Bluray (DVD MKV) authoring suite recommendations?

[serr]

The use of DTS-MA on bluray is becoming really standard. And it does cut the data size of the audio in half (like FLAC). I'm considering reluctantly joining the masses and playing along. (I was of the opinion in the lossy dts and dolby days that a disc not playing at all in an older machine was better than surround sound audio being run through the meatgringer that was lossy dts or dolby.)

Any recommended authoring suites? OSX please. (Or... I might consider Linux.)
I need the serious surround features first and foremost. The budget apps with all the surround features disabled are not an option.
I need:
DTS-MA encoder
Full control over header/metadata for "5.1" vs "5.1(side)" vs "6 channel". (And everything else too but you might know why I made this example!)
I'm focused on audio but the expected video features should be there too.

I feel like I have a lot of this covered with ffmpeg right now but something with a modern GUI and that wasn't bait and switch bs with feature sets would be welcome.

I know I can mux FLAC or ALAC to mkv along with video. That's great for computer based home theater. Which everyone should be doing... but everyone isn't yet! And then what about Windows users? So... thinking of finally giving in here!

 

[HDFan]

Out of curiosity what is the source that is going on the disk? Does the original have that high a quality?

Every reference I've seen to the lossless Blu-ray formats when I looked at it involved expensive encoding suites. Atmos, for example, is supported by Avid Pro Tools, Steinberg Nuendo, and Blackmagic Resolve according the the Dolby website.

Some old posts:

.DTS-HD to bluray? - Avid Pro Audio Community

.DTS-HD to bluray? Post - Surround - Video

duc.avid.com

DTS Inc. : DTS Alliance with Adobe Brings DTS High-Definition Audio to Adobe Creative Suite Users

DTS and Adobe Address Rising Demand Among Professionals for High-Definition Audio Authoring Tools ...

www.marketscreener.com

 

[serr]

Thanks for the reply!

Out of curiosity what is the source that is going on the disk?

Discrete 5.1 surround mixes. Either 24/48 or 24/96. Sometimes also stereo mixes as an additional audio stream. And of course a video of some kind. Mkv file creation is probably going to be the most used output format. As long as the mkv file comes out correct, I can always make a disc image. The comment above about correct header/metadata is important!

Does the original have that high a quality?

The "quality" I'm after first is proper channel format compatibility across any and all media players. Software players are 1st priority. Hardware players get what they get. Audio quality is simply 1:1 with the lossless formats.

Every reference I've seen to the lossless Blu-ray formats when I looked at it involved expensive encoding suites.

Yeah, that was my past experience. I'm a small time audio guy. I want to provide proper formats for the surround mix versions. I'm not a big movie house and the average customer still hasn't even heard of surround sound. So the budget is frugal. But it's important to me to provide for and push the format. Surround addict here! Last I looked the full features apps were selling for $1200 and all the "mom and pop" affordable apps pointedly had the surround sound feature support grayed out.
I've been using a mishmash of freeware like ffmpeg and various abandonware. Seemed about time to check up on things again.

Atmos, for example, is supported by Avid Pro Tools, Steinberg Nuendo, and Blackmagic Resolve according the the Dolby website.

I'm not really interested in the 3D formats like Atmos. Standard discrete 5.1 here. (And honestly... Smaller steps are needed. Let's get more people into 5.1 before we tell them they need to buy even more speakers and hang them from the ceiling! They'll just buy a shitbar and not even have decent mono sound! But I digress.)