Dolby seems to want to cash in with ac3 a last time before it dies a fast death (like frauenhofer with mp3), they are working on an enhanced ac3 audio codec, called dolby digital plus

it should allow 5.1 streams at pretty low bitrates (which plain ac3 isnt really able to do) and should be backwards compatible to existing ac3 capable players...

read more about here:
http://www.dolby.com/press/pa_pr_0404_Dolb...lus_preNAB.html

for me this pretty much sounds like they use SBR or something similar, anyone knowing more about this format?

I just know that there was a hot debate in DVD forum between HE-AAC and this format.

Only thing I know is that it is backwards compatible, and that is one of its biggest advantages as being advertized by Dolby.

It might be using similar approach as "Dolby AAC" - but I don't know until some AES paper or technical data pops out...

you mean for dvd-audio (rom zone)? i saw that he-aac hasnt been approved as mandatory codec for this

Some german site (http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/46937) also reported that the upper limit is at 6mbit/s now instead of 640kbit/s. Maybe there'll be VBR support too?

There was a big debate between these solutions IIRC