AC-3 Audio codecs missing

Question

AC-3 Audio codecs missing

Father Dane 0

After a clean installation of Windows 11 Pro (25H2), the AC-3 codecs are missing.

This has crippled some of my applications, notably DaVinci Studio which is my primary video editing application.

Why has Microsoft discontinued including these codecs?

Where can these codecs be obtained to make application such as DaVinci Studio and Microsoft's own Media Player, work?

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2 answers

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Answer 1

Father Dane 0

According to Blackmagic Design, AC-3 support for DaVinci Studio comes from the operating system. The application works under Windows 10 but not under Windows 11.

I installed K-Lite but all it does is provide a new Media Player (that does play AC-3 audio files). The old Microsoft Media Player is still available in the Windows 11 operating system but still does not play AC-3 audio tracks.

So unless the Operating system can have the AC-3 codecs installed, these two applications are not functional with any modern video or audio file that has AC-3 audio.

So, I am back to the original question: where are the system AC-3 audio codecs to be found? Where does Microsoft have them for download?

DaveM121 932.4K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-09-20T12:10:33.2533333+00:00

1

On this link is the only information Microsoft provide about the Ac-3 codec in the 'A note on AC-3 (“Dolby Digital”)' section.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/windowsmediaplayer/troubleshoot-windows-media-player-errors

2

If that codec pack did not enable the Ac-3 codec after restarting your PC, you will need to search online for the installer for the 'Dolby Digital Plus Decoder for PC OEM', that is the official installer for the AC-3 codec.

Answer 2

DaveM121 932.4K Independent Advisor

Starting with Windows 11 version 24H2 Microsoft dropped out-of-box native support for AC-3 codec, they have not indicated why, that may be because of licensing issues with the codec, the best option is to install a 3rd party codec pack like the K-Lite codec pack, that should install the Ac-3 codec, if not, the best option is to contact the developers of Davinci Resolve (BlackMagic Design) on their website, they may provide a separate download for the Ac-3 codecs.

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