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More => Old Versions => Media Center 11 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: packyb on June 04, 2003, 09:39:11 am

Title: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: packyb on June 04, 2003, 09:39:11 am
I am fairly certain that MC9 does not supprt .shn format, but can anyone explain how to use that format in conjunction with MC9?

(As of now, I plan on using the Michael Weise software (mkwACT) to compress/uncompress shn files to wav.)

Basically, I am trying to burn all of my music on to hard drive(s), so that I can box the CDs up and put them away. (Figured I'd burn everything once, and then convret them to mp3 for now, but this will enable me to more easily convert them to other formats - i.e. AAC, etc. - later.) I would like to do this in a lossless format, but wav files are TOO big. I have been checking into the shorten format, and thought it might be a good solution.
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: Matt on June 04, 2003, 09:41:46 am
Check out Monkey's Audio -- better speed and compression.

MC has great support too.
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: packyb on June 04, 2003, 01:04:07 pm
Thanks Matt. I'll check out their website to learn more. (I had seen the ape encoding option, but didn't realize that it was lossless.)
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: Warlock on June 04, 2003, 01:22:10 pm
I use Monkey's Audio for most of my archiving, but there is still a need for MC to support other lossless formats.  For example, most "live show traders" use Shorten (SHN).  SHN is the most widely used lossless format for the legal trading of live music on the net.  There is an interesting post at Hydrogen Audio that talks about the needs of "traders" and the shortcomings of certain lossless codecs.  http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?act=ST&f=19&t=6384&  

Sure, I can convert my SHN files to APE files so that I can listen to them with MC (like I had to do with my FLAC files), but that means I have to keep two copies around (one for listening, one for trading).  

Don't get me wrong, I think Monkey's is great and I know Matt put a lot of work into it, but it isn't as widely used (yet) as some other lossless formats, and JRiver needs to keep that in mind.  
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: dmbfan36 on June 06, 2003, 12:31:39 am
Quote
but there is still a need for MC to support other lossless formats.  For example, most "live show traders" use Shorten (SHN).  SHN is the most widely used lossless format for the legal trading of live music on the net.


AMEN!  I second that... I'm one of those traders... I have about 400 GB of SHNs on my hard drives and then another 100 GB archived to CDR and DVDRs....
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: ssamadhi97 on June 06, 2003, 12:29:11 pm
.shn support for MJ8 / MC9 might be closer than all you guys think. :)

(directly depends on the quality of the SDK and my free time)
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: Matt on June 06, 2003, 12:35:21 pm
Quote
.shn support for MJ8 / MC9 might be closer than all you guys think.  

(directly depends on the quality of the SDK and my free time)


Great :)  Just let us know if you have any questions.
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: ssamadhi97 on June 15, 2003, 06:31:37 pm
Quote


Great :)  Just let us know if you have any questions.

Sure. Question: Can I get a free full copy of MC9 for providing the MC9 SHN plugin? :P
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: wonmug on June 15, 2003, 08:23:00 pm
Quote
Check out Monkey's Audio -- better speed and compression.

MC has great support too.

APE may be great, but that doesn't help those of us with large FLAC collections.
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: Matt on June 16, 2003, 05:42:59 am
Quote
Sure. Question: Can I get a free full copy of MC9 for providing the MC9 SHN plugin?


Of course.  Email me: matt @ jriver.com (no spaces)

Thanks.
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: ssamadhi97 on June 16, 2003, 07:17:53 am
Great, thanks for the cooperation. My current copy of MC9 should blow up any day.

Well, actually I don't have a clue what it does after the trial expires.. I looked around on the website and in the help but didn't find anything.. maybe you want to shed some light on that somewhere on the site?


Besides, I gotta add something on APE vs SHN:
Quote
Check out Monkey's Audio -- better speed and compression.

Better compression, definitely. Better speed? Not quite true, to the best of my knowledge.
For a sample track (4:01) I got the following results:

Encoding: MA fast: 5.3x realtime, Shorten: 12.0x realtime.
Decoding: MA fast: 9.6x realtime, Shorten: 31.4x realtime.

programs used:
Encoding: MA 3.97 frontend (+ Shorten 3.5 cli)
Decoding: foobar2000 APE and SHN input plugins
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: Warlock on June 16, 2003, 07:19:50 am
Quote
.shn support for MJ8 / MC9 might be closer than all you guys think.  

(directly depends on the quality of the SDK and my free time)


That would be fantastic.  I hope you find a lot "free time" for this worthwile project.   ;)  Now if we can just get someone to write a FLAC plugin . . . .

Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: ssamadhi97 on June 16, 2003, 07:30:50 am
Quote
That would be fantastic.  I hope you find a lot "free time" for this worthwile project.   ;)  Now if we can just get someone to write a FLAC plugin . . . .

Oh, there's not much more free time needed for a first release of the plugin.

Of course it won't be "feature-complete", but it will include support for seeking with internal seektables and external seektables that reside in the same folder as the SHN file (just like the MJ8 plugin I already uploaded)

You can expect said first release before the sun sets.  :P


What's more, I've heard it through the grapevine that someone (not me) is working on a FLAC plugin already.. That one might be more difficult to make, though.
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: ssamadhi97 on June 16, 2003, 11:48:59 am
Here it is. Go nuts.

SHN plugin for MJ8 / MC9 released! (http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Other_Plugins;action=display;num=1055721027;start=0)
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: MachineHead on June 16, 2003, 02:16:15 pm
ssamadhi97-

Know anyone willing to port AAC to MC?
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: ssamadhi97 on June 16, 2003, 02:54:35 pm
Not really.. but maybe you're lucky and one of the foobar2000 aac plugin devs is willing to help. foobar's input plugins and readers are a bit similar to MJ/MC's, "porting" foo_shn to MJ/MC was actually a breeze.
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: MachineHead on June 16, 2003, 03:01:39 pm
OK, just thought I'd ask.
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: JimH on June 16, 2003, 03:01:55 pm
Quote
Not really.. but maybe you're lucky and one of the foobar2000 aac plugin devs is willing to help. foobar's input plugins and readers are a bit similar to MJ/MC's, "porting" foo_shn to MJ/MC was actually a breeze.

It's much appreciated.  Thanks for your efforts!   8)
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: Warlock on June 17, 2003, 07:34:59 am
ssamadhi97, your plugin worked flawlessly for me.  Now I can stop juggling two players when I want to listen to SHN files.  Nice work!


edit: Now who do I need to poke to get a plugin for FLAC files?  ;)
Title: Re: SHN (FLAC) Support?
Post by: ssamadhi97 on June 18, 2003, 08:59:40 am
Same does apply as for an AAC plugin I guess.. I most likely won't do it because I really don't feel like familiarizing with libFLAC  ;)  Besides, one or two people are looking into it already, so don't worry too much about it.


(All comments on the shn plugin go into this thread (http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Other_Plugins;action=display;num=1055721027;start=0) please..)