AC3 AND AC97

[inuyashafly]

I cant find much of an answer. I have the a8r mvp motherboard it has soundmax hd adio. I know soundmax used to be ac97 . Basicly what is ac3?. Because I am tring to find headphones that use coax or optical with 5.1. i found an ltb model but it says its ac3? so wuts the deal?

 

[baracuda73]

AC3 is an encode system like Prologic or Dolby Digital. The AC97 sound chip should be able to do AC3.

 

[inuyashafly]

Thanks that is what i thought but, I didn't know . thanks

 

[cookingfrags]

actually AC3 is another name for Dolby Digital. so when you say a signal is in Dolby Digital, you could also be saying the signal is an AC3 signal.

AC97 is another thing almost completely...AC97 is the codec that used to be used in most integrated sound, like the one you mentioned. however, you said you had HD Audio on your motherboard, which is replacing AC97 in many motherboards.

basically....the two are unrelated.