Shorten (codec)
{{Short description|Lossless audio codec}}
{{Infobox software
| name = Shorten
| logo =
| screenshot =
| caption =
| developer = Tony Robinson
| released = {{Start date and age|1993|03|30}}
| latest_release_version = 3.6.1
| latest_release_date = 2007-03-19 (final)
| latest preview version =
| latest preview date =
| operating_system = Cross-platform
| genre = Audio codec Data compression
| license = Shorten software license{{cite web|url=http://userpages.umbc.edu/~hamilton/shnlicense.txt|title=SHORTEN SOFTWARE LICENSE|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816185144/http://userpages.umbc.edu/~hamilton/shnlicense.txt|archive-date=2017-08-16|access-date=2020-10-16}}
| website = {{URL|http://etree.org/shnutils/shorten/}}{{cite web|url=http://etree.org/shnutils/shorten/|title=[shorten]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908214909/http://www.etree.org:80/shnutils/shorten/|archive-date=2018-09-08|access-date=2020-10-16}}
}}
{{Infobox file format
| name = Shorten
| icon =
| logo =
| screenshot =
| caption =
| extension = .shn
| mime =
| type code =
| uniform type =
| magic =
| owner = Tony Robinson
| genre = Audio
| container for =
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}}
Shorten (SHN) is a file format used for compressing audio data. It is a form of data compression of files and is used to losslessly compress CD-quality audio files (44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo PCM). Shorten is no longer developed and other lossless audio codecs such as FLAC, Monkey's Audio (APE), TTA, and WavPack (WV) have become more popular. It is still in use to trade concert recordings that are already encoded as Shorten files. Shorten files use the .shn file extension.
Handling Shorten files
All libavcodec based players and converters support the Shorten codec; and since the LAVFilters are based on libavcodec, support can easily be added to Windows Media Player and other software that uses the standard filter / codec APIs. As far as less common programs, some Rockbox applications can play Shorten files without decompression, and third-party Shorten plug-ins exist for Nero Burning ROM, Foobar2000, and Winamp. VLC media player supports Shorten files natively, and ffplay from the ffmpeg package can be used if a command line utility is desired.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Wiktionary}}
- [http://mi.eng.cam.ac.uk/reports/svr-ftp/auto-pdf/robinson_tr156.pdf Shorten Research Paper], written by the author of Shorten and detailing how it works.
- [http://tlh.easytree.org Trader's Little Helper Download page]. Trader's Little helper converts shn to wav among other things
- [http://wiki.etree.org/index.php?page=Shorten etree.org Wiki article]. [http://etree.org etree.org] is a trading site for authorized recordings of live performances; etree formerly used Shorten exclusively but is increasingly using FLAC.
- [http://research.umbc.edu/~hamilton/shnfaq.html Shorten FAQ] (note: If looking for software to play .shn files, you will probably be better served by the [http://wiki.etree.org/index.php?page=SoftwareYouNeed etree software page], as the Shorten FAQ has many broken and outdated links.)
- [http://www.bobulous.org.uk/misc/lossless_audio_2006.html Lossless audio formats], a performance comparison of lossless audio formats, including Shorten.
- [http://userpages.umbc.edu/~hamilton/shnfaq.html A Small SHN and MD5 FAQ] Includes a decent list of programs to handle Shorten files.
- [https://file-converters-online.com/category/shn SHN Format Conversion], an online tool for converting SHN files to other formats.
{{Compression formats}}