LDAC (codec)

Digital audio encoding technology From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LDAC (codec)

LDAC (Lossless Digital Audio Codec) is a proprietary audio coding technology developed by Sony, which allows streaming high-resolution audio over Bluetooth connections at up to 990 kbps at 32 bits/96 kHz. It is used by various products, including headphones, earphones, smartphones, portable media players, active speakers, and home theaters.

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LDAC
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Developed bySony
Type of formatAudio codec
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The encoder of LDAC is open-source under Apache License 2.0, so that any device can be coded to transmit LDAC streams without patent or licensing issues. The decoder design remains proprietary.

Audio coding

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LDAC is an alternative to Bluetooth SIG's SBC codec. Its main competitors are Huawei's L2HC, Qualcomm's aptX-HD/aptX Adaptive and the HWA Union/Savitech's LHDC.[1]

LDAC utilizes a type of lossy compression[2][3] by employing a hybrid coding scheme based on the modified discrete cosine transform[4] and Huffman coding[5] to provide more efficient data compression. By default, LDAC audio bitrate settings are set to Best Effort, which switches between discrete bitrate steps (CBR) 330/660/990 kbps depending on connection strength;[6] however, audio bitrate and resolution can be manually adjusted on Linux (when using PipeWire[7]), some Android platforms (which generally requires access to the "Developer Settings" menu), and Sony's own smartphones and Walkman devices at the following rates; 330/660/990 kbps at 96/48 kHz and 303/606/909 kbps at 88.2/44.1 kHz with depth of 32, 24 or 16 bits.[6]

Starting from Android 8.0 "Oreo", LDAC is part of the Android Open Source Project, enabling every OEM to integrate this standard into their own Android devices freely.[5][8] The encoder library is open source and the implementation for Linux is already present in bluez-alsa,[9] pulseaudio-modules-bt,[10][11] and in PipeWire's bluez5 module.[12][13] It is available on Fedora since Fedora 29.[14] However the decoder library is proprietary, so receiving devices require licenses.[15]

On 17 September 2019, the Japan Audio Society (JAS) certified LDAC with their Hi-Res Audio Wireless certification.[16] As of June 2024, the codecs certified by the JAS to bear the Hi-Res Audio Wireless logo are LHDC, LDAC, SCL6, LC3plus, SHDC, and aptX Adaptive.[17]

See also

References

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