The a lot of accepted use of a Dolby Digital® decoder is as allotment of a home ball system. In a lot of cases, the decoder will anatomy allotment of a accessory accepted as a receiver which connects to one or added audio sources and again distributes the complete to the assorted speakers. A lot of receivers will aswell accept a radio congenital in, while some can as well handle video signals. An another to a receiver is an all-in-one assemblage in which the decoder and audio inputs are congenital into the subwoofer, which again connects to the speakers. A Dolby Digital® decoder could as well be congenital into a computer complete card.

The accepted anatomy of Dolby Agenda involves accustomed abstracted signals for left, center, right, larboard beleaguer and appropriate beleaguer channels, additional a sub-woofer. The beleaguer channels are generally referred to as rear channels, admitting abounding audio experts advance the accordant speakers should be placed to the ancillary of the adviser rather than abaft them. Dolby Digital® is sometimes accepted as AC-3 or, if acclimated in television broadcasts, ATSC A/52.

Variations on Dolby Digital® cover Dolby Agenda EX® and Dolby Agenda Beleaguer EX®. Both of these aftermath a arresting for an added speaker, which sits abaft the listener. The aberration is that the above artificially creates the complete for the approach by "deducing" it from the absolute signal, while the closing involves the added complete approach getting accurately congenital into the arresting in the aboriginal recording.

There are several added formats which may be covered by a Dolby Digital® decoder. Dolby Agenda Live® creates beleaguer complete "on the fly" from a video game. Dolby Agenda Plus®, which requires committed accessories to play back, food added advice to accomplish a bigger superior sound.

Most Dolby Digital® decoders will as well be able to handle Dolby Pro Logic®, an earlier architecture which carries beleaguer complete in a accepted stereo signal, but alone has a individual beleaguer or rear channel. A after aberration on this is Dolby Pro Logic II®. This simulates abounding Dolby Digital® from any stereo antecedent rather than application advice which has been accurately encoded to accommodate a beleaguer source. Unlike some agnate simulation techniques, Dolby Pro Logic II® artlessly splits the aboriginal complete amid the assorted speakers rather than artificially creating sound.