What is "libdca"

libdca (formerly libdts) is a free library for decoding DTS Coherent Acoustics streams. It is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License license, and is developed by Gildas Bazin of the VideoLAN team. The library is based on the DTS Coherent Acoustics standard ( ETSI 102 114 v1.2.1).

The library is used in VLC media player and is able to decode DTS audio tracks from DVDs. It can also decode DTS files (.dts) directly, as well as DTS-WAV files (.wav). libdca is able to decode DTS-ES streams as well, however can only decode the standard 6 channels as the additional "Extended Surround" extensions (for Matrix and 6.1 Discrete) require ES Extensions to the codec.

libdca comes packaged with a small proof of concept decoder dcadec (formerly dtsdec). This program is able to decode DTS audio streams into stereo WAV or into a single multichannel WAV, as well as being able to be played back through the sound card.