[Five]

omg do you remember etree rule #33???!!! this is why we don't consider wholefile md5 authoritative whatsoever.. it caused so much strife at etree before they cancelled rule #33. st5 checksums and Trader's Little Helper solved 99% of all these old issues by virtue of being valid across any lossless codec.

ffp/st5 and otherwise useful information such as st5 composite and shntool len check are excellent to see posted in the threads. wholefile .md5?? if you insist.

if you want to add embedded skt to shn and seed here to this day, it is okay just post ffp/st5 checksums they are not changed by this kind of activity.


shorten v3 page, retrieved from archive.org capture, 2002-10-17

Originally Posted by etree.org

etree.org | shn v3 introduction

Shorten version 3 (SHN v3) allows Shorten users the ability to "audition" SHN files by jumping to different parts of the file using the slider control in Winamp (Windows users), or XMMS (Linux users). SHN v3 is (and always will be) 100% backward compatible! This means that older Shorten players and decoders will have no problem decoding Shorten files encoded with SHN v3.

Below is an evolving list of questions and answers about SHN v3. If you have any questions about SHN v3 that isn't answered below, please email serverxetree.org! We need your input!

etree.org | shn v3 q & a

What the heck are .skt files?

A .skt file is Shorten seek data.

Shorten seek data can either be embedded inside a Shorten file, or "live" outside the Shorten file. A .skt file is seek data that happens to "live" outside the Shorten file.

The reason for a separate seek data file is because the original seeder did not encode that particular show with Shorten v3. Re encoding the old Shorten file with the seek data embedded into it would change the MD5 checksum, and cause much confusion. Because of this, you should never append seek data to older Shorten files. You can create .skt files for your older (non seeking) Shorten files with SHN v3 tools.

.skt files are only necessary if you want to listen to Shorten files in ShnAmp or XMMS-SHN and be able to seek. Seeders that encode new shows with the SHN v3 tools will have seek data automatically embedded into the SHN file by default. The seek data is there so people can take advantage of seeking without needing additional (.skt) files.

Remember, SHN v3 (with or without the .skt files) will always be 100% backward compatible. This means you will always be able to decode any Shorten file with any Shorten decoder. The only difference between the different versions of Shorten is the ability to take advantage of new features (currently seeking).

Will creating .skt files change the MD5's of my Shorten files?

Creating .skt files will never affect the MD5 of your Shorten files. This is the whole purpose of .skt files; to avoid the potential nightmare of having two sets of MD5's floating around. Remember, creating .skt files is the ONLY way to seek-enable older SHN files.

What's this I'm hearing about rule #33?

Yes, there is indeed a new etree.org rule... Rule #33: Never append seek data to old (non-seeking) SHN files!!!!