{"id":14203,"date":"2015-01-22T17:04:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T17:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/dolby-digital\/"},"modified":"2016-12-05T17:25:45","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T17:25:45","slug":"dolby-digital","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31078\/dolby-digital","title":{"rendered":"Dolby Digital"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Does Dolby Digital Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Dolby Digital is a digital audio technology developed by Dolby Laboratories that helps reduce the data required for producing high-quality audio. Dolby Digital is considered as the industry standard for surround audio and has compatible application systems worldwide. Using advanced encoding and decoding technology, Dolby Digital is capable of reproducing multi-channel audio, which helps in delivering a cinematic audio experience to the users.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Dolby Digital was formerly known as AC-3.<\/p>\n

Techopedia Explains Dolby Digital<\/span><\/h2>\n

Like the DTS technology, Dolby Digital also makes use of six channels:\n<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Center<\/li>\n
  • Left<\/li>\n
  • Right<\/li>\n
  • Left surround<\/li>\n
  • Right surround<\/li>\n
  • Low-frequency effects<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Dolby Digital technology is based on the principle of how the human ear processes audio. By focusing on masking, eliminating and reducing the noise, Dolby Digital reduces the data required to produce high-quality audio, but maintains the essential amount of data to ensure good fidelity. It has also introduced surround formats such as Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital Surround and others.<\/p>\n

    The benefits of Dolby Digital include easy access to software, comparatively larger software options, accurate transfer to disc from channel levels and great audio for music and movies. The code used in Dolby Digital is considered to be quite efficient and is thus capable of running at a lower bit rate.<\/p>\n

    One disadvantage of Dolby Digital is the degradation in the quality of the audio and video due to its higher compression level.<\/p>\n

    Dolby Digital is widely used in applications such as HDTV broadcast, digital cable, digital versatile discs, satellite transmission and game consoles. Discs supporting the Dolby Digital technology are usually marked with the Dolby logo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What Does Dolby Digital Mean? Dolby Digital is a digital audio technology developed by Dolby Laboratories that helps reduce the data required for producing high-quality audio. Dolby Digital is considered as the industry standard for surround audio and has compatible application systems worldwide. Using advanced encoding and decoding technology, Dolby Digital is capable of reproducing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[256],"class_list":["post-14203","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-emerging-technology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is Dolby Digital? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Dolby Digital and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dolby Digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Dolby Digital and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31078\/dolby-digital\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-12-05T17:25:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31078\/dolby-digital#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31078\/dolby-digital\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Dolby Digital\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-22T17:04:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-05T17:25:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31078\/dolby-digital\"},\"wordCount\":273,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31078\/dolby-digital#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31078\/dolby-digital\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/31078\/dolby-digital\",\"name\":\"What is Dolby Digital? 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