Open AC3 in SoundForge - quick trick!
 

If you have AC3filter installed in Windows, you'll notice that you still cannot open an AC3 file inside Sound Forge.

• filename.ac3 does not work

However, if you open the video file in VirtualDub, and then File > Save WAV while the audio setting under Audio is set to Direct Stream Copy, and the name your new file to

• filename.ac3.wav, it does work!

I did this by accident today, and didn't notice the "problem" until after the AC3 file was already opened in Sonic Foundry (now Sony) Sound Forge 6.
If you go to File > Properties, it will even confirm that the file is an AC3 Dolby Digital file.

Wish I knew this a few years ago! :rolleyes:

It won't be useful to everybody in every situation, but in certain workflows, this is a nice shortcut, to know you can open the AC3 without an initial re-encode to uncompressed WAV. May save you a step.

Works! Very good.

For some reason same hack doesn't work for me.
I tried it with SF9e and SF10b(474). I used VDubMod 1.5.10.2 to Demux/Savewav (it's same procedure as VDubMod cant decode ac3->wav) so i get two files with .ac3 or .wav extension respectively which differ in few bytes (different hash).
After i rename .ac3 by adding .wav to it but still neither of "".wav"" files cant be opened in SF (SF->File Open icon) [NOTE: An error occured while opening codec] and with ac3 file (before rename) [NOTE: The file could not be opened. Make sure the file exists and that you have access to file/folder] ac3->renamed to wav [NOTE: The file is in unsupported format]. Drag-n-drop is not supported in SF as it seems. Files are in 384kbit if that matters previously split into more files by VDM1.5.4.1

Is your AC3 two-channel (2/0) or six-channel (5/1) encoded? That may be the difference.

Also, newer versions of Sound Forge support AC3 Dolby Digital, so renaming the file may not be a good idea anymore, on these newer versions. You could always try to open it up in Goldwave, if you have that (and you should -- good audio program, very low-cost, good tool in your digital suitcase). Belight is another option.