AC3 playback

[Richard M Knight]

It seems Windows 11 is dropping the Dolby Digital AC3 codec, does that mean the Premiere will not play videos with that audio?

[Ann Bens]

Just pulled a m2ts with ac3 audio from a Bd and it plays just fine in the beta.

Been running W11 for some time now without issues.

[RjL190365]

It will be dropped beginning with the next major feature update to Windows 11 (24H2). However, this affects only users who reinstall Windows 11 with the 24H2 installer using a clean install. Windows 11 users who upgrade to 24H2 from an older feature update of Windows 11 (such as the current 23H2 version) will still have the AC3 codec installed from that version of Windows.

And yes, Premiere Pro relies solely on that Windows AC3 codec. So, if you perform a clean install of the upcoming 24H2 feature update and then you install Premiere Pro, then your videos with AC3 audio will import without audio.

[MyerPj]

I don't understand what Dolby is doing? Any idea. First it was out of PP, and now out of Windows? What will be the work around?

[John T Smith]

I don't use ac3 but if I did I would go to google and enter

dolby ac3 licensing

To find out... since my GUESS is that dolby wants to sell individual licenses

[RjL190365]

It's not the first time that Microsoft has ended official support for a multimedia codec. Newer versions of Windows no longer include MPEG1 or MPEG2 video support out of the box, making those codecs an optional download instead.

[MyerPj]

That's the only thing I can come up with also.

?

[Ann Bens]

Guessing, you can install an ac3 codec yourself.