However, the 2020 upscale movement also highlighted the limitations of AI. Because the software is essentially hallucinating detail based on patterns, it occasionally struggled with:
Season 1 of DS9, which debuted in 1993, is notoriously difficult to upscale. The lighting in the first season was incredibly dark, moody, and full of shadows as the crew adjusted to the Cardassian architecture. On DVD, this resulted in heavy digital noise, macroblocking, and muddy shadows. star trek deep space 9 s01 ai upscale 4k 2020
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – AI Upscale Project (2020) Status: Unofficial / Fan-Made Resolution Source: 480i (DVD) / 1080p (Streaming) → 4K (2160p) However, the 2020 upscale movement also highlighted the
: Released in June 2020, this project focused on a 960p Variable Bit Rate (VBR) upscale, prioritizing high visual quality with seasons reaching roughly 30 GB. On DVD, this resulted in heavy digital noise,
This is not a pure scan. This is an AI—trained on film grain and human faces— guessing what should be there. The danger of AI upscaling (Topaz, ESRGAN, etc.) is "wax faces"—turning Avery Brooks into a mannequin. But the best 2020 models did something magical with Season 1: they exaggerated the noise .
