Dolby Digital Plus

Dolby Digital Plus™ (E-AC-3) provides up to twice the efficiency of Dolby Digital while adding new features like 7.1-ch audio, support for descriptive video services, and support for Dolby Atmos (but more on that later).

Dolby Digital Plus is widely used by streaming and broadcast services to deliver surround sound audio at lower bitrates.

  • Stereo audio in Dolby Digital Plus is typically encoded at bitrates between 96-128 kbps.
  • 5.1-ch audio in Dolby Digital Plus is typically encoded at bitrates between 192-256 kbps
  • Dolby Atmos audio in Dolby Digital Plus is typically encoded at bitrates between 384 and 768 kbps.

Dolby Digital Plus bitstreams are not directly backwards compatible with Dolby Digital decoders, but Dolby Digital Plus decoders can decode Dolby Digital bitstreams.

 Dolby DigitalDolby Digital PlusDolby TrueHD
Stereo
5.1-ch
7.1-ch  
Dolby Atmos  
Lossless    
S/PDIF  via conversion  
HDMI
HDMI ARC  
HDMI eARC