SHN Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
SHN (Shorten) is a file format used to losslessly compress CD-quality audio files (44.1 kHz 16-bit stereo PCM). It is similar to ZIP, RAR, and Stuffit but is meant for audio as traditional compression formats do not work well on audio data. The Shorten compression saves disk space and decreases transfer times. Ogg Vorbis or MP3 files are more typically used as these are usually ten percent of the size of the original file rather than 50-70 percent, but quality is lost in the compression. More advanced codecs like TTA or FLAC are other lossless audio codecs that have recently become more popular than Shorten. Some applications require (and some hi-fi enthusiasts demand) the lossless digital output that such codecs provides. It should be noted that an identical digital signal does not guarantee identical audio output with different hardware.The Shorten algorithm and the reference code that implement it were developed by Tony Robinson of SoftSound Ltd. The code was made available under a generous non-commercial license and has been extended by Wayne Stielau to include seek tables so that one may seek within individual tracks when playing the files on ones computer.