[AAR.oner]

welcome to The Den

first off, read thru our FAQ [top of page] for more info...we also have a couple OS-specific guides that will be coming out soon...but to address your immediate questions

Originally Posted by ZosoPlayer

1. I downloaded a show in flac format and want to burn to a cd. Do I need to use eac for this?

no...use Trader's Little Helper [aka TLH]: http://thor.prohosting.com/roh0205/

we also have a thread in technobabble re: the program [info, Q&A, glitches, etc]: http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...4&page=1&pp=15

basically once you have a lossless show [flac, shn, ape], you'll want to do 2 things with it...
1.) to burn an audio cd, decode the flac files to wav using TLH...then burn with whatever program you use [i.e Nero, ONES, etc]
2.) burn a "data disc" of the show to archive for trading in the future...choose the CD-ROM format [or DVD-ROM for multiple shows] and burn the flac files/checksums/info/etc as data on a disc...if yer not familiar with this process, let us know what program you use to burn discs with and we'll be able to help more specifically

Originally Posted by ZosoPlayer

2. I am trying to understand how to read a shows lineage and to relate this to what the quality will be and place a value on the show based on the lineage. Is there a place you can direct me that helps explain this?

try using our search feature and entering "lineage"--also select "search titles only"...should be some good stuff in those threads...also check the gloassary of our FAQ for alot of terms

Originally Posted by ZosoPlayer

3. Lets say i bought a bootleg. The cd I get would be considered the 'silver'?

typically yes...tho i've occasionally run across boots in stores that were burned to regular CDRs, most of the time they are "Silvers" [i.e they are "professionally pressed" & the underside of the disc is silver -- not blue/purple/green/etc like common CDRs]

Originally Posted by ZosoPlayer

4. It seems to me that to be able to read and understand a shows lineage, you need to understand how quality is lost during various transfers. For example:

Master>DAT>CDR ----> Generally speaking, do you lose quality when a show get transfered from a master (this means the original source of the show, sbd stu or aud, correct?) to DAT? Is there quality loss from DAT to CDR? Or does it all depend on how the show is transfered?

there are numerous factors that can cause varying degrees of "quality loss" when transferring...the above situation depends on a number of things:
1. what is the original source? DAT, cassette, mini disc, etc
2. how was it transferred? analog, optical, etc
3. is it a 1st gen CDR copy, or an unknown gen CDR(x) copy? were the flacs/shns made directly from the CDR copy itself? if so, what program was used to extract with [i.e. EAC, xACT, or an inferior program]? is there an "extraction log" which shows more details of the extraction process and its accuracy?

Originally Posted by ZosoPlayer

5. When I download a show off the internet and burn it to cd, does that cause a loss of quality? IE, how can tell the spots along the lineage where there is going to be quality loss from the original master?

yes, there can easily be quality loss in a burned copy, which is why you should always archive/trade/seed the original lossless files...for some shows, there may be no definitive master>lossless conversion, and the best known copy might be Unknown Audience > CDR(x) > EAC > .... > flac

when a CDR extraction is "necessary" [due to there being no known direct transfers], there are only a couple of programs which have proven to be reliable at extracting, and include the ability to have a log giving details--these are EAC [windows], xACT [Mac], and cdParanoia [linux]...

feel free to ask us questions about specific shows' lineages here, and we can explain the particulars...

hope that helped a bit...cheers!