When fed a blurry DVD frame of DS9, the AI predicts and draws in fine details—like the texture of Cardassian skin, the fabric weave of Starfleet uniforms, and the intricate greebles on the station's exterior.
The software analyzes thousands of hours of low-res and high-res video to learn what human faces, fabrics, and metals are supposed to look like. star trek deep space 9 s01 ai upscale 4k 2020 top
Traditional upscaling simply stretches an image and blurs the edges to fill a larger screen. 2020-era AI upscaling does something entirely different: When fed a blurry DVD frame of DS9,
While the 2020 upscales of DS9 Season 1 were a massive leap forward, AI is not magic. It is important to note the limitations of the technology at that time: the fabric weave of Starfleet uniforms
All of the spectacular space battles, phaser fire, and wormhole effects were rendered and composited in standard definition (480p).