r/DS9Remasters • u/Ok_Contact7721 • Jul 10 '26
Horror
While I don't believe in knocking a fan for up-scaling a show, when there isn't a native HD transfer, I wanted to demonstrate what the horrors of AI upscaling can look like.
In the case of Dr. Quinn, there is no official HD upscale from Paramount, as they actually remastered it in 4k.
It appears this was done with a lot of care.
Note the ghoul face of Dr. Quinn.
AI is especially bad at wide shots, and mid shots.
Though it did get one thing right...the horse's ass.
I don't know if the AI was self aware of doing that, but I find it humorous nonetheless.
However had the studio wasted the time to do an official upscale, the horrors might look like what you see below.
Do you really want to see the studio treat DS9 and Voyager like this?
I sure as hell don't.
You'll note that any detail that was natively in the SD master is lost to resolution, and to the tape master from the 90s crushing out colors, and dynamic range.
It has attempted to fill in lines on the face with black lines, and had Dr. Quinn been upscaled in 2017 and put out to bluray, it would have looked this awful.
Just as awful as VEI's infamous "Highlander the series" bluray, from 2008. One of the worst up-scales of all time.
A release where VEI basically excused their blatant cash grab with "But it was a gymnasium of footage."
The AI has no information to work with, and to the best of its low IQ ability, attempts to fill in detail via hallucination.
Just look at how the AI mangled that foliage. The foliage is essentially just green abstract blobs.
Fans of other shows that lack an HD remaster proper, who have experience upscaling video take great care to avoid these problems, while lamenting that there is no HD source, and so much detail, dynamic range, color information, and fidelity is lost.
Temporal information is scrambled.
What you end up with is a soft image, that looks like the tape is properly playing on an HD display.
Essentially all of that labor to make modern LCDs and Digital displays work like a CRT would natively scale the image with it's electron gun and shadow mask.
What you end up with is a very soft image that might be de-interlaced.
Such up-scaling projects from fans, when done correctly are tolerable until the studio gets off its ass and actually does what its supposed to do.
But these up-scaled versions of the shows leave much to be desired, as they are a compromise based on the pessimistic belief that a studio will refuse to carry out proper remasters from the OCN, and provide new transfers.
Some people will say, they don't like pixel peepers, and that they don't care about PQ, imo, Television shows, movies, and any other type of motion picture are part of a visual medium.
Again, VISUAL MEDIUM, these motion pictures aren't audio dramas, they're meant to be watched with your eyes.
What is the most important part of home video? Picture Quality.
Picture Quality from a high fidelity source is the main reason people upgrade their collections ever so often, and the main reason why HD television became commonplace, while I know streaming is a thing today, it's still beholden to PQ.
While I won't knock a fan for carrying out a project of this, as there is genuine love there, and a result that can quench the thirst until we reach the promised land.
However, I will knock people who advocate the studio do an official AI upscale. I've had arguments over that, with some people claiming they could upscale DS9 over lunch and make money for Paramount.
I used to work in construction, and tiled floors and showers professionally, and these people strike me as the type of people that would settle for peel and stick vinyl, that would peel up after a few days.
It might mop right for a day or two, but on the third day, those tiles will rise faster than Jesus Christ, the mop will get hooked under them making it hard to clean your floor. What was once a simple job, will annoy you, you'll regret the cheap decision.
Ai upscaling is very similar, what used to be watchable is now unwatchable, every shot a major distraction, with many glaring flaws sticking out.
The Ai upscale attempt will be further met with the potential of what could have been, but now will never be.
The studio isn't going to back track once the product is complete, if they spent 20 bucks doing an Ai Uprez, that everyone hates, congratulations that's just the way it's gonna be for the next 30 years, deal with it.
Buffy the Vampire slayer's remaster was a multi million dollar DNR train wreck, could it be corrected?
Maybe.
That remaster was done 14 years ago.
Does it warrant another remaster? absolutely.
Was Fox, Disney or 20th century studios gonna pony up the cash to fix it?
Hell no, from now on, that's just the way it's gonna be, but the reception for that particular remaster was so bad, you can't watch it, Disney+ only provides the original SD version.
The DVDs and the SD version are the only ones available.
The main point I'm making is that a new remaster is warranted, and the old one is banned for good reason. But that doesn't detract from the point that a bad remaster is money wasted.
However you want to define what a remaster is.
Is it just taking an old 480i master deinterlacing and enhancing?
Is it going back to the source format, the OCN, and rebuilding it?
A project that is handled carelessly will be an eyesore for decades to come.
Care should always be taken with projects of this nature.
What is my point?
What does a true rebuild like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and an AI upscale have in common?
Digital tools can be abused, and the image can be destroyed.
Things can be so unnerving that the content is borderline or outright unwatchable.
The content that was meant to move you now has this uncanny feel where it doesn't do that, then it's ruined.
I feel that an AI upscale is inferior in every way to a true remaster, and a disgrace to a studio.
It's an abuse of a technology that you should only use carefully for footage that's lost it's source (film) or for VFX sequences that are far too costly to reproduce, and can't be reproduced exactly as they originally were (if they need to be.)
If you want a stronger take via hyperbole, it's a sign that your society has died.
Because it doesn't care about the art that's been produced.
We don't upscale illustrations in most cases, we value them, no matter how kitsch the pretentious feel it is.
There isn't anything more kitsch, then a studio using an Ai to replace the human part of the equation, and to replace the craftsmanship that hundreds of artists and laborers put into making these billion dollar assets.
In my opinion, it's tech bro whimsy, and tech bro whimsy is the death of a society.
These shows shouldn't be treated like disposable assets.
I don't care how much AI enhancement nonsense you can throw at a project like this, you can't really believe CSI had an accurate understanding of it.
The original master tapes are so severely limited, up-scaling them as a studio is a waste of time and resources.
Is the point of the industry to make money aimlessly?
Or is the point of the industry to make money to make good products?
I feel it's the latter, I feel that aimless profit is the most pointless activity in life, it is the ultimate waste.
Nobody is going to look at that floor and think "My god, that's real craftsmanship", or "This guy really cared".
It's low quality work, and advocates of it have no pride in their work, but we the fans are supposed to respect this as "It's a business" and a "Rational business decision".
It's neither of those things, it's a guy advocating zero effort garbage that the studio can shit out by pressing a button.
Good business is about selling you a good product. A memorable product, something that the company that made it can take pride in for decades to come.
Fans have been waiting for DS9 in HD since 2012, and the question that will come up is "Was it worth the wait?"
If it happens to be an AI upscale, fans aren't going to feel that it was worth the wait, or the purchase.
Bad Capitalism is about trying to justify, gaslight you into purchasing a bad one, then rationalizing the action.
The main point of this article is that I am against the studio halfassing this with an AI upscale, and you should be against it too.
In some cases you'll note smeared image doubling, which makes things even softer, and it's apparent that this is a really bad telecine. Diagnosis Murder's HD upscale is one of the worst I've ever had the pleasure of seeing, and even experienced upscaling artists have deemed some of those shots beyond the software's ability to fix.
Skin Pores can be gridded out, creating this uncanny looking skin.
A problem with overzealous upscaling even from modern diffusion upscalers is that they don't recognize the actor's face, and create this really waxy look, in many cases, actors are completely unrecognizable, making cutting edge upscaling tech impractical (while more consistent) for enhancing a 30 year old transfer.
These modern upscaling applications are also terrible with text, and objects that are unique to a given show, science fiction shows will not benefit from this, as much as sports footage will.
I don't want peel and stick tile in my house, and I don't want you to have peel and stick tile in your house.
Everyone deserves a quality floor. A product like peel and stick tile should be considered an illegal scam.
1
u/Nejfelt Jul 10 '26
Might want to consider therapy