file formats & ultra-low bandwidth encoding

[a.r.dobbs]

We could avoid causing more work for readers -- they could supply wav files, or we could simply accept the audio degradation of starting with mp3 from readers, opening it in somethingorother program, and converting that to the FLAC ...

It'd be great if someone could write a skimmable version of what's come up to this point in the posts. What's obvoius to someone who understands the technology is obscure to those who don't -- including a bunch o' MCs

But if this thread is discovering better delivery of better files for a wider audience of listeners ... if made intelligible, this thread would have folks lining up to figure out how it could be handled logistically.

Says Anita, wondering whether she's getting in line or not

[thistlechick]

Maybe the cataloging would be easier if someone (I) made a program that tagged, encoded, normalized and uploaded the files with minimal user input. i.e ISBN,uploading password, and an interface where data from the the recorders are already present and may be edited (only) if they are wrong.

We do already have a utility that does some of these functions.... (you'll want to talk with Tis (Chris G.) about the internal details of this as he is the one who created it.

and we've also had several different people (myself included) attempt to create a database and interface that includes these procedures, but no one has yet suceeded...

...another thing to note, is that ISBN is not a useful piece of information since most of the books that we are recording were published many many years before the International Standard Book Number was invented.