Shorten (file format)

ShortenDeveloper(s)| Tony Robinson

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Initial release| March 30, 1993; 33 years ago (1993-03-30)
Stable release|

3.6.1 / 2007-03-19 (final)

Operating system| Cross-platform
Type| Audio codec Data compression
License| Shorten software license[1]
Website| etree.org/shnutils/shorten/[2]
ShortenFilename extension| `.shn`

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Developed by| Tony Robinson
Type of format| Audio

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. However, Shorten is still in use by some people because there are legally traded concert recordings in circulation that are encoded as Shorten files. Shorten files use the .shn file extension.

## Contents

* 1 Handling Shorten files
* 1.1 Converting on Linux
* 1.2 Converting on Windows
* 2 See also
* 3 References
* 4 External links

## Handling Shorten files

Since few players or media writers attempt to decompress Shorten files, a standalone decompression program is usually required to convert to a different file format that those applications can handle. Some Rockbox applications can play Shorten files without decompression, and third-party Shorten plug-ins exist for Nero Burning ROM, Foobar2000, and Winamp. All libavcodec based players and converters support the Shorten codec.

### Converting on Linux

Current versions of ffmpeg or avconv support the shorten format. To convert all .shn files in the current directory to FLAC on Linux:

for f in *.shn; do ffmpeg -i "$f" "${f/%.shn/.flac}"; done

There are also various GUI programs which can be used, like SoundConverter.[3]

### Converting on Windows

A similar command using the freely available ffmpeg for the Microsoft Windows command line:

for /r %i in (*.shn) do ffmpeg -i "%~ni%~xi" "%~ni.flac"

For a GUI-based solution, dBpoweramp[4] can be used, however on a 64-bit version of Windows the 32-bit version of the app must be installed, as the Shorten codec does not come in a 64-bit variant.

To install the 32-bit version on a 64-bit system, hold-down the right shift key and double-click the installer; keep it held-down until the installer is on-screen.[5]

## See also

* FLAC
* MPEG-4 ALS
* Meridian Lossless Packing
* Monkey's Audio (APE)
* TTA
* WavPack

## References

1. ↑ "SHORTEN SOFTWARE LICENSE". http://userpages.umbc.edu/~hamilton/shnlicense.txt.
2. ↑ "[shorten"]. http://etree.org/shnutils/shorten/.
3. ↑ "Converting .SHN Files into .flac Files | A High-Tech Blech!". http://jamesisin.com/a_high-tech_blech/index.php/2009/09/converting-shn-files-into-flac-files/.
4. ↑ "dBpoweramp Codec Central Shorten". https://www.dbpoweramp.com/codec-central-shorten.htm.
5. ↑ "dBpoweramp 64 bit and 32 bit Compatibility". https://forum.dbpoweramp.com/showthread.php?33251-dBpoweramp-R15-Compatibility.

## External links

* Shorten Research Paper, written by the author of Shorten and detailing how it works.
* Trader's Little Helper Download page. Trader's Little helper converts shn to wav among other things
* etree.org Wiki article. etree.org is a trading site for authorized recordings of live performances; etree formerly used Shorten exclusively but is increasingly using FLAC.
* Shorten FAQ (note: If looking for software to play .shn files, you will probably be better served by the etree software page, as the Shorten FAQ has many broken and outdated links.)
* Lossless audio formats, a performance comparison of lossless audio formats, including Shorten.
* A Small SHN and MD5 FAQ Includes a decent list of programs to handle Shorten files.

* v
* t
* e

Multimedia compression and container formats

Video
compression|

| ISO, IEC, MPEG|

* MJPEG
* Motion JPEG 2000
* MPEG-1
* MPEG-2
* Part 2
* MPEG-4
* Part 2 / ASP
* Part 10 / AVC
* MPEG-H
* Part 2 / HEVC
* MPEG-I
* Part 3 / VVC

|

ITU-T, VCEG|

* H.120
* DCT
* H.261
* H.262
* H.263
* H.264 / AVC
* H.265 / HEVC
* H.266 / VVC
* DV

SMPTE|

* VC-1
* VC-2
* VC-3
* VC-5

TrueMotion|

* TrueMotion S
* DCT
* VP3
* VP6
* VP7
* VP8
* VP9
* AV1

Others|

* Apple Video
* AVS
* Bink
* Cinepak
* Daala
* DVI
* EVC
* FFV1
* Huffyuv
* Indeo
* Lagarith
* Microsoft Video 1
* MSU Lossless
* OMS Video
* Pixlet
* ProRes 422
* ProRes 4444
* QuickTime
* Animation
* Graphics
* RealVideo
* RTVideo
* SheerVideo
* Smacker
* Sorenson Video/Spark
* Theora
* Thor
* WMV
* XEB
* YULS

Audio
compression|

| ISO, IEC, MPEG|

* MPEG-1 Layer II
* Multichannel
* MPEG-1 Layer I
* MPEG-1 Layer III (MP3)
* AAC
* HE-AAC
* AAC-LD
* MPEG Surround
* MPEG-4 ALS
* MPEG-4 SLS
* MPEG-4 DST
* MPEG-4 HVXC
* MPEG-4 CELP
* MPEG-D USAC
* MPEG-H 3D Audio

|

ITU-T|

* G.711
* A-law
* µ-law
* G.718
* G.719
* G.722
* G.722.1
* G.722.2
* G.723
* G.723.1
* G.726
* G.728
* G.729
* G.729.1

IETF|

* Opus
* iLBC
* Speex
* Vorbis

3GPP|

* AMR
* AMR-WB
* AMR-WB+
* EVRC
* EVRC-B
* EVS
* GSM-HR
* GSM-FR
* GSM-EFR

ETSI|

* AC-3
* AC-4
* DTS

Others|

* ACELP
* ALAC
* Asao
* ATRAC
* AVS
* CELT
* Codec 2
* DRA
* FLAC
* iSAC
* Monkey's Audio
* TTA
* True Audio
* MT9
* Musepack
* OptimFROG
* OSQ
* QCELP
* RCELP
* RealAudio
* RTAudio
* SD2
* SHN
* SILK
* Siren
* SMV
* SVOPC
* TwinVQ
* VMR-WB
* VSELP
* WavPack
* WMA
* MQA
* aptX
* aptX HD
* aptX Low Latency
* aptX Adaptive
* LDAC
* LHDC
* LLAC

Image
compression|

| IEC, ISO,
IETF, W3C,
ITU-T, JPEG|

* CCITT Group 4
* DCT
* HEIF
* HEVC
* JPEG
* JPEG XR
* JPEG XT
* TIFF/EP
* Arithmetic
* JBIG
* JBIG2
* JPEG-LS
* JPEG 2000
* LZ
* GIF
* PNG
* TIFF
* TIFF/IT

|

Others|

* APNG
* BPG
* DjVu
* EXR
* FLIF
* ICER
* MNG
* PGF
* QTVR
* WBMP
* WebP

Containers|

| ISO, IEC|

* MPEG-ES
* MPEG-PES
* MPEG-PS
* MPEG-TS
* ISO base media file format
* MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4)
* Motion JPEG 2000
* MPEG-21 Part 9
* MPEG media transport

|

ITU-T|

* H.222.0
* T.802

IETF|

* RTP
* Ogg

SMPTE|

* GXF
* MXF

Others|

* 3GP and 3G2
* AMV
* ASF
* AIFF
* AVI
* AU
* BPG
* Bink
* Smacker
* BMP
* DivX Media Format
* EVO
* Flash Video
* IFF
* M2TS
* Matroska
* WebM
* QuickTime File Format
* RatDVD
* RealMedia
* RIFF
* WAV
* MOD and TOD
* VOB, IFO and BUP

Collaborations|

* NETVC
* MPEG LA
* HEVC Advance

Methods|

* Discrete cosine transform
* DCT
* MDCT
* Entropy
* Arithmetic
* Huffman
* Modified
* FFT
* LPC
* ACELP
* CELP
* LSP
* WLPC
* Lossless
* Lossy
* LZ
* DEFLATE
* LZW
* PCM
* A-law
* µ-law
* ADPCM
* DPCM
* Transform
* Wavelet
* Daubechies
* DWT
* Transform

Lists|

* Comparison of audio coding formats
* Comparison of video codecs
* List of codecs

See Compression methods for techniques and Compression software for codecs

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