The project did more than just make a few episodes look sharper. It proved a concept: that fan-driven artificial intelligence could rescue "lost" media from the SD graveyard. It inspired similar projects for Star Trek: Voyager , Babylon 5 , and even The X-Files .
While initially processed at 4K, the project later shifted focus toward a star trek deep space 9 s01 ai upscale 4k 2020
In complex scenes, such as the swirling patterns of the Bajoran Wormhole, the AI sometimes created "shimmering" artifacts where it couldn't decide which details to prioritize. The project did more than just make a
: In May 2020, this group released a 4K AI upscale of Season 1. While initially processed at 4K, the project later
Various creators and groups released high-resolution versions of Season 1 and beyond throughout 2020:
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 .
Paramount faced a financial hurdle: remastering DS9 properly would require rescanning the original 35mm film negatives and re-doing all the visual effects shots from scratch—a multi-million dollar endeavor that, due to the mixed sales of The Next Generation Blu-rays, the studio was unwilling to fund.