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| On 08/08/2013, at 10:08 AM, Jeanette Barekman <jsbarekman@yahoo.com> wrote: > Would like to know what are the pluses for using an AC3 file. AC3 is the Dolby Digital codec used on DVDs. It's a compressed format, in the same way that MP3s and AAC (iTunes) are compressed files, however AC3 was specifically designed for 5.1 surround sound. It supports a range of channels - including stereo and 5.1 - and the bitrate can be adjusted to balance file size and quality. On DVDs it's always 48K, but I think in software it can handle different sample rates. WAV and AIFFs are uncompressed files, taking up roughly 600meg for 1 hour of stereo audio. If a DVD used uncompressed audio then a 2 hour feature film with 5.1 surround sound would need 3.6 gig just for the audio tracks, which is pretty pointless as a single layer disc only holds 4.3 gig in total. On paper DVDs support a few different types of audio, but in general AC3 IS the DVD audio standard. Commercial DVDs that don't use AC3 for audio are extremely uncommon. -Chris |
