The project was a monumental undertaking. The computational demands were staggering; Hruska reported that a single episode took roughly 10.5 hours to process on an RTX 2080. He used two workstations, one with an AMD Threadripper 3990X and another with an Intel Core i9-10980XE, to run numerous encodes in parallel. But for him and for the community, it was a small price to pay for a potential upgrade from the dark, noisy, and aliased source material of the original DVDs.
While many elements look vastly "better," the 2020 AI upscale introduces a new set of visual artifacts that purists might find distracting. The "Waxy" Cartoon Effect
In 2020, various AI-powered upscaling tools and services became available, allowing fans to upscale their favorite shows, including DS9, to 4K resolution. Some popular options include:
While there is no official HD or 4K remaster of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine star+trek+deep+space+9+s01+ai+upscale+4k+2020+better
Season 1 heavily mixed physical miniature photography with early, low-resolution computer-generated imagery (CGI), creating a jarring contrast. How the 2020 AI Upscale Works
Because the series was shot on 35mm film but edited and finished on standard-definition videotape, official high-definition remasters remain locked in a corporate vault due to high production costs. Fortunately, the community took matters into their own hands. Around 2020, a revolution in artificial intelligence gave birth to the definitive way to experience the show: the project.
The versions hailed by fans as "better" were those managed by meticulous editors who manually mixed grain back into the image to mask AI imperfections, striking a perfect balance between modern clarity and nostalgic film aesthetics. How to Experience DS9 in 4K Today The project was a monumental undertaking
Live long and prosper. But to see DS9 as it was always meant to be seen—gritty, detailed, and epic—search for the 2020 better release. It is the closest thing to a miracle the Prophets have ever given us.
$$Scaling\ Factor = \frac3840720 \approx 5.33$$
While TNG received a multi-million dollar, painstaking manual remaster to 1080p (and later 4K upscales), DS9 was left behind. The reason? Economics. TNG was shot on 35mm film (easy to rescan) but edited on video tape. DS9 (and Voyager) were shot on film but had their visual effects (CGI ships, phaser fire, Dominion bugs) rendered in standard definition (480i). To remaster DS9 properly would mean rebuilding every VFX shot from scratch—a cost CBS deemed too high for a “serialized” show that didn’t sell as well in syndication. But for him and for the community, it
Watching "Duet" (S01E19) in this upscale is a revelation. The claustrophobic Cardassian interrogation room, the sweat on Harris Yulin’s face as Marritza, the tears in Kira’s eyes—you see it all with a clarity that makes the 1993 broadcast look like a degraded VHS tape.
A very specific topic!
| Version | Resolution | VFX | Detail Level | Availability | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | 480i SD | Native SD | Low (blurry) | Easy | | Netflix/Pluto TV stream | 480p upscaled | Native SD | Low/Med | Easy | | Official TNG Remaster | 1080p | Rebuilt | High | Easy | | 2020 DS9 AI Upscale | 4K (2160p) | AI-enhanced SD | Very High | Fan project only |