AC3 and WAV File Formats
Dolby Digital is the marketing name for a series of lossy audio compression technologies developed by Dolby Laboratories, including Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Digital Surround EX, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby TrueHD.
Although most commonly associated with the 5.1 channel configuration, Dolby Digital allows a number of different channel selections. The full list of available options is:
- Mono (Center only)
- 2-channel stereo (Left + Right), optionally carrying matrixed Dolby Surround
- 3-channel stereo (Left, Center, Right)
- 2-channel stereo with mono surround (Left, Right, Surround)
- 3-channel stereo with mono surround (Left, Center, Right, Surround)
- 4-channel quadraphonic (Left, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround)
- 5-channel surround (Left, Center, Right, Left Surround, Right Surround)
All of these configurations can optionally include the extra Low Frequency Effect (LFE) channel. The last two with stereo surrounds can optionally use Dolby Digital EX matrix encoding to add an extra Rear Surround channel.
WAV is a variant of the RIFF bitstream format method for storing data in “chunks”, and thus also close to the IFF and the AIFF format used on Amiga and Macintosh computers, respectively.Both WAVs and AIFFs are compatible with Windows and Macintosh operating systems. The format takes into account some differences of the Intel CPU such as little-endian byte order. The RIFF format acts as a “wrapper” for various audio compression codecs.
Converting AC3 to WAV File Format
Since NoteBurner AC3 to WAV Audio Converter uses virtual burning technology, media player like iTunes, Windows Media Player or Real Player, or audio editing program like Adobe Audition, is required to co-work with the program to complete the converting. Basically, NoteBurner AC3 to WAV Audio Converter is able to convert all types of audio files that can be played by your media players, such as converting AC3 to WAV, AC3 to to MP3 and WMA.
NoteBurner AC3 to WAV Converte can preserve MP3 ID3 tag, containing Artist name, Song title, Year and Genre of the current audio file. The latest version of NoteBurner can also preserve album name and album art to the converted audio files.
NoteBurner AC3 to WAV Audio Converter is a versatile AC3 to WAV Converter. The AC3 to WAV converter is compatible with iTunes, WMP 10, Real Player, Adobe Audition (Cool Edit) and many other audio players and audio editors.
The Dolby Digital system is used in many bandwidth-limited applications other than DVD-Video, such as digital TV. The AC-3 standard allows a maximum coded bit rate of 640 kbit/s. 35 mm film prints use a fixed rate of 320 kbit/s. HD-DVD and DVD-Video discs are limited to 448 kbit/s, although many players can successfully play higher-rate bitstreams (which are non-compliant with the DVD specification). ATSC and Digital cable standards limit AC-3 to 448 kbit/s. Blu-ray Disc, the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox game console can output an AC-3 signal at a full 640 kbit/s. Some Sony PlayStation 2 console games are also capable to output AC-3 standard audio as well.
