The three digital formats are virtually indistinguishable, even under carefully controlled listening conditions. In actual exhibition, any differences are far smaller than the differences between cinema sound systems and acoustics. Dolby Digital is by far the most popular, with more cinemas equipped for Dolby Digital playback and more Dolby Digital titles in release. Thrilling sound Ease of soundtrack preparation, print manufacture, and print distribution Comprehensive support from Dolby Laboratories for film producers and exhibitors worldwide 7. No, extensive testing and thousands of hours of commercial exhibition have shown that a Dolby Digital soundtrack is not particularly susceptible to damage.
Minor damage is handled by powerful digital error-correction circuitry.
In the rare event of serious damage, playback automatically switches to the analog Dolby SR track, then back to digital once the damage has passed. Just because a coding system uses a lower data rate does not mean it is automatically inferior to one using a higher rate. Digital movie soundtracks save space by storing only the data that's necessary to portray the original sound. This technique, called perceptual audio coding, is intended to capture the mix with just enough precision to sound the same as the original. The more powerful and well-designed the coding system, the more precisely it can shave bits without affecting the perceived sound quality.