In 2020, various efforts, sometimes branded under community-led initiatives like the "Project Defiant Showcase," began demonstrating that full-season AI upscaling was possible. These videos, often showcased on YouTube, highlighted a stunning difference in dark scenes, particularly those taking place in the Bajoran wormhole or Odo's office. 3. Early Season 1 Focus (Pilot "Emissary")
: Set the upscale to 400% for 4K. Note that 4K upscaling can take 10–15 hours per episode depending on your GPU. Post-Processing :
When Paramount remastered The Next Generation , they had to physically go back to the original film reels and re-scan and re-composite every effect. This cost millions of dollars. Because DS9 had more complex CGI space battles and a darker, grittier aesthetic, the cost to remaster it was deemed too high by the studio. As a result, on modern 4K TVs, the official DS9 streams look blurry, interlaced, and full of compression artifacts.
Paramount/CBS has stated that the TNG Blu-ray remaster was not profitable enough to warrant the same treatment for DS9 or Voyager , leaving the shows essentially abandoned by the studio. Consequently, fans were left with grainy DVD releases or low-bitrate streaming versions that looked worse than the original broadcasts. star trek deep space 9 s01 ai upscale 4k 2020 top
: The ExtremeTech Season Finale Report provides the most "paper-like" technical summary of the year's work. Comparison of 2020 Upscale Releases Resolution Release Date Key Feature Project Defiant 4K (Initial S01) Full Season 1 availability; community-focused. QueerWorm Focused on finding the "sweet spot" for quality vs. size. JoyBell / UTRCorp Optimized for storage (12GB per season). CptJay216 26GB per season; emphasized detail over compression. Technical Considerations from 2020 Reports
The difference is immediately apparent in the establishing shots. The station itself—Deep Space 9—has never looked better. In standard definition, the station often looked like a gray blob against a star field. In the AI upscale, you can see the individual panels, the weathering on the hull, and the intricate Cardassian architecture.
The runabout Rio Grande drifted in the grey silence of the Denorios Belt. Inside, Chief Miles O’Brien ran a diagnostic for the third time that hour, the soft hum of the console his only company. On the main viewer, Terok Nor—no, Deep Space 9 —hung against a bruised nebula, its Cardassian architecture still alien and unwelcoming. The year was 2369. The resolution was… lacking. Early Season 1 Focus (Pilot "Emissary") : Set
You can finally see the weave of the Starfleet jumpsuits and the rough, stone-like texture of Cardassian armor.
| Pros ✅ | Cons ❌ | |--------|--------| | Sharper character faces & ship exteriors | No official studio involvement | | Better for large 4K screens | Some fine details may be hallucinated by AI | | Restores some detail lost in compression | Motion artifacts possible in fast action | | Free (fan project) | Inconsistent quality across episodes |
The station itself, originally called Terok Nor, is a masterclass in production design. The AI upscales brought out the metallic sheen, alien geometry, and gritty industrial textures of the Promenade and Quark's Bar that were previously lost in a sea of brown and gray pixels. 3. Alien Makeup and Wardrobe This cost millions of dollars
But in 2020, something happened that turned the heads of the fandom. A high-quality AI upscale of Season 01 hit the internet, and the results were nothing short of stunning.
Traditional upscaling simply stretches pixels, making the image blurry.AI upscaling uses neural networks trained on millions of images.The software analyzes the low-resolution frame, guesses what details should be there, and injects new pixels.It sharpens textures, removes analog video noise, and reconstructs faces. Topaz Video Enhance AI
The coarse fabric of the Bajoran militia uniforms and the intricate, bumpy leather of Cardassian armor display genuine physical depth.