Last updated on 2013-07-25, by Irene

What is AC-3

About AC3 Format

AC3 is a file extension for surround sound audio files used on DVDs format. The AC3 file format was created by Dolby Labs for use in a Dolby Digital audio on DVD, Blu-ray and other digital video formats. AC3 stands for Audio Coding 3. AC3 increases fidelity over its previous surround sound standard, Pro-logic, with independent tracks for each of the 6 speakers, a 16bit sampling at 48khz rate compressed by 10- 12 times, making for a total bit rate of 384kbps.

Dolby Digital is the name for audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories. It was originally called Dolby Stereo Digital until 1994. Except for Dolby TrueHD, the audio compression is lossy. The first use of Dolby Digital was to provide digital sound in cinemas from 35mm film prints. It is now also used for other applications such as HDTV broadcast, DVDs, Blu-ray discs and game consoles.

Dolby Digital is the common version containing up to six discrete channels of sound. The most elaborate mode in common usage involves five channels for normal-range speakers (20 Hz – 20,000 Hz) (right front, center, left front, rear right, rear left) and one channel (20 Hz – 120 Hz allotted audio) for the subwoofer driven low-frequency effects. Mono and stereo modes are also supported. AC-3 supports audio sample-rates up to 48 kHz.

This format has different names:

•      Dolby Digital

•      DD (an abbreviation for Dolby Digital, often combined with channel count; for instance, DD 2.0, DD 5.1)

•      AC-3 (Audio Codec 3, Advanced Codec 3, Acoustic Coder 3. These are backronyms. However, Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding 3, or ATRAC3, is a separate format developed by Sony)

•      ATSC A/52 (name of the standard)

Related Software

Leawo Video Converter (AC3 Converter): an easy video and audio solution for any format conversions, with fast speed and excellent output guaranteed. You can merely convert audio or can extract audio from video and then carry out audio conversion. AC3 Converter not only converts common audios to AC3 format, but also converts AC3 audio to other audio formats.

Leawo DVD Ripper (DVD to AC3 Ripper): a useful DVD ripping program for users to rip DVD to video and audio in various formats. So with it you can enjoy great convenience to convert DVD to AC3 audio for appreciation. This DVD to AC3 Ripper enables you to convert DVD to AC3 with fast speed and excellent output quality.

Related Source
AVI, MP3, MP4, FLAC, WAV, WMA, ASF, Windows Media Player, Kmplayer, MPlayer

External links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_AC-3