this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2022
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Drew DeVault

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I write code.

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"AI remastering" involves dragging and dropping a video file onto an upscaling tool, waiting for an hour or two while your GPU heats up the room, then uploading it to YouTube as "4K restoration remaster 60 FPS". This is dumb.

Remastering is a labor-intensive process that requires access to the original source material. This video compares three clips: an original 480p clip, the results of running this clip through an AI upscaler, and a similar clip which was remastered properly.

The clip at the end is from the 2019 film "Apollo 11", which I highly recommend. The production team was given access to NASA's archives, where they laboriously re-scanned thousands of meters of original film shot during the Apollo missions. Quoting Wikipedia on the process:

In May 2017, cooperation between Miller's production team, NASA, and the National Archives and Records Administration resulted in the discovery of unreleased 70 mm footage from the preparation, launch, mission control operations, recovery and post flight activities of Apollo 11. The large-format footage includes scenes from Launch Complex 39, spectators present for the launch, the launch of the Saturn V rocket, the recovery of astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins and the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, and post-mission efforts aboard the USS Hornet. The documentary included this footage alongside conventional footage from 35 and 16 mm film, still photography, and closed-circuit television footage.

Miller's team used the facilities of Final Frame, a post-production firm in New York City, to make high-resolution digital scans of all reels depicting ground based activities that were available in the National Archives. Specialized climate-controlled vans were used to safely transport the archival material to and from College Park, Maryland. The production team sourced over 11,000 hours of audio recordings and hundreds of hours of video. Among the audio recordings were 30-track tapes of voice recordings at every Mission Control station. Ben Feist, a Canadian software engineer, wrote software to improve the fidelity of the newly available audio. Slater, who had synchronized audio recordings with silent 16 mm Mission Control footage in earlier projects, performed the task of synchronizing the audio and film. The production team was able to identify "Mother Country", a song by folk musician John Stewart, in Lunar Module voice recordings. The song was subsequently featured in the film.

Moral of the story: shitty AI upscales are not remasters.

This video goes into depth specifically on "60 FPS" garbage if you want to learn more: https://youtu.be/_KRb_qV9P4g

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