What is the benefit of 2 channel ac3 sound vs mp3 sound

[737mechanic]

What is the benefit of using 2 channel ac3 sound over mp3 sound.

[ZippyP.]

It's DVD compatible.

[celtic_druid]

Probably talking about an avi here though.

mp3 is lossy, well so is AC3, but if the source of the 2ch AC3 is a DVD then the loss has already occured and it is the best possible quality that you can get.

[ZippyP.]

Probably talking about an avi here though.

Which many people convert to DVD, so the audio can be used as-is.

[Wile_E]

For NTSC DVD, your choices are PCM, AC-3 or DTS. PAL adds Mpeg 1 Layer 2. MP3 is not supported on DVD's. You probably meant Mpeg 1 Layer 2 (Abbreviated MP2). AC-3 is touted as superior sounding over MP2. MP2 is an old format, that was used on VCD's.

[guns1inger]

While both are lossy, at the same bitrate AC3 is definately superior. I always find that even relatively high bitrate mp3 muddies the sound, distorts the stereo filed, and is generally a poor choice for audio if you want to keep any sort of fidelity. AC3 is a much higher quality compression algroythm, albeit at a higher space premium.

[ebenton]

Other than the technical details of the superiority of one over the other, I can also think that perhaps if your set top DVD player (assuming it can even read MP3) is connected to an AV receiver, the AC3 may only go out through the optical or coax digital audio output and MP3 may not. This may result in some inconvenience caused by having to switch your AV receiver 's input back and forthe between inputs, depending upon what disk you're playing.
On the other hand, maybe it doesn't matter much at all.
I feel strongly both ways.