Codecs & Compression
EAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus)
A more efficient successor to AC3, supporting more audio channels at a lower bitrate for comparable surround sound quality.
Enhanced AC3 improves on the original with better compression and support for up to 7.1 channels and beyond. It's increasingly the default for platforms wanting surround sound without AC3's larger bandwidth footprint, and it's required for passing through certain advanced audio formats.