho, so you do save a little more space. 

As for rockbox/iriver's....shn is supported too. 

[F.O.Bean]

every shn i have ever downloaded/received/traded i converted to flac extension, its been a PAINSTAKING project but well worth it in the long run

i dont trade much and all of this is for my personal archive, but if i were trading alot or something i would have left the shn's in tact and made seperate flac extesnions

as for seeding, i wouldnt seed asnything i converted from shn>flac unless there was a huge demand for it and the OG seeder was on etree and a few years went by, then yes, id possibly upload to LMA