Dolby Digital - Channel Configurations

Channel Configurations

Although commonly associated with the 5.1 channel configuration, Dolby Digital allows a number of different channel selections. The options are:

• Mono (center only)
• 2-channel stereo (left + right), optionally carrying matrixed Dolby Surround
• 3-channel stereo (left, center, right)
• 2-channel stereo with mono surround (left, right, surround)
• 3-channel stereo with mono surround (left, center, right, surround)
• 4-channel quadraphonic (left, right, left surround, right surround)
• 5-channel surround (left, center, right, left surround, right surround)

These configurations optionally include the extra low-frequency effects (LFE) channel. The last two with stereo surrounds optionally use Dolby Digital EX matrix encoding to add an extra Rear Surround channel.

Many Dolby Digital decoders are equipped with downmixing to distribute encoded channels to speakers. This includes such functions as playing surround information through the front speakers if surround speakers are unavailable, and distributing the center channel to left and right if no center speaker is available. When outputting to separate equipment over a 2-channel connection, a Dolby Digital decoder can optionally encode the output using Dolby Surround to preserve surround information.

The '.1' in 5.1, 7.1 etc. refers to the LFE channel, which is also a discrete channel.