the decades-old footage, which was originally shot on film
π€¦
You utter dipshits. If it was on film, then you had the fidelity to spare to upscale it in HD the normal way (by re-digitizing it). You didn't even need the goddamn AI!
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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Definitely. Assuming they kept the film and it's in serviceable condition.
But then you'd need access (and most likely licensing) to the original footage AND you'd need to find someone who even knows what 'film' is in the first place, with equipment and skills to use them. Not too difficult if you're in the business I'd assume, but you can just throw it on AI in an afternoon by an intern and call it a day.
And besides now they have option to market that as 'AI remaster' which I suppose sounds fancy to someone wearing a suit. Who cares about consumer experience anyways.
If it was on film, then you had the fidelity to spare to upscale it in HD the normal way (by re-digitizing it)
Yep. It's the reason The Original Series and The Next Generation got HD remasters, but Voyager and DS9 didn't. The latter two were shot on digital and so it wasn't possible, while the first two were shot on film.
I've seen fan-made AI upscale works that don't suck, but I expect cartoons benefit more from the technology than live action footage ever could.
I went through a phase of testing out Topaz AI upscale tools on videos. Ultimately I didnβt like the results, as impressive as they are you always end up with some hallucinations ruining details.
The exception is cartoons. They upscale really well.
Iβve watched most of DS9 upscaled. And it was an improvement for sure. I never noticed anything strange like these examples.
But I also donβt think the upscaling/cleanup was this aggressive.
Yeah, I don't know what they did, how or from what source material.
You can get less artifacty AI upscaling in real time on a mid-size PC these days.
AI upscale generally gives a perceived improved fidelity at a loss of some finer detail and grain. It is a trade off and it is almost never a objective improvement
I was similarly thinking of the Voyager upscale I have that's actually quite good!
Yeah, most of the open source models that do the upscaling were meant for anime waifus. Also, cartoons don't often have things out of focus in a frame like live action does.
I've tried upscaling an old cartoon from 1080p to 4k using some open source models and it worked quite well. However when I tried to add frames with interpolation, it added a bunch of frames that were quite horrific, especially during quick movements.
I also tried to upcale a 90s live action class so I could see some of the details the instructor was showing. It was not near as good and even without frame interpolation, there were a bunch of new artifact glitches that were added so I didn't keep that version.
Yeah I can see that.
I don't see the point of watching upscaled version of an old TV show. It ruins the atmosphere. It's like playing the NES version of Tetris on an emulator and using HD textures for some reason.
Also if you'd want to upscale it anyway, why not provide source material and allow customers to use any upscaler they want?
Also if you'd want to upscale it anyway, why not provide source material and allow customers to use any upscaler they want?
Because Upscaling is incredibly resource hungry. You can't do it on a 250β¬ "smart" TV with the calculation equivalent of a raspberry pi 2.
And then, sunk cost fallacy goes brrrrr.
And in a very real way, if youβre allowing customers access to source material so they can programmatically manipulate it at a time that online services are rapidly enshittifying, itβs contrary to their business goals. A ripper that upscales is probably trivially easy to use.
And plus, who knows what a client upscaler will hallucinate across multiple models and technology platforms. (Or may be intentionally configured to do.)
No one wants to have to explain to grandpa why all the faces in Dukes of Hazzard have been replaced by glans because he got a meme upscaler.
all the faces in Dukes of Hazzard have been replaced by glans
This better not awaken anything in me.jpeg
It would probably look better with an emulated CRT filter including scanlines; giving the appearance of the type of TVs they originally were made for.
This is an interesting option that I'm surprised hasn't made the jump from games to other media.
Admittedly they are different challenges. Games were half-res but progressive scan, video was interlaced. But hey, in the gaming world we're at the point of adding high refresh support to emulate the CRT scan flicker. I can see a world where you create this high res 120Hz picture to simulate a shadow mask and interlaced output on modern TVs. Probably alongside a raw pixel option and an upscaled option, no reason to do just one other than storage space.
I see the appeal for things like this. Taking pretty low quality, 480i at best, and making it presentable on modern TVs.
That said, AI isn't anywhere close to doing this well. Better to have original than some poorly upscaled crap.
You have to start somewhere and make it better from there as you go
Yea, but you don't have to release it.
You do to get that sweet sweet VC cash!
Expected OP. The results are expected.
Without the original to compare, I can't say with certainty, but it isn't exceptionally bad and I don't think most folks will notice except for the small written words like her door plaque. In motion, the letters kind of...vibrate.