When I’ve compared TVEAI in the past to solutions like DVDFab, TVEAI continues to come out well ahead.īe advised that TVEAI is still a work in progress.
The one piece of paid software this job relies on is Topaz Video Enhance AI.
Because not everyone does, I’ll be publishing additional tutorials with advice on how to create a still-improved version of the show without requiring the same amount of GPU and CPU horsepower in the future. This is a one-stop “best fit” line, but it’s a good best-fit line if you’ve got the horsepower for it. This guide explains how to create the highest-quality version of Deep Space Nine I currently know how to create without requiring any frame-by-frame or scene-by-scene editing. While this method is not absolutely perfect - if you zoom in, you’ll see Topaz creates some subtle blue lines around the logo that don’t exist by default - but the low-visibility error (especially at an 8-foot watch distance on a TV) is far outweighed by the degree of improvement. From the beginning, I’ve promised that once I figured out a reliable enough method of performing this task to feel as if I could recommend it, I would do so. As I’ve said previously, my work is not an excuse or justification for pirating Deep Space Nine.īecause this is a tutorial, we’ll spend less time discussing the overall project and more time on the nuts and bolts of how you can perform this work yourself. Achieving this level of quality requires the original DVDs and the same results are unlikely to be achieved if other sources are used. It is far ahead of any real-time method of improvement that I’m currently aware of. The quality jump is not small.īut while the DS9 Upscale Project does not represent what Deep Space Nine would look like in native 720p, 1080p, or 4K, it represents the highest overall image quality I have achieved in 16 months of work. Season 1-3 Credits versus Season 6 credits (upscaled): This is a comparison between the upscaled version of the same shot. The resized DVD Season 6 credits look better than the upscaled Season 2 credits in the shot below. This shot shows two resized shots from the credits - one from Season 2 and one from Season 6, and it illustrates just how much the Deep Space Nine DVD quality improved over time. Season 1 – 3 Credits versus Season 6 credits (resized): This shot isn’t between an upscaled version and a resized image. Again, this is the result of the base footage, not the upscaler. resized runabout: The upscale does nothing to harm the image, but it doesn’t exactly help much, either. There’s not enough detail to upscale in the first place.
resized station: This shot shows how marginal some of the improvements are, due to problems with the underlying footage. Resized shots have been put through AviSynth to extract progressive frames but have not been processed with QTGMC. “Resized” images are from the original DVD, blown up to 2560×1920 to compare against upscaled shots. I’m going to use an online tool to create easy comparison shots - unfortunately, I can’t embed its output in-page. Improved color grading would undoubtedly help, but Seasons 1 & 2 look more like VHS tapes than DVD. I am willing to tolerate these acknowledged flaws in the DS9 Upscale Project because nobody I know of has had better luck repairing them. I can only assume that whoever created the Season 1 & 2 DVDs really hated DS9’s pre-Dominion storyline because that holodeck background made it to disc with all the clarity of a mid-70s Playboy shoot. The shot of Jake Sisko fishing on the holodeck in Emissary was done with a green screen whose detail transferred very poorly. Some of Deep Space Nine’s early special effects, especially external station shots and the credits, are in very poor condition on the DVD. While these can be improved, they still begin from a much lower baseline and benefit less. Seasons 1 & 2 are much worse than the rest of the show. Anyone who promises you a “4K” version of Deep Space Nine has smuggled film out of the studio and acquired some serious VFX chops or is talking up a resolution quality they can’t actually deliver.Īdditionally, Deep Space Nine’s seasons are of highly variable quality.
That’s 37.5 percent as many pixels as a frame of 720p (1280×720) and 4.1 percent as many pixels as a frame of 4K content. Native DVD frames of Deep Space Nine are 720×480.
Upscaling can only improve detail that already exists unless you use an approach that seeks to generate new detail - and I haven’t. The reason I don’t call this version of DS9 “DS9 4K” or even “DS9 HD” is because this isn’t HD-quality footage and nothing I’ve learned in the past 16 months can change that.
Why I Don’t Use Terms Like HD, UHD, or 4K