Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
While the popular Original Series and The Next Generation were mostly shot on film, the mid 90s DS9 had its visual effects shots (space battles and such) shot on video.
While you can rescan analog film at a higher resolution, video is digital and can't be rescanned. This makes it much costlier to remaster this TV show, which is one of the reasons why it hasn't happened.
This is where neural networks could come in, I thought. With tools like AI Gigapixel, I knew it might be possible the low definition frames of DS9 can be scaled up to a higher definition such as 1080p or 4K. It would never be the same as proper remastering, but it would a step in the good direction.
So I tried my hand at frame or two, to see what it could do. The results were great. AI Gigapixel uses neural networks trained on real photos. So while it did okay with upscaling the video game renders of Final Fantasy, it did amazing upscaling real-life footage and the bigger budget CGI effects of DS9.
Source: https://captrobau.blogspot.com/2019/03/remastering-star-trek-deep-space-nine.html
(Score: 1) by ensigndna on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:22AM (2 children)
While an improvement over the original in some ways, it's clear that it's been altered and has a certain synthetic quality to it that I find displeasing.... colors, shading, motion, everything is just a little off....
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:28AM
Yeah, but it's some random guy rather than a commercial entity here. I'd expect putting more talent, money, and effort into the project would show better results, which was kind of his point.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Wednesday March 20 2019, @01:35AM
So it would fit in perfectly with every other modern show on TV. :P
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:37AM (4 children)
How does it do on 70s porn?
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:40AM (3 children)
We have top men working on it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @01:57AM
People always forget them, but the bottoms are doing their part.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday March 20 2019, @03:21AM (1 child)
Who?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @04:02AM
Top. Semen.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Wednesday March 20 2019, @01:33AM (9 children)
Really, forget about DS9 and re-do Babylon 5. Noticed they have been re-airing B5 on the new Comet channel and caught a few episodes. Basically every shot with digital effects was badly blurred because the only source they had was the original analog video.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @01:40AM
The Babylon 5 widescreen/HD version story is much more complicated and depressing than you imagine. :-(
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday March 20 2019, @03:03AM (6 children)
Two things:
1. Babylon 5 has 1080p widescreen shots of all the live action scenes in its film archives, but the CGI is rendered at TV ratio.
2. Babylon 5 needs cgi that looks like something other than vomit soaked blobs.
That requires more than just pixel interpolation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @05:10AM (5 children)
B5's effect look like some con-tier animation school reject's final project by today's standards.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by coolgopher on Wednesday March 20 2019, @05:34AM (4 children)
Who cares about the effects? The story still holds up. As relevant as ever, I must say.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday March 20 2019, @01:30PM (3 children)
Hear, hear. I'd love to see a release with re-rendered graphics, but if it's a choice between the original version, or something modern whose great CGI has to carry the show? B5, hands down.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @05:02PM (2 children)
Yes, we should get George Lucas to work on the special edition immediately. It could use random dinosaurs walking around in every scene.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Thursday March 21 2019, @12:42AM (1 child)
/facepalm
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 21 2019, @03:35AM
Meesa wanna fighta the shadows.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @12:57PM
There's already been an attempt made for Babylon 5.
Having obtained it through the usual sources, I found it to be remarkably well done, given the limitations of the source material.
Yes, you can tell it's been done, and there are a few telltale glitches, but it makes it watchable on a modern 1080p screen compared to the interlaced hell of the badly mastered DVDs (which I spent a considerable amount on all those years ago).
I would spend another considerable amount on a new re-rendered Blu Ray set if it came out. I'm not holding my breath waiting, however.
-Sad Fanboy
(Score: 4, Funny) by ikanreed on Wednesday March 20 2019, @03:05AM (2 children)
It's a faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @03:35AM
I can tell from seeing a few of the pixels and from seeing quite a few AI productions in my time.
(Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday March 20 2019, @02:58PM
IT'S REAL! [youtube.com]
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @05:27AM (3 children)
I didn't notice a difference in the sample images he showed, but I'd be interested how long it takes Paramount to come after him and nail a C&D on his ass.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday March 20 2019, @07:44AM (2 children)
The 2 pictures look exactly the same on my iPhone X. What a Nothing Burger!!!
(Score: 2, Interesting) by shrewdsheep on Wednesday March 20 2019, @09:43AM (1 child)
Here comes free advice: take a page out of his book. Pretend you do something but really don't. It's a free burger! You are doing great on the wall: spouting all around but doing nothing. Just extend this concept to your other actions and you will be loved even by the liberals.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @06:33PM
You can see the difference if you look at it on a real monitor or large tv screen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @01:42PM
Films are supposed to be enjoyed in their retro crustiness. That's part of the charm. Admire the parts that do look good and chuckle at the ones that don't.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 20 2019, @04:24PM (2 children)
It bothers me a lot that he didn't aspect correct the images. Notice how in the image of the baseball it is not circular, but rather is slightly oval shaped.
DS9 is 4:3 and is stored on the DVD in anamorphic format, which means the pixels are not square. But basically everyone[*] uses computer monitors with square pixels. For correct display on a monitor with square pixels the original 720x480 image should have 8 pixels cropped off each side (to make 704x480) and then the image should be stretched to a 4:3 pixel size (e.g., 704x528 or 1440x1080 or 1600x1200).
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday March 20 2019, @07:18PM (1 child)
You did a footnote star after “basically everyone” but didn't add the corresponding footnote.
My guess is that you wanted to refer to the 1280x1024 mode which AFAICT is the most recent common computer graphics mode with non-square pixels (it's displayed 4:3, but the pixel ratio is 5:4).
Did I guess right?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @03:52PM
I wrote a spiel about the anamorphic 21:9 video modes added in HDMI 2.0 which brings the non-square-pixel world of pain into the modern era. But it ended up too ranty so I removed it but failed to remove the footnote marker.
This was true on 4:3 CRTs, but 1280x1024 LCD PC monitors typically (always?) had square pixels. This was by far the most common size of LCD monitors sold in the mid naughties, before 16:9 displays took over.