Dolby Digital AC-3

Writable

audio

AC-3 (backronymed to Audio Codec 3 or Advanced Codec 3) is the common version of Dolby Laboratories' Dolby Digital audio compression technology.

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FFmpegOpen sourcereads and writes · LGPL-2.1-or-later / GPL-2.0-or-later
AC3FilterOpen sourcereads · GNU General Public License
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To	With	Fidelity	Command and losses
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) 1.2.1	FFmpeg	Lossless	`ffmpeg -i in.ac3 out.flac` Lossless for decoded audio; a lossy source stays as degraded as it was. WAV may reduce bit depth or drop metadata.
Waveform Audio	FFmpeg	Lossless	`ffmpeg -i in.ac3 out.wav` Lossless for decoded audio; a lossy source stays as degraded as it was. WAV may reduce bit depth or drop metadata.
Matroska 1-4	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.ac3 out.mkv` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
MPEG 1/2 Audio Layer 3	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.ac3 out.mp3` Lossy re-encoding.
MPEG-4 Part 14	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.ac3 out.mp4` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.
Ogg	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.ac3 out.ogg` Lossy re-encoding.
WebM	FFmpeg	Lossy	`ffmpeg -i in.ac3 out.webm` Re-encoded with lossy codecs by default; try `-c copy` to remux without re-encoding when the codecs fit the container.

From Converters (FFmpeg, ImageMagick, Pandoc, LibreOffice), PRONOM, Wikidata. Updated 2026-10-20.