This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

D7-DS9-Feature

Update (7/17/2021): The article below has been superseded by the results discussed in "Far Beyond the Stars" and the accompanying tutorial, "How to Upscale Star Expedition: Deep Infinite Nine." These articles are the latest that I've published and the all-time showcase for my latest piece of work.

My agreement of Deep Space Nine has evolved considerably over the 17 months I've worked on this project. Some of the early articles in this series contain factual errors that are corrected in later on articles. I have left these articles every bit they were originally published, merely data in the later stories is more authentic in sure regards. My early speculation on why DS9'due south quality varies and so much from season to season was inaccurate, for example.

If yous want to read the most recent stories, outset at the bottom of the list below.

  • Upscaling Star Expedition: Deep Space Ix Using Topaz Video Raise AI (you lot are here)
  • Deep Space Nine Upscale Project Update: 'Sacrifice of Angels'
  • Deep Space Nine Upscale Project Update: Variable Frame Rate DVDs Can Burn down in Hell
  • Deep Space Nine Upscale Projection Season Finale: What We've Brought Alee
  • Deep Space Ix Upscale Projection (DS9UP): Technical Goals and FAQ
  • DS9 Upscale Project Update: What I've Been Working On
  • What No Fan Has Seen Before: Remastering Deep Space Nine to Maximum Quality
  • Far Beyond the Stars: Improving Motion, Paradigm Quality in the DS9 Upscale Project
  • How to Upscale Star Expedition: Deep Space Nine

Original story beneath:

Last year, we covered 1 man's efforts to upscale Star Trek: Deep Infinite 9 using Topaz Gigapixel AI. If you've ever attempted to sentinel DS9 on Netflix or Amazon, you know  how hard information technology is to go a decent version of the bear witness. The version of DS9 that y'all can stream via online services sucks, to put it kindly. The streamed version of the show ranges from slightly worse to much worse than what you'd get from an MKV rip or original DVD. Even if y'all own the original DVDs, however, DS9'due south quality leaves much to be desired. Paramount has announced they have no intent to change this, considering the Blu-ray version of TNG didn't sell enough. Anyone who wants a ameliorate version of the show, therefore, is going to have to create it themselves.

In that location are a number of shows that were shot from the early on 1990s – early 2000s that didn't circulate in HD and were never upconverted to 720p or 1080p. If you dearest series like Babylon 5, Voyager, or Deep Space Nine, yous've had few-to-no options for a decent viewing experience… until now. Topaz Labs' new Video Enhance AI software ($299) uses bogus intelligence to upscale depression-resolution video in ways that can dramatically better on the original paradigm. I've spent the last few weeks taking the application for a exam drive. Note that GPU-accelerated scaling is apparently only available on Nvidia GPUs. I'll exist investigating how the software reacts in CPU-only scaling.

While Gigapixel AI can upscale content, there are actually multiple reasons non to use it for the task. The app volition not let you to load large numbers of images at once and in the past, information technology's had a bad habit of crashing every 500 – 600 frames. Considering there are roughly 66,000 frames in an episode, it looked as if improving DS9's prototype quality would require an absolutely insane amount of piece of work.

Upscale-In-Progress

Way of the Warrior upscaling in progress. Click all images to overstate.

So, a few weeks ago, Topaz released a new product, Video Heighten AI. Instead of literally unpacking a Television receiver testify into each private frame and so upscaling them one by ane, Video Enhance AI is designed to convert entire video files at once. Operation on a GTX 2080 is roughly 95 frames per minute, or approximately 1 episode every 10.5 hours. While this represents a non-trivial time commitment to rip several seasons, it's vastly better than Gigapixel AI'south demonstrated functioning. Whether GP produces better results or if these results can be farther enhanced via awarding of Topaz AI'south other software suites is something I intend to explore in greater item in hereafter manufactures. For at present, we're focusing on Topaz Video Enhance AI, specifically.

How Topaz Video Enhance AI Works

Topaz VE allows you to choose the quality level of your source from iii options: High Quality, Low Quality, and HQ-CGI. HQ-CGI boosts anti-aliasing in CGI scenes, and I as well ran some specific tests of this setting on the test episode I converted and volition be demonstrating today. On a show like Deep Infinite 9, you'll definitely want to use LQ — a 720×480 initial input is basically the poster-child for a low-quality upscale. If yous were trying to calibration 1080p video up to 4K or 8K, you'd want to utilise the HQ setting. The application has very few options beyond choosing your file output name, your desired level of upscaling (200 percent and 400 per centum were both tested hither), and what file format you want to output in. Choose your starting and ending frames, hit the button, and away you go.

Exist advised, even so, that Topaz Video Enhance AI isn't capable of passing audio to the newly encoded file in at least some cases. All of our exam encodes came out sans audio. We recombined the audio streams into the primary video file using FFMPEG.

How We Tested

I've performed all of my testing with MKV files I created from the DS9 boxed fix years ago. After seeing how this project came out, I actually intend to dust off my old DVDs (when I tin observe them) and try this projection directly on the DVD source itself. ExtremeTech does not endorse piracy or recommend stealing Deep Infinite Ix or any other telly show. If you're interested in this kind of upscaling, you should buy the DVDs. It's entirely possible you should do that anyway, given that the source volition almost certainly be a improve target for this kind of scaling.

I've performed a number of exam runs and gathered comparison data from HQ-CGI versus LQ, too as a wide range of Netflix – MKV – Upscaled comparisons at both the 2x and 4x scaling factors. I've also included a range of screenshots to show the benefit of increasing the default effulgence a bit even if the DVD source is all you lot take. And we've got some YouTube uploads for you, to testify the benefits of the upscaling using the DS9 credits.

Let's become started. For starters, here'due south the Defiant under attack in iii frames from "Fashion of the Warrior." These iii are not frame-matched identically, so focus on the compages and clarity of the ship, not the disruptor burn hitting it. This is Netflix, MKV, and 4x upscale, in that order. All images can be clicked to enlarge in a new window.

Update:The MKV and upscaled images were mistakenly switched. This has been fixed.

Netflix, in all its smeary glory. The phrase "USS Defiant" around the saucer edge looks more like a row of windows.

These were some of the first tests I did, and I was quite impressed with the results. Let's look at a larger cross-section of an episode. Click on each image to enlarge (and you lot'll want to, in order to see the caste of improvement).

Call to Arms Comparisons

All of the following screenshots and comparisons are taken from "A Call to Arms", the 26th episode of the fifth season. I've included both 200 percent and 400 percent comparison images in this collection to illustrate the trade-off from each size. The best residuum between visual quality and image size that I've seen is to upscale either 200 percent from the original DVD or to upscale 400 percent then sentinel the stream at one-half-size.

Plainly near of you are going to be reading this on monitors, not TVs, but I checked the output quality on a standard TV set too. If you're sitting at standard viewing distances, all of the versions look improve, simply the 400 pct upscale benefits the about. I'll call out which comparisons are 2x scaling and which are 4x scaling comparisons. All Netflix comparisons are at a single viewing resolution, because Netflix doesn't allow for resolution-based resizing.

I'g going to encompass image comparisons starting time, before I hit the video comparisons.

MKV versus 2x/4x Upscaling

Dom-Docked-Original

Weyoun docked at Deep Space Nine. MKV.

Weyoun docked at Deep Infinite Nine. 4x Upscale.

The amount of item recovered from this scene compared with the MKV is impressive. There's a smeary sort of vaseline expect to the MKV file that isn't nowadays in the upscaled version.

At merely 2x zoom, the original MKV doesn't look and so bad…

But the improvement in the upscale is still very impressive.

Video Heighten does strong piece of work with the starship battles in Deep Space Ix. The forepart of the Jem'Hadar battleship looks downright sharp. Compares 4x upscaling displayed at one:2 ratio to standard MKV displayed at 2x size.

Netflix versus MKV versus 4x Upscaling

DS9-Attack3-Netflix

This screenshot of Deep Space Nine under heavy fire is a poster child for why the Netflix version of the TV show deserves to be drug out into the street and shot. The entire frame is noticeably orangish-r (and these frames are matched — yous can tell by the exact position of the pieces of debris in the lower-correct-corner, within the fireball).

The MKV original dumps the reddish lighting and looks a scrap less blurred, fifty-fifty though it has the same base resolution. Color rest is improve.

DS9-Attack3-LQ

Our 4x upscale. The station and explosions both benefit enormously.

Side by side upwardly: A comparison of the aforementioned Jem'Hadar battlecruiser that serves every bit a affiche child for why the Netflix version of the TV show… wait. I already said that, didn't I?

Well, it's still deserved. Hither'southward Netflix.

DS9-Attack4-Netflix

Cheque the aliasing on the left fly of the battlecruiser. It looks similar it was rendered in Quake Two, which is impressive, considering DS9 is notwithstanding using models at this point in time.

DS9-Attack4-MKV

Here's the DVD. Much amend as far as the left-hand wing, and meliorate overall preservation of detail, but still not great compared with what nosotros'd want in a modern show.

DS9-Attack4-4x-Upscale

Much, much meliorate. Quite good, in fact. Alright. Nosotros've done two battle scenes — let's take a wait at how some of the character shots come out.

Weyoun's unctuous used-machine salesman vibe fabricated him a not bad grapheme foil for Gul Dukat. Netflix is still the blurriest pick of the lot, but the gap between information technology and the MKV file is much smaller than normal.

Here's the MKV file. Not much difference, though it's minimally clearer and doesn't have the weird color effect Netflix does.

Again, the upscale does a good chore of cartoon out subtle item in Weyoun's eyes and face. His jacket texturing is also much less blurry.

Improve Paradigm Quality by Bumping Brightness

The color reproduction in the Netflix version of DS9 is terrible and the MKV just isn't much meliorate, simply a small tap to effulgence can improve the situation, in my opinion — and this choice doesn't require whatever upscaling or processing time. Here'south the Netflix version, followed past an MKV screenshot.

Netflix. Slightly brighter, but less detail.

MKV file. Dim and rather poor-looking, but slightly more than detail.

Nudge brightness upwardly a chip in-role player, and y'all get this:

Rom — Actually Visible Edition. (season to taste)

Whether or not you consider this an improvement is in the eye of the beholder, but many DS9 episodes are much darker than I remember them being when I watched them the first time, and this tweak doesn't require anything merely a software player like VLC that supports information technology. Finally, here'southward the same image upscaled 400 per centum in Topaz VE.

Check his jacket texture compared with the epitome above.

I've likewise tossed a number of images into the slideshow below, with both space battles and additional characters. Check them out if you're curious. The slideshow does a overnice job of showing subtle improvements when it shifts from one image to the side by side. Each image can also exist clicked to open in a new window.

Opening Credits

If you lot'd similar to see what the opening credits to the testify look like when rendered in 200 percentage and 400 percent upscaling compared with the standard version, I've embedded YouTube links to all three below. Annotation that while the start link isn't mine and does look slightly worse than what you'd meet on Netflix, information technology'southward honestly pretty close. Brand sure to ready the second and 3rd links to 720p and 1080p, respectively. Both of these encodes were washed using the HQ-CGI mode.

The standard introduction. Full-screen for best comparison — and this is but very slightly worse than what is available on Netflix.

200 percent AI upscaling using the HQ-CGI preset instead of LQ. HQ-CGI yields better results on some special effects, though I'm still working out what the subtleties are. The 200 percent upscale is subtly different than the 400 percentage. Set to 720p for best comparison.

The 400 percentage upscale using HQ-CGI. Set to 2160p for best comparison.

Word and Analysis

If I'1000 being honest, the existing encode quality I'thousand seeing is about 80-85 per centum of where I'd like information technology to exist. I've already found myself wondering if some of Topaz AI's other tools might be deployed to perform some boosted mail-processing where it'south needed. The application struggles with graphics displayed on terminals or PADs, and I'm still testing to see if that can be resolved inside Topaz Video Enhance AI or not.

The MKV version. Obviously not everything from the mid-1990s has aged well.

This is one place where the upscaling effect *doesn't* improve image quality.

I'm not going to claim that upscaling like this simply makes Deep Space Nine await like information technology was shot in modern times. The color reproduction is bad in all cases and no matter how practiced an upscaling algorithm is, it'south still an upscaler — and therefore not the aforementioned equally having the original information via 35mm film. These are all fair complaints. There are still some places where I'chiliad hoping to clear upwardly these files further. But the output I've gotten is leaps and bounds ahead of the MKV versions I've got, andvastlyameliorate than the Netflix streams. I'm already planning to encode most of the show — I but want to meet how much additional improvement I can squeeze out showtime.

On a big-screen Idiot box, Deep Space Nine is barely watchable via Netflix or Amazon. The old MKV rips I did years ago aren't much better, which is one reason I'm going to render to original source for my next circular of tests. Merely while I may not take a perfect solution to present today, Topaz Video Enhance AI has taken the idea from "Maybe someday," to "Holy crap, this works now."

Depression quality source for DS9 is typically better than HQ source as far as I've seen, but I'yard still checking if HQ-CGI tin can exist spliced into an MP4 that uses LQ for everything else. I may also bank check Gigapixel again, merely to run into how the AI upscaling method compares, or if other Topaz Labs products tin can improve the final output farther.

Performance-wise, both AMD and Intel systems perform identically when y'all test using a GPU — the RTX 2080SEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce averaged between 95 – 105fpm (frames per minute). CPU encoding is 10x slower than GPU encoding, so I've simply begun testing that fashion. GPU encoding has a reputation for not being quite as skillful as CPU encode in applications similar Handbrake, but I haven't nevertheless seen evidence it's truthful in Topaz Video Enhance AI. Even if CPUs do requite better results, 9-10 frames per minute would mean 110 hours per episode. Even if the quality jump was dramatic, I'd only use the CPU for problem spots — the encode fourth dimension is just likewise long otherwise.

These software packages and techniques have significant applicability to shows beyond Star Trek. Series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer were converted for HD, but fans hated the way color balance and the xvi:ix conversion were both handled. Babylon five tin't be remastered due to massive rights entanglements and the destruction of its original avails, which means an upscale project like this would exist its all-time bet.

I intend to write more on this topic in the future, merely I hope y'all've enjoyed the preview. Topaz Video Raise AI and other Topaz products are available for 30-24-hour interval gratuitous trials, which is how I tested the awarding. You can too purchase it at the current introductory price of $199, down from $299 standard. If you're a serious cinephile who enjoys this kind of editing, information technology's worth it.

Now Read:

  • Fan Works to Remaster Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in 1080p HD, Using AI
    Offset Trailer Arrives for Upcoming Star Trek: Picard on CBS
    Astronomers Find Exoplanet In the Same Place as Star Trek's Vulcan