Wanting to understand FLAC ...

Hi everyone,

I'm really wanting to understand and get into the world of flac. On all the trading sites I visit I see fantastic flac audio trees that I want to join. But would have no clue what to do when I got it. I'm fine with dvd-video trees. Thats what I'm wanting help with. So my questions:

I see that on trees or vines they are flac on dvd(s)- what exactly does this mean? Just on a regular dvd-r/+?

Why is it on a dvd? It can hold more I presume?

So what do I do with a flac dvd? Do I burn it as I normally would and if not whats different? Then I would want to convert it so I could burn it onto a cd-r so it would play on the computer and in the car. So I would need a converter correct?

Just wanting the steps listed I would need to do when I'm on a flac tree.

There is my embarrassing flac newbie questions.

[U2Lynne]

The shows are put on a DVD because a DVD holds 4.4 GB and a CD only holds about 700 MB.

As for how to copy it:
- Put it in your computer
- Drag the folders onto your harddrive
- Verify the files copied correctly with the fingerprints (ffp) or checksums (md5 or st5)
- Send the vine on it's way

Now for you to do something with them:
- To play, use a player from our Software List (link in my sig)
- To convert, use TLH or xACT from our Software List
- To burn, use your burning software, search for a guide in Technobabble for your particular software if you don't know how to burn a CD

You may want to look through our FAQ. There is a lot of stuff in there about Audio Trading.

[Johnny Thunder]

Ok, now I'm curious, why use TLH or xACT rather than the FLAC fromtend to convert files to WAV? Maybe you recomend these other tools to convert to other lossless formats like APE or SHN?

I was just wondering. Personaly, I use Cool Edit 2000 and Adobe Audition 1.5, so I just use them to convert files if I need to for some reason, and I burn with Nero Burning ROM, and have the FLAC plugin for all the above, so I don't actualy need to convert files. I'm just a geek.

JT

[U2Lynne]

Originally Posted by Johnny Thunder

Ok, now I'm curious, why use TLH or xACT rather than the FLAC fromtend to convert files to WAV? Maybe you recomend these other tools to convert to other lossless formats like APE or SHN?

You may use flac frontend, however the great thing about TLH is that it will convert flac, shn, and ape. If will also make/verify the ffp,md5,st5s and it will do an shntool len check. It will do tons of other things also, plus it has the added advantage of the author having a thread here and he comes here and reads about any problems and takes recommendations for future versions. xACT also does all those things, but xACT is for Mac users (also with an active yahoo group where the author helps, fixes, and takes recommendations), TLH is for PC users. Both these apps are all-in-one apps. If you have them, you really don't need any other lossless apps sitting around on your computer.

[trustthex]

i am old school and recently came back (stopped trading after stg died). anyway, i was anti-tlh for a while, because i had all of my tools (mkw, flac frontend, commandline scripts, etc) but, seriously... it just makes everything easier. if it werent for the random crashes while analyzing audio file details (i think flac) sometimes, it would be perfect. as is, its damn close.