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[lindrone]

Hey guys,

Some of you might have noticed, that there's a new file format that's gaining some popularity now.  It's called .shn, and it seemed to have higher quality than mp3's (because it uses a lossless compression, but also results in a bigger file).

I was wondering if anyone out there is working on incorporating either the playback feature, or the encoding feature into Media Jukebox..

Just a question to throw out there.. and has anyone used this format and seen how much advantages it has?

[Nikolay]

How is .shn better then Monkey's Audio or WMA Lossless?

Nikolay

[lindrone]

You know what, when I posted the message, I haven't looked into Monkey's Audio at all.  After the message, I encoded several of my CD's into APE file instead; and I've been very satisfied with the results.

I haven't tried lossless WMA (didn't even know there was that option).  How does file size and quality of lossless WMA compared to APE?

Still, I would like to see someone develop a SHN plug-in, not because APE isn't any better (because it is), but a lot of artists are starting to distribute their live concert and recordings using the SHN file format.  It's just nice to have an ability to play it in my favorite media player, instead of having to use a plug-in and Winamp.

[bspachman]

Still, I would like to see someone develop a SHN plug-in, not because APE isn't any better (because it is), but a lot of artists are starting to distribute their live concert and recordings using the SHN file format.  It's just nice to have an ability to play it in my favorite media player, instead of having to use a plug-in and Winamp.

I'd rather see effort expended in getting some lossless format supported that is cross-platform and also supported in portable media players (ie the iPod). I'd prefer that be Monkey's Audio, but right now it's a tough row to hoe if you move away from the MS OSes.

Can we get a solid MA plugin for Linux/OSX?

Brad

[dmbfan36]

SHN is cross platform.. you can do it on the MAC/PC and UNIX/Linux... the reason it's so popular is MANY live tapers use it... it's been used in the live music trading community for a couple years now...  I'd like to see some support for it too....

<it was actually the very first loseless compression format>

[Nikolay]

Currently, we don't have enough resources to implement support for all available formats. We are trying to concentrate on mostly used formats. Ocasionally, authors of various compression formats will create MJ/MC plug-ins as it happened with APE format.

Your best bet would be to contact the author of shorten and ask him/her to add support for MJ/MC. IF enough people want the plug-in, it will be done.

Regards,
Nikolay

[salsbst1]

ShnAmp 2.02 for WinAmp 2 works for me in build 161 of MC9.  YMMV!  It doesn't work for at least one other person.

Nikolay, the reason that we really want this is b/c the LEGAL file sharing networks require SHN for lossless sharing.  When you have over 50 GB of lossless audio, and you want to support the LEGAL file sharing network and the community, it is a real shame to have to mirror your SHN files with APE equivalents (50GB becomes 90GB) in order to listen to them in MC9.  If you could just ensure that the WinAmp plug in works consistently (for me and for everyone else who uses MC9) we'd be much obliged!

Thanks,
Stuart

[Warlock]

Currently, we don't have enough resources to implement support for all available formats. We are trying to concentrate on mostly used formats. Ocasionally, authors of various compression formats will create MJ/MC plug-ins as it happened with APE format.

I know I am bringing back a thread that has been quiet for some time now, but I am interested in knowing how these "mostly used formats" are determined.  It makes perfect sense to commit your limited resources to those formats that will benefit the greatest number of users.  I'd do the same thing in your position.  My concern is that the lossless formats are a bit ignored.  Monkey's Audio is great, but there are at least two other formats, FLAC and SHN, that have widespread use in the "audiophile" community.  FLAC especially has some real advantages over APE.  With the price per gig of storage continuing to drop, these will only become more popular.  Perhaps you could poll your users?

[Nikolay]

Warlock,

We did not implement support for Monkey's Audio, but that guy (I think his name is Matt ) ported his plug-in to Media Jukebox. That happend before he started to work for JRiver.

So as I stated before, if the author of the format cares about it and wants the plug-in to work with MJ/MC, he/she will have to spend some time and port the code to MJ/MC architecture, which is, by the way, very simple. I bet it would take just a couple of days to port a plug-in from player to another. And we are ready to help as much as we can to expedite the process.

As a side note, I just took a look at the source code for SHN and one thing struk me right away. The source is writen in C which means that it will not work correctly in MJ because MJ can use multiple instances of the code running sumultaniously. C code based programs can't do that without major modifications.

Nikolay

[ssamadhi97]

I just took a look at the source code for SHN and one thing struk me right away. The source is writen in C which means that it will not work correctly in MJ because MJ can use multiple instances of the code running sumultaniously. C code based programs can't do that without major modifications.

Alright, I reckon you're going to like what I'm about to say now.  

I am half the development team of foo_shn, the shn decoder for the foobar2000 audio player (http://foobar2000.org). A friend and I rewrote the entire decoder side of Shorten from scratch in C++ and wrapped it up in a nice reader- and multithreading-lovin' lib for foobar, a library which is most likely going to be a breeze to use with MJ8 / MC9.

If the gods of coding are not entirely against me, I'll have a working version supporting internal (but not external ) seektables out within the next few hours.

[NoCodeUK]

That is going to please a lot of people...Nice one!

Adam

[ssamadhi97]

That is going to please a lot of people...Nice one!

Heh.. here's the crowd pleaser:

SHN plugin for MJ8 / MC9 released!

Enjoy.