Thanks for shouting it out!
Screenshots – DS9: Redefined (wordpress.com)
Note that I love sliders, especially going back and forth left and right rapidly like a caffeinated ferret...
Pic1: Dax. Color fidelity looks great, especially skin tones. Since this did come from videotape, there's still a chance of slight color inaccuracy compared to the original film source where consistency is greater right out of the blue (no pun intended). As an aside, one thing I've seen, which goes back to the days of PowerDVD 17 or so, is how the color gamut is fairly easy to improve - with a slight risk of crush or bloom, but keep in mind that PowerDVD 17 is very old and on hardware that was only so fast. I'm up to v22 and using its color enhancement, have seen improvements in real time processing with less bloom or crush... but using the slider to look for new sharpness - it's not there. The eyes already look sharp and the hair isn't any sharper.
Pic2: DS9 from ship main viewer: Brightness/contrast brings out a lot. I do see sharpness along the pylon, especially the front/right-most. This would be a hard match against a 35mm restoration, which I would love to see as this would accord an opportunity to see how far upscaling technologies have come.
Pic3: Dax/Sisko/
Ebert Odo. Comm badges, uniforms, et al, still look pasty. I'm surprised most by the lack of detail and residual softness in the comm badges. The light sources show more depth due to brighter brights and contrasty bits that look genuine, apart from one of the largest rectangles where two horizontal stripes no longer appear in the "after" - it's a small tradeoff, and a 35mm restoration would still have the detail that was erroneously excised in the upscaling AI (it's a tricky process and balance for sure...). Odo seems more blobby in the "after" shot too. But whatever software is being used really does an amazing number on color. The "after" red looks authentic. The washed out purple-red from before is a giveaway screaming "Hi there, I'm shot on videotape, want some tea?" That aside, Odo and Sisko look a little oversaturated. Not by too much and is just shy of the side of "feels authentic" as there is supposed to be some ambient glow.
Pic4: Defiant. Sweeeeeeeeet. It's still CGI, but the sharpness of NX-74205 (surely not an in-joke to 742 Evergreen Terrace, from season 05 of the Simpsons that's probablty someone's favorite?
) and hull plating stand out positively. The red stripe closest to the blue engine now looks a little "too clean", but it's a tradeoff considering the sharpness of the hull plating shown below it, which looks far better in the "after" side. The left nacelle almost has light bloom from over-contrasting, but no matter how I could nitpick, the "after" result is a decided WIN. Oh yeah, the funny part is how the upscaler toned DOWN the background stars in the lower/right corner - the spatial geometry is really well done here, especially for an in-motion shot (at a decent velocity too, based on the stars' motion blur). Hell, I'd be more than ecstatic if DS9 had a film restoration for the live action stuff and port over upscaled f/x shots. Especially when it came to the wardrobes of Quark and other alien races, an upscale job would be insulting to the time and effort put into some of sci-fi's all-time best costuming and make-up jobs.
Pic5: The
7th Doctor Who opening titles sequence wormhole: I'm going to check to see if they have this opening shot in the video section. Oh my giddy uncle. The pixelization in "before" is atrocious. The "after" version just reminds how good the original f/x was, even in low-res. I'm used to B5 being A-OK and DS9 was great right out of the gate, but I really like this. I also like how the yellow glow in the middle has some bloom, but used to positive effect. If anything, Defiant looks a little over-sharpened, but it's not major and the wormhole is beyond gorgeous. As a whole,. "after" is another major WIN.
Pic6: Opening title. Did they use Topaz Video AI? The text almost screams it. As always, the "before" shot looking jagged and all is nicely handled with the MPEG smoother and I've no doubt some deinterlacing was done beforehand, and deinterlacing can be a huge pain in the rumproast...
Pic7: Weyoun and his backup singers. (as always, I'm not googling names, what I remember I will say outright) Yeah, blocky compression artifacting is simply GONE and it's lovely. Color would give me a double-take instantly, but doing the left/right check, there's not much detail. Weyoun does have some facial affects more pronounced, but not by major leaps and bounds. True 35mm would reveal a ton more for all characters and props and sets, regardless if they're in focus or not. Oddly, the blue/black console behind the Jem H'adar on the left looks more detailed in "before", mostly due to glow "perceived" by the upscaler combined with mpeg block artifacting removal. It's impressive how the algorithms were designed, since even the soft blob look isn't too much a detriment, although 35mm would bring out a ton of genuine detail all around and not render anything a soft-focus blob that wasn't intended to be. It's still an array of algorithms in sequential process...
Pic8: Zomberella. I can't place the episode or character name, but the color extrapolation is on point. Details and sharpness - virtually nil.
Pic9: Keiko and Kira. Is this a trick question? "After" has the 5000k CCFL glow replaced with 3000k as the whole image looks unusually and artificially warm. Skin tones are good, Keiko may be oversaturated, but her outfit is as close to authentic in hue as I recall from a 35mm photo I'd seen a few thousand years ago... her outfit definitely has more detail extrapolated from the original 480i shot. But the ambient lighting... "before" wins that category, and notice the light bloom introduced in the light behind Keiko. This is where true 35mm would also truly shine, no pun intended.
Videos – DS9: Redefined (wordpress.com)
(Woohoo! I didn't misread the top navbar menu!)
Just one video. Before then after slides in automatically. It's harder to analyze, but the opening text is a definite improvement - as if it has to be said. Moiré is gone and I'd probably have to zoom in to see defects in the application of curves based on the original text's anchor points and arc/fill-in processes added.
0:13 in. Color is an improvement, but a freeze-frame still reveals SD limitations. Is Locutus' oufit created by a wax mannequin manufacturing company? The extrapolated detail, especially on the borg on the right, is a positive, but this still looks very blurry when frozen. It's better, but take a full frame 1080P shot of this and compare next to a 35mm cel of the same frame and the 35mm will blow it away, of that I am still certain.
Now I see where some of the other screencaps came from, hehe. But the moiré is still there. Surely a pass with any chroma cleaner to reduce that moiré even further might help?
0:22 Borg cube's moiré effect in the "before" is clearly bad. "After" has less of the unwanted glitter but cuts off a little too soon (so a freeze-frame helps still reveal plenty still exists), but even a 35mm of the cube wouldn't look as jaggy and overly sharpened in spots post-process.
0:25 shows off Jake and great contrast range fixing. Not much in the way of sharpness one would see, however.
0:27 the "after" image looks jagged and grainy, but that fourletterwordingly bad moiré is gone. The 480i deinterlaced source is still too obvious, and there's some haloing in DS9's windows as well. Okay, obviously a full 35mm restoration of this would look tons better, but the f/x upscaled is still an improvement. But live action given full restoration and melded with upscaled CGI would still be less expensive overall and with a far net greater effect.
0:36 eyebrow dude's eyebrows are definitely more defined. But he's a giant close-up.
0:38 Quark. Color based on the VT looks good. Sharpness is extrapolated as shown in the clothing, but compare it to a comparable 35mm cell and it's no contest at all.
0:41 Odo. Contrast/color ramp. Background green, meh. Brooch and uniform texture... some piping has some faux detail added, but it's still meh.
0:47 matte planet. Artificial warmth added. The nature of the artwork (as well as CGI) makes it easier to imbue sharpness, like converting a raster image into vector to map out where to implant detail, which isn't a perfect process when you look at newspapers, certain verbiage plaques on buildings, and so on.
0:58 Dr Finn and Sisko at the beach. Colors ramped up, some introduced sharpness (that still looks a little jaggy on freeze-frame). Gonna say a 35mm cel of this would toast the upscale royally.
1:03 Bashir/Kira/Dax/Sisko. Looks like a good color balance of warm and cool light sources and improved skin, costume and set tones... but that's about it. Apart from the massive haloing problem with Bashir's hand, which is awful. Don't these packages use dehalo algorithms? Even then, that runs the risk of turning anything approaching a visible hand into a blob. This is where 35mm would cremate, sauté, cremate some more, burn, fry, and toast this upscale. I'm pretty sure we'd see more realistic fabric and hair detail on all of them in 35mm too.
Another giveaway is to watch the video at 480 size after watching in 1080. Real 35mm shrunken down would still look sharper. That's easily proven from existing releases of other shows remastered vs original.
Yeah, the f/x shots are improved and impress the most and most consistently. Live action, not so much and not consistently so.
