Decoding Quality Explained: Best, Optimized or Faster

Each deliverable config includes a Source Decoding Quality setting that is Optimized by default. This tells CORTEX which decoding or debayering setting to use. Because each camera format has slightly different options and you wouldn’t want to have to adjust this setting for each camera in your Project, CORTEX offers a simplified set of three options.

But what do each of the settings mean?

Optimized is the default because it balances speed and quality by selecting the decode setting closest to (but larger than) the target output resolution. So, for example, RED Dragon 6k (6144x3072) footage would be decoded to a 1080p H.264 (1920x1080) at Half resolution, but decoding to a 720p (1280x720) would be done at Quarter resolution.
Faster increases the speed of decoding by using the setting one step down from Optimized.
Best always uses the highest quality decoding option, at the sacrifice of speed.

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