Spectrum H3 Objective Media Stage (One-Shot / Full Media)

This is the smallest node in the Spectrum H3 pack and it does exactly one thing: takes a decoded IMAGE batch (plus optional AUDIO) and hands it back as a SPECTRUM_H3_OBJECTIVE_MEDIA object staged on CPU. That's it. No metrics, no verdicts, no report files - it's a plumbing helper for the pack's one-shot quality-compare path.

What it's for

The compare nodes in this pack work off decoded media. Spectrum H3 Objective Media Stage is the "move one decoded result to CPU and package it" step that feeds the staged compare:

decoded IMAGE (and AUDIO) -> Spectrum H3 Objective Media Stage -> staged_media
staged_media -> Spectrum H3 Objective Staged Quality Compare

You need one Stage node per branch, so three branches means three of these feeding the one compare node. That's the entire job.

Why you might skip it

The pack is refreshingly blunt about this node: it's a one-shot three-branch helper, it retains full decoded media, and it is not recommended for normal sequential R/A/B testing. "Full media" at H3 resolutions means several GiB of float video sitting in CPU RAM per branch. The recommended benchmark path uses Spectrum H3 Objective Media Capture (Sequential - Bounded) instead, which reduces each clip to a tiny float16 analysis surface and never holds the full-resolution decoded video. So this Stage node is the right tool only when you've deliberately decided to run the heavyweight one-shot compare in a single execution.

Inputs and output

Required input is video (IMAGE). Optional input is audio (AUDIO) - feed it if the branch produced audio and you want it carried through to the comparison. Output is a single staged_media socket of type SPECTRUM_H3_OBJECTIVE_MEDIA, which is the exact type the staged quality-compare node expects on its reference_media, legacy_media, and candidate_media inputs. If a staged object carries audio, the compare picks it up automatically.

Gotchas

• Staged media is just a handle to CPU tensors; it doesn't persist to disk, so it only exists while the workflow execution is running. Wire Stage straight into the compare node in the same execution.
• If you're on a constrained machine, three of these holding full clips at once is exactly the memory profile the sequential path was built to avoid. Don't use this node to "be safe" - it's the opposite of safe on RAM.

It's a fine little node, honestly. Just make sure you're using it for the reason it exists, not because it was the first benchmark node you found.