LaserDisc Audio Guide – Part 3: AC-3 Dolby Digital

Culturedog Sam Hatch has returned with a small series of videos hashing out the convoluted history of the audio portion of LaserDisc history. Analog, digital, mono, stereo, surround, Pro-Logic, AC-3, Dolby Digital, DTS… all those confusing acronyms and output jacks… all will be broken down and explained.

In this third video, Sam powers through the advent of 5.1 surround sound and its transition from the cinemaplexes to home theaters in 1995. The primary focus of this discussion is on AC-3, the audio codec also known as Dolby Digital and the somewhat confusing selection of consumer-grade gear that featured it. Players, decoders and demodulators… oh my!

Strap in and crank it up!

Chapters
0:00 Opening Titles
0:14 Intro / Dolby Surround Recap
0:54 From Cinemas to LaserDiscs
1:30 AC-3 Dolby Digital Overview
2:58 Digital Surround Competitors
3:37 AC-3 Software
3:55 AC-3 Hardware
4:15 Audio Format Wars
4:51 AC-3 Implementation
5:45 AC-3 Compression
6:54 AC-3 LD Engineering
8:49 RF Demodulating/Decoding
10:00 Outboard RF Demodulators
11:47 Collecting AC-3 Discs
12:19 Player Compatibility
15:40 Disc Branding
16:11 Connections
17:31 Usage Experiences
18:40 Wrap-Up

Check out this awesomely comprehensive list of gear featuring AC-3 RF inputs:
https://www.avsforum.com/forum/90-receivers-amps-processors/652457-list-ac-3-rf-audio-gear.html

Check out the roster of all known AC-3 LaserDiscs on the LaserDisc Database:
https://www.lddb.com/list.php?format=ld&list=ac3

Listen to "Culture Dogs" Sunday nights at 8pm EST on WWUH, 91.3 FM in CT. Also streaming live (and then archived via StreamRewind) on:
http://www.wwuh.org

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Intro music: "Anger Mgmt." by Sever the Drama.
https://store.cdbaby.com/Artist/SeverTheDrama

Видео LaserDisc Audio Guide – Part 3: AC-3 Dolby Digital канала Culturedog