SMPTE RDD 6-2008

Dolby Laboratories has developed a serial communication protocol that is used to transfer audio metadata between various products manufactured by Dolby. This document describes the types and function of the various metadata fields carried in the serial bitstream so that others interested in communicating with various Dolby® E and Dolby Digital audio codecs and associated equipment may do so.

Each metadata element is classified as either a Professional or Consumer type of metadata. The Reserved elements are meaningless to the user but must not be changed, and must be passed on to preserve the structure and timing of the bitstream. Each of the Professional or Consumer elements is further classified as either a Read Only or as a Read & Write element. Its function is described, and permissible operations on those elements are discussed.

Corrections to Tables 7-12, 7-13 and 7-14 made on March 6, 2009