Checksums Demystified (.st5, .ffp and .md5)

[SteelStage]

I'm good now thanks for you help man. I will seed some shows

[jabulon]

[SteelStage]

one more thing, the initial seed, that seems to be stuck, any guidance on that?

I did download from the TTD page it was linked in url, then i added it to utorrent as initial seed...see it in download status 99.9 and not in seed page, but it progressed to 'finding peers' this has always baffled me doing this once before

so i think i am stuck at step 11 in audio torrent seed FAQs

[jabulon]

The 99.9% etc comes when you have changed something after making the torrent. Delete this torrent. Make a new torrent (make sure all files are closed and saved when making the torrent. Then follow the upload procedure. I'll delete your old upload page.

[SteelStage]

thanks i'll do that

[SteelStage]

and we're good. Much appreciation and patience jabulon

[jabulon]

[Blackdeath]

hello i need to change a md5 to ffp in a torrent that is already on the tracker?? does a MOD need to delete the current torrent before i upload the new torrent?

[TheMysticMuse]

Originally Posted by Blackdeath

hello i need to change a md5 to ffp in a torrent that is already on the tracker?? does a MOD need to delete the current torrent before i upload the new torrent?

Yes, unfortunately when a torrent is created there's nothing you can add/modify in some way. That's why it's super important that when you've created the torrent all the files are 100 % ready to be uploaded. So no, you can't change/add change anything when you've uploaded a torrent. Tell the mods to delete the thread then create a new one with the fully working .ffp. Cheers and good luck!

[Blackdeath]

Originally Posted by TheMysticMuse

Yes, unfortunately when a torrent is created there's nothing you can add/modify in some way. That's why it's super important that when you've created the torrent all the files are 100 % ready to be uploaded. So no, you can't change/add change anything when you've uploaded a torrent. Tell the mods to delete the thread then create a new one with the fully working .ffp. Cheers and good luck!

thank you sir..ive been looking through the FAQ for this answer..

[gwendibbley]

Okey, I have a confession to make.

I haven't always checked the fingerprints and checksums for downloaded lossless audio files.

But now I want to do that, and to filter out the bad ones.

Some of the bootlegs I have do have st5 and ffp, but some only have md5 and some don't even have any fingerprints/checksums.

(I have flac, shn and ape-files)

1. How do I ascertain that my files are correct? TLH -> Analysis -> Test audio encoded files and Check audio files for SBEs? Running "flac -t" in a command prompt in Windows?

2. If the above solution(s) return a positive result, can I then create a st5 (and ffp) for those audio files?

I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I want to do it right, and preferably only one time (for my collection now, of course I will do this for any future bootleg I download).

Hope you can help me out.

Best reagrds,
Henrik

[Five]

Originally Posted by gwendibbley

Okey, I have a confession to make.

I haven't always checked the fingerprints and checksums for downloaded lossless audio files.

But now I want to do that, and to filter out the bad ones.

hello Hendrick

Originally Posted by gwendibbley

Some of the bootlegs I have do have st5 and ffp, but some only have md5 and some don't even have any fingerprints/checksums.

(I have flac, shn and ape-files)

1. How do I ascertain that my files are correct? TLH -> Analysis -> Test audio encoded files and Check audio files for SBEs?

yes, run this for all files shn, flac, ape. somebody's gonna say 'nobody burns anymore...' well these days I see it more as a secret handshake, when you see shows with SBEs you know its a noob, and to check everything about that show over.

Originally Posted by gwendibbley

Running "flac -t" in a command prompt in Windows?

use st5 if available, test them all. the st5 checksum is absolute, track01.wav, track01.flac, track01.ape, track01.shn when you generate st5 for any one of them it makes the same number.

if there is no st5:
flac & ape: self-test, then generate st5 and keep together with the files.

shn:
a) if there is .md5 with shn, test with that, then generate .st5 and add it to the folder.
b) if there is no .md5 with shn then open with audacity or some other wav editor and check it over, make sure there's not obvious corrupt data anywhere. listening all the way through if you have time. for 'rush job' tlh shn self-test, which detects shns that are so badly broken they will not fully decompress (iirc).

Originally Posted by gwendibbley

2. If the above solution(s) return a positive result, can I then create a st5 (and ffp) for those audio files?

yes, certainly!

Originally Posted by gwendibbley

I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I want to do it right, and preferably only one time (for my collection now, of course I will do this for any future bootleg I download).

Hope you can help me out.

Best reagrds,
Henrik

let me know if this explains well, the topic gets confusing fast.

-Jamie

[gwendibbley]

Thanks Five!

I Think I've figured it out..

Still have questions though:

If I discover SBEs and I don't know which flac level the original files where encoded with, what is the best re-encoding level after the fix? What settings for the fix should I use? Fix/pad? Shift forward/backward/round? Skip first N? Pad last file?

Are there any point in leaving "old" ffp/md5/sfv if I create a st5-file?

Thanks,

H

[gwendibbley]

Another question:

Can I run an analysis on shn-files in TLH? I currently have a bootleg where the analysis and the check for SBEs are ok, but the md5s are returning an error.

Should I create a st5-file and delete the md5-file(s)?

/H

[Five]

Originally Posted by gwendibbley

Thanks Five!

I Think I've figured it out..

Still have questions though:

If I discover SBEs and I don't know which flac level the original files where encoded with, what is the best re-encoding level after the fix? What settings for the fix should I use? Fix/pad? Shift forward/backward/round? Skip first N? Pad last file?

ffp is st5 that only works with flac. st5 is ffp for all lossless. it pulls out the raw wave file without the header and analyzes only that.

sbe fix default settings that should be backward shift and pad final track if necessary. oldschool 'proper procedure' is involved and basically profitless. besides, others who downloaded the same set will most likely choose this path of least resistance and their resulting fixed set will have matching st5 as yours without re-downloading. st5 is immune to compression level changes and also lossless codec changes.

it is good to see it for yourself.. take one flac file to a test folder, use tlh to encode level 1, level 6, level 8, decompress a wav, transcode to ape, mkw, shorten and put them all together in tlh then 'create checksums' generate. the same numbers over and over. md5 used this way is all screwed up.

if the md5 doesn't verify just take it out. if the md5 works I would still take it out, site policy is you can take it out or leave it in at your discretion but it must work.

Originally Posted by gwendibbley

Are there any point in leaving "old" ffp/md5/sfv if I create a st5-file?

Thanks,

H

the original st5 file often contains a date of creation time stamp that should be preserved. I feel it is helpful to collectors.

sfv is used with mp3 sets.. for this stuff, just copy whatever those ppl are doing. I hate the mp3-sfv functionality tlh is a shntool frontend and shntool is [/i]exclusively[/i] lossless, like ttd-etree-etc.

if you generate new st5 it should be identical to old st5 except for the date so you don't need a new st5 so long as the old one works.

shn sets only need st5 in the year 2020 .. md5 is 90s

sorry for the tl;dr .. help me boil this to 25 words or less if possible lol