As a legal reminder, Dolby Digital is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories Inc. and is not to be confused with this program itself but I tested it to pass at least most official Dolby Digital encodings into SPDIF. AC3 is the base algorithm behind digital surround sound.
This Wav6ToAC3ToSPDIF project is in early development phase and has some work to do to enhance stability and to shorten processing delays. If you want this program's public development to continue please add a public link to this page. It would be the best way to motivate me.
Until now I have tested motherboard's Realtek chipset and external USB Terratek Aureon 7.1 and connectivity to SPDIF is good.
The package itself:
Wav6ToAC3ToSPDIF.zip 27.06.2025
Zip file contains the ui.exe (main program 64-bit executable), example audio files and a very simple example of program (exe and C source) connecting to the main program to send audio data via TCP socket. I have planned to either make a WDM/miniport audio driver or some other mechanism to simplify and fasten the whole process of client to use the encoder.
When run at first time after downloading zip Windows suggests not to run program from unknown source as a blue window. There is a continuation with pressing "more" after which the blue window gains a button to enable running. This has to be done only once.
Alternatively you can use installer to have same files into C-drive's subdirectory Wav6ToAC3ToSPDIF and to optionally create a desktop icon into actual exe (ui.exe):
Wav6ToAC3ToSPDIF-Install.zip 27.06.2025
When opening Install.zip file's content (.exe), Windows will warn you with blue window as it should. If you accept "Run anyway" you have install program to execute:
Be aware, that most of the expensive so called external professional audio cards (Evo 16, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 etc.) do NOT have possibility to passthrough Dolby Digital nor DTS to their SPDIF. On the other hand quite cheap USB cards like Terratek Aureon or ASUS Xonar U5 have. I would very much like to collect lists of working and non working audio cards into this page from your email feedback (ac3project (at) polycsg.net).
When you need to configure any audio device, type "control.exe" into Window's taskbar Search-field. From the opened Control Panel select "Hardware and Sound" and then "Sound". You should get the list containing sound devices window to select and configure.
As with all network downloads I strongly recommend to virusscan also this package. Better safe than sorry.
Last updated by Pekka Upo, Finland 21.03.2026.