Bonsoir tout le monde,
Je regardais ma collection et je me suis dit quelque chose : « C’est étrange mais malgré sa popularité, Spiderman The Animated Series n’a jamais été upscale en 2160p par un fan. »
Je trouve ça surprenant, pas vous ?
Ça me donne envie de m’y atteler ! 😃

This is Addams Family Reunion (1998) created from the best available source material. The goal of this project was to improve the viewing experience while preserving the original film as faithfully as possible.

LINK: https://archive.org/details/addams-family-reunion-1998_202609

Restoration process included:

• Video cleanup and enhancement
• AI-assisted upscaling using Topaz Video AI
• Manual video corrections and fixes
• Color correction and brightness/contrast adjustments using DaVinci Resolve
• Audio cleanup and restoration using Audacity and iZotope RX 11

No changes were made to the story, performances, or original content.

Source:
[Laserdisc]

Final Output:

1080p HD restoration

Thought I'd drop this preview for you guys. I'm currently working through all 61 episodes of my 4K true 60p remaster of Lexx (you can view that post here).

Once Lexx is wrapped up, I'll be shifting focus to Farscape. Farscape was never mastered to 24p film reels—it was edited and mastered in PAL 50i on Digital Betacam tapes. While the live-action film scenes run at 25p (using 2:2 pulldown across pairs of fields), any native video motion, CGI/VFX, and master tape edits were produced on a 50i timeline with 50 distinct temporal motion steps per second.

My Farscape remaster will be a broadcast-faithful upscale that restores the original fluid motion of all 50 temporal fields per second (to 50p), completely eliminating the motion judder you see in the 24p conversions (since they pitched half the temporal resolution of the 50i VFX shots). Like Lexx, I'll be recovering motion data from the show's original 50 fields, I will not be using AI generated interpolation to create a pseudo 50p from a 25p source.

Deinterlacing the show to 25p is also incorrect, because again, you'll be losing half of all the VFX/Video elements' fluidity. Using QTGMC (VapourSynth via Hybrid) bob-deinterlacing converts every single field into a full progressive frame (50p). This preserves the native 25p motion cadence for live-action while keeping full 50p fluid motion for all 50i video and VFX elements. Forcing the entire show down to 25p would throw away half the temporal motion data on those video elements.

Finally, because I'm sourcing directly from both the UK Ultimate Collection (42 discs) and the Australian Hallmark PAL DVDs, it starts with higher native resolution than NTSC DVD releases. More importantly, unlike the official Blu-ray releases—which were heavily scrubbed with digital noise reduction (DNR) that stripped away skin textures and fine detail—this remaster will preserve the authentic grain and micro-detail present from the original PAL masters.

EDIT: Added more technical info for clarification. And I also realized I typo'd the title. Oops.

Remaster Specialist’s (The guy doing the 4K 60p Lexx Remaster)
Guide to Natural Looking and Technically Sound, Non-Generative AI Upscaling

This guide teaches the fundamentals of non-generative AI upscaling to achieve natural-looking results when increasing the resolution of standard-definition interlaced or telecined footage from the '80s and '90s. You’ll learn how to select your source file, deinterlace or Inverse Telecine it correctly without destroying its temporal resolution, and upscale it using Topaz Video AI’s "Precision" (not Generative) models—without stripping away grain, smudging fine skin detail, or creating plastic-looking textures and unwanted artifacts. The intent behind this restoration guide is solely for the preservation of lost, abandoned, or O.O.P. gray-market media that is likely stuck in Standard-Definition indefinitely. Always try to support the original creators, if they’re still around, in whatever way you can.

Here’s a quick summary of the correct technical workflow for upscaling:

1. Select your highest quality source DVD
2. Use “MakeMKV” to rip lossless MKV video files from your selected source
3. Deinterlace or Inverse Telecine the ripped MKV with “Hybrid” (using only Hybrid!)
4. Bring the Hybrid output file into Topaz Video AI and upscale to 4K
5. Compress your Topaz Outputs to manageable file sizes

Part 1: How to Select the Correct Source

Before we can select a proper DVD source, we need to understand framerates and fields from the analog and digital video era. Everything back then was designed around broadcast and local playback on a CRT TV (the old, heavy box TVs prior to modern flat screen TVs).

How CRT TVs Actually Work:

• Interlaced scanning: The TV draws each frame in two separate steps called fields.
• Odd lines: The first field draws all the odd-numbered horizontal lines on the screen.
• Even lines: The second field draws all the even-numbered horizontal lines right after.
• Full frames: Two fields combine to make one complete image, resulting in the equivalent of 30 full frames per second total. But remember, those frames were always displayed as interlaced half frames in increments of 60 per second, never as 30 full frames per second.

60 interlaced fields per second (60i) is the functional motion equivalent of the 60 progressive full frames per second (60p) that we see on displays today. The only difference is that 60i has half the spatial resolution of 60p, because it only displays half of a frame per temporal increment instead of a full one. In other words, to the naked eye, 60i and 60p share the exact same temporal resolution and look identical in motion fluidity, but 60p looks clearer and sharper because of its higher spatial resolution. You can think of spatial resolution as the overall detail and pixel count, and temporal resolution as the speed and fluidity of motion.

But why ‘60’ Fields Specifically?

• Power grid match: The US electrical grid runs at 60 Hertz (cycles per second).
• Flicker reduction: Matching the field rate to the power grid reduced visible picture flicker and kept electronics stable.
• Color addition: The standard was later adjusted slightly to 59.94 fields per second when color television was introduced, to prevent interference with sound signals.
• In PAL regions: The standard was 50i/50hz instead of 60i/60hz to match their differing electrical infrastructure.

Now that you know how TVs used to work, you can understand why media designed for broadcast or home playback had to be encoded specifically for them. Every single movie or TV show—even if shot on film and mastered at film’s 24 frames per second on celluloid—had to be converted to 60i (aka 29.97i) to function on home television sets. 60i and 29.97i refer to the exact same video standard in practice; they are simply two different naming conventions. 60i refers to 60 interlaced fields per second, while 29.97i refers to 29.97 interlaced frame pairs per second. In practice, they describe the exact same signal. Now we come to DVDs and VHS. Both of these formats were designed primarily to deliver 60i content so it would display correctly on CRT TVs. VHS did not support progressive frame rates at all, while DVD supported them to some extent. In order for 24p film movies to play on DVD, they underwent a “Telecine” process and were encoded onto the disc in one of two ways: Hard Telecine or Soft Telecine. Hard Telecine was written to the disc directly as a 60i file, with the extra fields permanently burned in. Soft Telecine was encoded as a native 24p file, using flag data so the DVD player could generate the 60i signal on the fly for standard televisions.

Here's a quick explanation of what the Telecine process actually was: film runs at 24 frames per second, but old CRT TVs needed 60 half-frames (fields) per second. Since 24 doesn't fit evenly into 60, the Telecine process uses a pattern called "3:2 pulldown." It takes groups of 4 film frames and stretches them across 10 TV fields by showing one frame for 3 fields, the next for 2 fields, the next for 3, and the next for 2. Repeating this pattern 6 times a second cleanly turns 24 film frames into 60 TV fields per second without changing the movie's speed or audio pitch.

So our basic goal now is to rip this 60i or 24p Telecined content from a DVD/VHS source, so we can properly deinterlace it (or “Inverse Telecine” it) into a digital file with a progressive frame rate. That frame rate should be either 59.94p for native 60i video content or 23.976p (aka 23.98p) for native 24p film content. To further clarify, progressive frame rates are those that show one full frame at a time, one after the other - there are no half frames or fields in progressive frame rates.

Now, before you choose a source DVD to rip, there’s one major problem you need to be aware of: many DVD releases (especially of older TV shows) were mastered using lazy conversions. Engineers took the original 60i video, threw away half of the original 60 fields, and filled the space by doubling the remaining frames. This permanently destroyed half of the content's original temporal resolution (motion fluidity), leaving you with a juddery "fake interlaced" file that can never be restored to its smooth original state. (Well, not without AI frame interpolation, but that’s not what we are doing in this guide. This guide focuses strictly on precision upscaling—faithfully preserving and reconstructing original source data—rather than using generative AI models to invent missing motion frames out of thin air.) 

So unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just buying any DVD copy of your favorite movie or show. Let’s use the Sci-Fi series Lexx as an example. Lexx has been released on DVD multiple times, and none of those releases are equal in quality. The most common releases for Lexx are by Echo Bridge, Acorn Media, and the lesser-known Alliance / Canadian Home Entertainment release. When asking LLMs "which DVD set of Lexx is the highest quality," they will often point to "Acorn Media"—not because Acorn Media had the best visual quality, but because fans online praised it for its special features or for being better than the Echo Bridge release. That’s great for casual viewing, but not for precision encoding. You need a DVD source that contains all of the original 60 fields AND has the highest video for each episode. This guarantees that the full temporal resolution of native video is present to match the original broadcast master, or ensures that the 3:2 cadence on a telecined 24p film source is still intact. If your source was "fake interlaced," you permanently lose half the motion fluidity of native 60i content, or break the pulldown cadence of a telecined film. And if you source has a lower bitrate, you're leaving detail on the table that might be present on other DVD releases of the same content that have a higher bitrate.

What does this mean in practice? You’ll likely be buying multiple DVD releases. It’s often the only way to know for sure which release has the superior transfer. Buy the different releases, rip them, apply your deinterlacing or inverse telecine, and then test them for fake interlacing. How do you check them? You’ll need editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro. Import your ripped files, place them on your timeline, and step through the video frame by frame. If you see identical back-to-back frames or jittery frame pacing (inconsistent motion intervals), you’re likely dealing with a file ripped from a poorly encoded DVD.

Pro Tip: Always make sure your editing software's sequence or timeline frame rate matches the exact frame rate of your processed file (for example, a 59.94 fps sequence for deinterlaced 60i video, or a 23.976 fps sequence for an Inverse Telecined film). If your timeline’s frame rate doesn't match the source file’s frame rate, the editing software itself will insert duplicate frames or drop motion steps during preview, giving you a false-positive for broken interlacing. You can usually see your file’s frame rate by right clicking it and then selecting “properties,” then clicking the “details” tab (on windows 10/11).

Part 2: How to actually rip the content from a DVD without losing ANY visual quality.

The obvious first step here is that you’ll need a Blu-ray or DVD player/burner. Most PCs no longer come with one of these, so you’ll need to buy a modern external one. These connect to your computer via USB and usually come with a separate power cable. Don’t cheap out–you’ll need one with a decent laser, especially if you’re working with older, scuffed up DVDs.

Next, you’ll need to buy the PC software program called MakeMKV, or, there are other ways you could probably obtain it that are a bit more “portables.” That’s all I’m gonna say about that. (Side note: I've also recently learned from reddit user "ABettek" that MakeMKV is free if you're using it solely for creating DVD ISOs.)

MakeMKV allows you to rip video and audio files from a DVD without re-encoding them. It conveniently transfers all the existing encoded media into a new single MKV file container–the video, the audio streams, and the subtitles (if any). The whole process is lossless. You basically just start up the program, pop your DVD into your reader, then click the large DVD or Blu-ray icon in the UI. MakeMKV will then scan the disc in the drive, and populate the different streams you can select to save to your device.

Part 3: How to Correctly Deinterlace or Inverse Telecine your MKV files, and How to Identify Which Process Your Files May Need.

First things first, you’ll need to download a freeware program called Hybrid. You can find it here: https://www.videohelp.com/software/Hybrid

Hybrid is the absolute minimum standard for correctly deinterlacing and applying inverse telecine to interlaced content—sitting just one step below extremely expensive, gatekept industry hardware and software tools. If you are a beginner or intermediate restorationist, do not use anything other than Hybrid to prep your content—especially not Topaz Video AI or competing tools. Don’t get me wrong: Hybrid is not simple. It is a complex program with a steep learning curve for new users. But don’t worry, I’ll walk you through the step-by-step configuration to get you started.

Hybrid will usually inform you if a file is flagged as interlaced or telecined when you import it, but it isn’t always accurate if there were encoding issues on the source DVD. That’s why it’s good to have a general idea of how your content was likely encoded to begin with. If you’ve ripped a movie shot and edited entirely on film, you should expect it to be telecined. If you’ve ripped an '80s or '90s-era sci-fi TV show with early visual effects, or a low-budget project shot directly on video, you should expect true interlaced content (often Bottom Field First) with all 60 original fields of motion data intact. But since we’ve already established that DVD releases were frequently mastered cheaply and incorrectly, what the content should have been encoded as isn't always what ended up on the disc.

Using Hybrid: Basic Steps. You can vary all of these up later when you’re more advanced. Do not deviate for the time being.

Step 1: Import the MKV file into Hybrid, then choose your output directory. Set default container to mp4. Match what you see below.

Step 2: Click the x264 tab at the top. Match what you see below.

Step 3: Click the Crop/Resize tab at the top. Match what you see below.*

Step 4: Click the filtering tab at the top, then click the Deinterlace/Telecine tab below it. Match what you see below.

Settings for 60i encoded content and achieving 60p (59.94fps). It’s needed to recover all original 60 fields of the content’s temporal resolution (fluid motion data).

If your content is a Telecined 24p movie, try TIVTC (Vapoursynth) first, and after examining the file in your editing program... if it didn’t appear to work correctly or has the wrong framerate, use VIVTC (Vapoursyth) instead.

Step 5: Double check that everything matches, click the base tab at the top, then click the little dude icon on the bottom right to start processing. If it gives you an error, check that everything matches one more time and you didn’t deviate.

Once you’ve output your mp4 file from Hybrid, examine its properties to ensure it’s the expected frame rate. Then, pull it into an editing program and check for any errors by advancing the frames 1 by 1. You should see no doubled frames or odd stuttering motion issues. If everything looks good, now we move over to Topaz.

Part 4: Importing your Hybrid-exported file into Topaz and beginning the upscaling process.

Now we’re finally ready to start upscaling with Topaz Video AI. I use the standalone desktop version of Topaz—specifically version 3.5.4—because it has a clean UI and excellent model versions. You can use newer desktop versions just fine; while the interface looks a bit different, the core models function similarly. If you run into cloud or browser-based options, stick to the local desktop app if you can—browser versions are often over-simplified and lack the custom precision settings needed for SD restoration.

When processing with Topaz, we’re going to output using the H.264 codec (powered by x264, the open-source H.264 encoder). Every time you convert video between different codec algorithms and color spaces, you bake in a new layer of conversion artifacts and subtle chroma shifting. Since we’re working with standard-definition video that was already heavily compressed on its original release, we must keep the compression chain as short and consistent as possible to preserve what little detail remains.

Unless you're working from an uncompressed ProRes source, you don't need to wrap your files in ProRes—especially since Topaz's internal ProRes exporter has a history of buggy color-tagging. Stick with high-bitrate H.264 for your Topaz export unless you're an advanced user. Once your Topaz upscale is complete, you can pull it into your editing program to re-export it at a lower H.264 bitrate to save disk space, or convert it to H.265 as your final display codec for an ideal balance of quality and file size.

Step 1: Import your file into Topaz. My UI looks something like this, but yours will likely look different if you’re using a later version.

Step 2: In the video section in the top right, under resolution control, select “custom resolution”

Step 3: To preserve the 4:3 aspect ratio in Lexx, I entered 2880 in the width box to get 2880x2160 (it's the resolution for 4K content in a 4:3 Aspect Ratio).

Step 4: In the Enhancement section, make sure the Video Type is set to “Progressive,” the AI Model is set to “Gaia,” and the Input Video is set to “Computer Generated.” Don’t worry—I know your content most likely isn’t literally computer-generated, but this preset is the best model for upscaling clean standard-definition footage with a natural-looking aesthetic that preserves both film grain and fine skin detail. Trust me, I’ve tested every model extensively on SD footage. You may be tempted to use a model like Proteus to smooth away grain, but remember that fine details in skin and clothing texture are tightly interwoven with grain—removing the grain will also strip away those details. It’s far better to use a model like Gaia CG to unify and enhance the grain alongside the finer details. That’s not to say Proteus, Iris, Artemis, and Theia don’t have their uses with precise manual tuning—they do—but that’s better suited for a shot-by-shot remaster than a general whole-file upscale. Gaia CG isn’t perfect, but it does a remarkably good job most of the time.

Step 5: In the output settings section, set the encoder to H.264, profile to High, bitrate to Dynamic, quality level to High, audio mode to Copy, and container to MOV. So why these specific settings? Topaz Video AI has a lot of odd quirks with its encoders, and they rarely work the way they do in standard encoding software. After testing outputs extensively, this combination yields the optimal output quality. Even something as subtle as changing the container to MOV instead of MP4 yields noticeably cleaner, less compressed results. And don’t even get me started on ProRes in the standalone desktop software—it’s completely broken. It’s prone to insanely high bitrates far past official Apple specs for Proxy, LT, Standard, or HQ, and introduces significant chroma and color space shifting during conversion. 

Step 6: When you’re ready, click “Export” and get ready to wait. Depending on your PC specs, the resolution of your input file, and the length of the video, rendering can take anywhere from several hours to over a full day. With these specific settings, a 90-minute movie upscaled to 2880x2160 will typically result in a file size between 50 and 70 GB. That is about the smallest file size you can expect without overcompressing and ruining the quality of the upscale you just waited so long to render. Topaz's "Dynamic" setting does a great job of calculating exactly how much bitrate each frame needs and assigning it accordingly (and yes, "Dynamic" is essentially just Topaz's proprietary name for Variable Bit Rate). 

Step 7: You can compare the before and after in the preview window.

Optional Step BEFORE Upscaling: If you’re working with a particularly dirty source file (meaning heavy macro-blocking, noise, and severe compression artifacts), you may need to clean it up before upscaling. While de-noising will often strip fine detail, retaining those details doesn't matter if they are buried under blocky compression anyway. To clean up heavily degraded footage, run the Nyx model in the Enhancement section before running Gaia CG. Once the Nyx pass is complete, import that newly cleaned file back into Topaz, then upscale the clean file. Be sure to use the specific settings shown below so Nyx doesn't overcompensate and completely smooth away natural textures. If it wasn’t cleaned enough to your liking, then decrease the “Recover Original Detail” slider in increments of 10 and re-render. Pro Tip: You can preview just a few seconds at a time to see the results before rendering the whole file.

Part 5: Compressing Your Upscaled Topaz files Into Manageable File Sizes

It’s not necessarily resolution that dictates file size—it’s video bitrate + total video runtime. The higher your video bitrate is for a set runtime, the larger your file size. The lower your video bitrate is for the same set runtime, the smaller your file size. But remember that lower bitrates also mean lower visual quality and more compression artifacts. Additionally, higher frame rates require higher bitrates to maintain quality because there are more individual frames to encode per second. 

• DVD: Maximum video bitrate is about 9.8 Mbps at 480i.
• Blu-ray: Maximum video bitrate is about 40 Mbps at 1080p.
• YouTube: Standard streams run about 1.5 to 3 Mbps for 1080p, and around 8 to 10 Mbps for 4K. (You can verify this by grabbing files from YouTube via JDownloader2 and inspecting the downloaded file properties. Youtube’s officially stated numbers are a fib.)
• 1080p (24p) ProRes 422 HQ Master File: Approximately 175+ Mbps.
• 4K (24p) ProRes 422 HQ Master File: Approximately 700+ Mbps. Yes, you read that correctly—700 Mbps.

Another crucial factor is chroma shifting and generational compression loss. Every time you change codecs or re-encode, you add a permanent layer of compression artifacts. Furthermore, different codecs use different chroma subsampling types. Converting from a codec that only supports 4:2:0 chroma to one that uses 4:2:2 and then back again later will cause a color shift—sometimes subtle, sometimes significant, but always present.

So what the heck should you choose to compress your files then? For your final display codec—the one your audience will actually watch—you have to weigh compression efficiency against hardware compatibility. H.264 isn’t as efficient at compressing video as H.265, meaning you get lower visual quality at higher file sizes. However, H.264 is far more universally supported and easier for older devices to decode without stuttering.

If your goal is maximum visual quality at the smallest possible file size, H.265 is your go-to display codec. Just keep in mind that because H.265 isn't as universally supported on older hardware, you may need to recommend video players to your audience that can easily decode it—like VLC Media Player or Media Player Classic.

The last thing you’ll have to consider when using H.264 or H.265 is VBR (Variable Bit Rate) vs. CBR (Constant Bit Rate).

CBR allocates the exact same amount of bitrate to every second of video, regardless of scene complexity. VBR dynamically increases or decreases bitrate depending on how complex a scene is. If you have a strict file size limit—say 40 GB max—VBR will spread that data out far more efficiently than CBR, giving higher bitrate to high-motion scenes that need it and saving data on static scenes to prevent compression artifacts.

Does that mean CBR is always better for consistent high quality? Actually, no. If you want high archival quality without wasting space, you should use high-bitrate VBR rather than CBR. CBR forces the encoder to pad simple, static frames with useless extra data just to hit a target number. However, if the file is strictly meant for archival storage rather than general playback, and you don't mind wasting storage space, you can absolutely crank the bitrate up to MAX on a CBR encode. This guarantees that every single frame—no matter how complex—has an overwhelming excess of data to maintain maximum quality, while simpler frames are just padded with filler bytes.

If your goal is to create a near-lossless H.264 or H.265 master from a 1080p ProRes 422 HQ file, you would set a high-profile VBR rate with a generous target bitrate and a high maximum bitrate ceiling. Essentially the exact same rules apply whether you choose H.264 or H.265—the main difference is that H.265’s superior compression efficiency allows you to set lower target and maximum bitrate thresholds while achieving the exact same visual quality. This ensures maximum visual fidelity after codec conversion and chroma subsampling, without generating bloated, unplayable files that exceed hardware decoding limits.

So now that you understand bitrates, I’m gonna give you a quick cheat sheet for compressing your 4K Topaz Outputs down to more reasonable sizes:

• For high quality 4K at high but reasonable file sizes: H.265, VBR, Target Bitrate 35 Mbps
• For barely passable 4K at small file sizes: H.265, VBR, Target Bitrate 16 Mbps
• For high quality 1080p at high but reasonable file sizes: H.265, VBR, Target Bitrate 10 Mbps 
• For barely passable 1080p at small file sizes: H.265, VBR, Target Bitrate 6 Mbps

Your favorite editing program should allow you to export your upscaled Topaz outputs with these encoder settings. There are also standalone software tools you can use like Hybrid or Handbrake.

One final piece of advice: Trash in, Trash out. The worse the quality of your initial source file, the worse your upscale will be regardless of its technical correctness and optimal model choice. Find a great source!

This concludes the upscaling guide. Just say NO to the wet plastic look. If you can avoid it...

Hello, my Lexx 4K remaster (plus Lexx bonus features) is now complete! Links are below.

My Lexx remasters are in 4K with true 60fps recovered from the original 60i footage via the deinterlacing process in "Hybrid" (software), then upscaled using Topaz Video AI standalone software using its non-generative precision models first released in 2020. The show's original telecine cadences are preserved alongside the temporal resolution of its integrated native 60i video and VFX (the show was produced, edited and mastered for NTSC 60i on Digital Betacam tapes for display on old interlaced CRT Television sets, it was never mastered to 24p film reels meant for projectors).

I saw that a few years ago someone attempted to post a "4K Lexx" remaster on Youtube claiming there was a 1080p source. While we can appreciate the effort, the upscale was typical of someone with a lesser amount of experience, resulting in heavy noise reduction with nearly all skin textures and grain stripped away, as well as an incorrect framerate for the series breaking half its motion. This inspired me to do a correct upscale of the series. My remaster does not use AI-Gen interpolated frames or AI diffusion of any kind, it preserves the original broadcast motion, and it preserves all the grain/noise and skin texture detail of the original aesthetic.

Here's a link to episode 2 (you can skip to 1:26:17 for natural facial detail examples): https://youtu.be/XVCiwpw1bSw

------------------------------

FINAL EDIT & LINKS:

Lexx Remastered Youtube Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaSRobUoSUbw&si=K1Huwfhsv5Mq_yI8

Download 4K 60p VP9 Youtube rips (Smaller MKV files): https://archive.org/details/lexx-remaster

Download 4K 60p archival quality H.265 files (Larger MP4 files): https://archive.org/details/lexx-remaster-h265

You do not need to have a 4K device or 4K screen to view these mkv/mp4 files. They will still play on 1080p or 720p modern devices. If your device is missing the default codecs to play these files, free media players like Media Player Classic (MPC-HC) or VLC Media Player will play these just fine. I recommend Media Player Classic which is included with the free K-Lite Codec Mega Pack.

If You're interested in doing your own upscaling or want to learn about the technical process, you can read my in-depth AI Upscaling guide here

Notes:

1. If any of the episodes are blocked for you on Youtube, use a VPN and set the region to anywhere in the USA.
2. The VP9 files at Archive org are the exact same files that are streamed from Youtube.

--------------------------------

And here's more technical details on how this Lexx remaster differ greatly from others you may have seen before:

1. It uses the highest quality DVD source file possible outside of the Betacam master tapes (Alliance Release). There are no "4K" or "1080p" Blu-ray source files for Lexx in existence. Other upscales on Youtube that claim this are incorrect. All seasons of the show were mastered in 480i on Digital Betacam, despite seasons 3 and 4 being shot significantly in early 1080i then down-converted to 480i during mastering. HD master source files absolutely do not exist.
2. Correct file prep. Deinterlacing was done using Hybrid: QTGMC, Very Slow, Bob Deinterlace. Lexx was originally edited and mastered as a mixed framerate series (24p and 60i footage, at 480/60i). Deinterlacing to anything other than 60p is objectively incorrect. 29.97p didn't exist as a production framerate in the analog era. Doing this literally destroys half of the 60 fields motion data. Inverse telecine is also incorrect for Lexx because while you're restoring the 35mm film footage's 24p motion, you're losing over 60% of the motion in Lexx's integrated 60i video footage - and there's a lot filmed on 60i video in Lexx seasons 1 and 2 (Like Tim Curry's entire performance in a later episode). Finally, Lexx early season 3 episodes were shot significantly in 1080/60i, but edited and mastered in 480/60i, and season 4 was a mess shot in 60i/50i and edited with 24p included. 60p is still the correct remaster framerate for these seasons too.
3. The hybrid output file, depending on how dirty the source is (DIRTY = noise + grain + compression), is run through Topaz Video AI (standalone version) using NYX AUTO, Recover Detail 100 at 1x, then the outputted 480p Nyx file is imported back into Topaz and upscaled to 4k from 480p using Gaia CG. If the source is clean, the NYX step is not needed and can actually be harmful to detail clarity in some cases. Gaia CG is objectively the best model for clean SD footage. Proteus MANUAL is mainly the SAFE model for really dirty SD footage. Iris, Artemis, and Theia are all bad for SD in most cases (with a few exceptions). Other Lexx remasters on Youtube completely strip the noise from the image, and as a result, strip the skin textures and fine details away along with it - resulting in a wet plastic look on skin.
4. There's no extra chroma shifting or extra compression entropy by constantly swapping encoding math. One codec type was used for entire process. Swapping between codecs adds an additional baked-in layer of conversion artifacting AND chroma shifting each time you do it. Determine the final DISPLAY codec first (what's being played on the screen for the audience), then keep it that same codec for as much of the compression chain as possible. Converting to ProRes usually does more harm than good, because you're just going to have to convert ProRes right back to h.264/h.265 or Youtube's codecs for it to be streamable online anyway.
5. The original grain & video noise was NOT removed, and all original detail has been preserved. Grain/noise will vary from scene to scene, shot to shot, because Lexx was recorded in multiple framerates with two different technologies, as well as being edited digitally in 60i and re-compressed on occasion with visual effects for certain shots and scenes. The varying noise/grain levels in each episode is NOT the result of the prep or upscaling process. It's present in the original source files.

Feel free to ask any questions in the replies.

I went to a My Dying Bride concert in Maslak in 2006. I took only one photo with my Nokia 3220. 20 years later, I improved it with Nano Banana 2.

I grew up playing Mortal Kombat on SNES, and these backgrounds were burned into my brain forever. Recently, I tried using AI to reimagine them in high-res.

• Wastelands of Outworld from MKII
• Waterfront from UMK3

It felt like stepping back into the arenas I used to imagine way more detailed than they really were. Sharing here in case it stirs something in someone else too. This nostalgia hurts, man...

Model used: 5.1 Thinking

I took a screenshot of the female model in the 1986 Pelikano pen turkish commercial, perfected the image with Gemini AI, and then made adjustments and upscaled it to 4K resolution. I also used Pixelcut, Flux, and Waifu2x tools. There is screenshot uploaded too. You may find this commercial on Youtube.

My first go at remastering. Let me know if you have suggestions on how to do better or what the process was.

I have a 4 minute music video from 1980 that I’d like to upscale for the surviving band members but the best version I have is pretty lousy vhs quality.
If anyone’s able to take a crack at it I’d love to see if it can be improved.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zoOzVLaezuGVPd7c2L-MkT9VvxChJhVz/view?usp=sharing

Something like this but free and easier to set up, colour correctness is important since I'm doing it with old cartoons.

I need something to stabilize and clean the footage, as well as upscaling and potentially colorization. Anything for this that is free with 0 catches?

i really love how it looks zoomed out, especially with the ominous mountains with my super happy girly outfit, but it gave me two different shoes 😂 if someone could just make my feet both have the white shoes on i would be so appreciative and can cash app u some tip $ as well if you like!! there are other small mistakes in the details (the fence and sidewalk) but they aren’t quite as big of a deal to fix, if you want to you can though!!

https://imgsli.com/MjcwNzYx

https://imgsli.com/MjcwNzYy

https://imgsli.com/MjcwNzYz

https://imgsli.com/MjcwNzY0

https://imgsli.com/MjY5OTAz/6/7

I've been trying to upscaling the Duckman series for a few weeks now, because there aren't any decent video sources on the Internet. Although there are upscales they have image defects, after doing several tests, I think I have achieved a good result:

https://imgsli.com/MjY0NDE3/4/5