Samsung’s Galaxy S20 launched in South Korea recently, but early sales of the handset have been nowhere near what Samsung expected them to be. Coronavirus is one potential culprit, though the steep increase in smartphone prices could be another issue. The Galaxy S10 family was priced at $749, $899, and $999, while the 5G flavor cost $1,299. The Samsung Galaxy S20, on the other hand, is priced at $999, $1,199, and $1,399. That’s a 1.33x increase for the bottom-line device, 1.33x at the midrange, and 1.4x for the top-end SKU, if you don’t count the handful of people who might have bought the terrible 5G variant of last years’ phone.
In short, we’ve got a situation in which Samsung will undoubtedly blame coronavirus for its weak debut, probably because admitting people might not want to pay 1.33x more over the Galaxy S10 could make the product look bad. Samsung moved 70,800 units on launch day, compared with last year’s launch day volume of 140,000 units, and 220,000 launch day sales for the Galaxy Note 10, according to The Korea Herald. Telecom officials told that publication that the impact was caused by sharp declines in phone discounts and lower-than-expected subsidies towards new purchases, with coronavirus also listed as one contributing factor. Pricing on the devices in SK appears to be roughly similar to the US after accounting for inflation.
Are Modern Smartphones Overpriced Luxuries or Fairly Valued?
There are two schools of thought on whether these devices represent good values. My own opinion — which I’m disclosing right up front — is that they absolutely aren’t. The marginal improvements companies have introduced from generation to generation do not justify the dramatic increase in recent costs. Samsung and Apple have both radically jacked up prices from where they were just a few years ago, without delivering a single feature I’d actually consider worth paying for — which is why I haven’t. Modern smartphone companies want you plugged into their services, which is just another way of saying “We want to extract money from you on an ongoing basis so you find it more difficult to stop using our increasingly expensive products.”
I’m far from the only journalist to ask whether it’s worth it to pay $1,000+ or more for a device, but John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has a very different view. According to a post he published earlier this month:
Yes, phones that cost $1,000 or more are expensive. Yes, that’s outside the budget for most people. But why in the world would anyone argue this is ”hard to justify”? Phones are, for most people, the most-used computing device in their lives. They are also their primary — usually only — camera. A good camera alone used to cost $500-600.
There are way more people on the planet who’d rather have a $1,400 phone and a $400 laptop than the other way around. But you’ll never see a tech reviewer claim that $1,000-1,400 is “hard to justify” for a laptop. It’s ridiculously out of touch to argue otherwise. And, the fact that top-of-the-line phones have reached these price points does not negate the fact that truly excellent phones are available at much lower prices.
My response to this would be that while it’s true cheaper devices are also available, the price of those is also increasing, in many cases. When Apple launched the iPhone XR, it was lauded as the “budget” device of the new family. Given that it launched at $750, calling it a budget phone was absurd — but that’s what people did. (The actual “budget” device in the iPhone family is the iPhone 8, a 2.5-year-old device at $449.) Samsung does sell cheaper devices than the Galaxy family, but the entire point of increasing device price is that companies are trying to squeeze more revenue out of fewer smartphone sales.
Also, for the record — and as a tech reviewer — I’ll go ahead and say that I think paying $1,000 – $1,400 for a standard laptop is far too much money. One thousand dollars is a decent price for an affordable gaming laptop, and $1,400 isn’t too bad, either, but these are products designed for specific and more-expensive use-cases. Nobody who needs a basic machine for word processing and internet use should be stuck paying anything like $1,000. According to OEMs I’ve spoken to, the midrange market for smartphones barely exists in the United States. High-end devices are more popular here because of payment plans and the like. There’s nothing wrong with people choosing to buy whatever hardware they want, but that doesn’t mean they’re well-served by doing so, or that raising prices has no impact.
At the same time, the big difference between Samsung and Apple these days isn’t really in the objective experience of the hardware, but more in which software and ecosystem you want to be plugged into, as Ars Technica points out. On the one hand, this is potentially great, since many ecosystem capabilities are available whether you have an absolute top-end phone or a model from several generations back. However, this kind of explanation also cuts against the “It makes sense to buy a top-end phone” argument.
The Galaxy S20 rear-facing camera.
What bothers me the most over the argument of whether we should be paying more for phones, though, has nothing to do with whether you believe a $1,500 price is justifiable or how much you value the iOS / Android ecosystem. What bothers me is the idea we’ve all unconsciously accepted in phones — namely, that faster, better devices should always cost more year after year. The mantra of “faster, better, cheaper” drove the entire semiconductor industry and associated advances for decades. Median PC prices were celebrated as they fell from $2,000+ to $999 and below. The first computer I ever personally purchased was a $999 model, back when that price point was being regularly hit and celebrated with decent hardware for the first time.
I’m not claiming that relentlessly racing to the bottom didn’t have negative effects, because it absolutely did. By the time machine prices bottomed out, a lot of the median equipment was barely worth paying for given how cheaply it was built and how uninspired the design was. But there’s a middle ground between continually jacking up the price and cutting it to the point that the final device experience is subpar. It’s true that companies like Apple and Samsung have found ways to improve their hardware even as they’ve made it more expensive, but the price has increased significantly more than the features warrant, in my own opinion. Obviously people are welcome to buy any device they want for any reason they wish, but we’ve long since passed the price points where I’d personally consider upgrading to a new flagship device at launch.
Back in the day, we all used to get our games on discs to install with an old-fashioned optical drive. The move to digital downloads offered some clear convenience advantages, but there are also more restrictions without that physical copy. GOG recently announced a surprisingly lenient refund policy that lets players get their money back up to 30 days after buying a game. However, it turns out the storefront didn’t consult developers before it made this change, and some of them are worried it could affect their bottom lines.
GOG (formerly known as Good Old Games) is a Steam competitor operated by CD Projekt Red (CDPR). You might know CDPR as the developer behind games like The Witcher 3 and the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077. From the beginning, GOG has focused on offering games without DRM, much to the delight of gamers everywhere.
As CDPR has become a force in the industry, GOG has become a more prominent way to sell games. Despite being connected to a major development studio, GOG didn’t ask developers for input about the policy change beforehand — they weren’t even told in advance of the blog post. As we pointed out after the policy went into effect, GOG’s lack of DRM could make it easier for people to cheat the system. That’s not what has most developers concerned, though. They’re mostly fretting over the length of GOG’s return period.
Well, I don't know about this one.
30 days is a lot more than I feel is necessary to evaluate a game, and a lot more than almost all games take to complete if you play them for an hour daily.
Developers have pointed out that 30 days is probably longer than you need to decide whether you like a game. However, it’s probably long enough tobeatmost games. Playing an hour or two per day is enough to complete even big AAA titles (at least those not made by CDPR itself). There’s very little stopping players from beating a game and getting a refund at the end of the month.
Some developers have told Eurogamer that they saw substantial revenue drops when Steam instituted its much less generous return policy several years back. They worry GOG’s version could cost them even more money. Others are just annoyed that GOG (and other game distributors) have complete control over how their games are sold, and no one sought input from developers in advance of the change.
For its part, GOG says it will aim to prevent abuse by monitoring account activity. If someone is refunding a lot of games near the limit, GOG reserves the right to deny refunds. It also asked gamers politely not to ruin it for everyone. Time will tell if developer fears are unfounded or not.
Looking for a gaming desktop? You’re in luck! Dell’s powerful Aurora R8 gaming desktop is currently on sale and has all the power you need to run modern games with high graphics settings.
With a hexa-core Intel Core i5-9400 clocked at up to 4.1GHz and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, this system’s ready to tackle the graphically challenging games on the market today. Gamers will also appreciate the edgy Alienware case that features LED lights on the side panels. By using promo code EXTRA17 at checkout on Dell’s website, you can get this system marked down from $999.99 to just $829.99.
Apple designed this version of the iPad Pro with its in-house designed A12X Bionic processor that offers excellent performance. This model also has a large 64GB storage capacity, which will let you store a large amount of MP3s and videos. Right now it’s marked down from $799.00 to $674.00 from Walmart.
Samsung designed this TV to be more than just a TV. The product was designed to mimic the look of a picture frame, and it can easily be hung on the wall like a piece of art. When not in use to watch television, the screen has a special art mode that gives it the false appearance of having a true piece of art hanging on your wall. Right now it’s marked down from PCMag’s shop marked down from $1,999.00 to $1,149.00 with promo code SAVE300.
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So if the world’s largest companies employing legions of cybersecurity experts can’t completely protect their most sensitive information from falling into the hands of criminals, what hope do you, average Joe American, have?
Actually, more than you might think — with the right precautions. Right now, Heimdal Security, makers of the Thor line of cybersecurity measures, are discounting three of their most popular home protection products, each at more than 80 percent off.
To supply frontline protection against cyber threats, Heimdal Thor Vigilance: Next-Gen Antivirus ($39.99 for a 5-year subscription; originally $249.75) is more than up to the task with one of the best detection rates in the business. With signature-code and real-time cloud scanning, sandbox and backdoor inspections, firewall protection and more, Vigilance brings the latest antivirus defense tools to the table to root out and stop ransomware, data leaks, exploits and other threats to your systems.
While Vigilance covers your reactive cyber needs, Heimdal Thor Foresight Home: Malware Prevention Software ($49.99 for a lifetime subscription, originally $349.75) goes on the offensive, proactively spotting and plugging holes in your existing cybersecurity net. Foresight targets the newest, most insidious malware cases, designed specifically to get around standard antivirus detection programs. It filters all internet traffic, blocks any connections that may distribute ransomware, offers extra financial account protections and even examines your favorite apps for possible security loopholes.
Samsung is always at the forefront of OLED display technology — every flagship smartphone it launches sets new records in brightness, color accuracy, and more. Now, Samsung has announced a new generation of OLED panels that emit less blue light. Oh, they’re also optimized for 5G, whatever that means. And as near as we can tell, it means literally nothing.
We’ve been warned of the dangers of blue light from displays for years, but the research on that was always questionable at best. We’re now starting to hear that the “night modes” employed by most smartphones to improve sleep may actually be worse for you. Still, most smartphone makers are still in the “blue light bad” mindset, and Samsung says its new OLED panels emit 70 percent less blue light than the previous ones.
The new OLED panel technology emits just 6.5 percent blue light versus 7.5 percent in the last-gen models. That’s also about 70 percent less than current LCD panels, which emit more blue light as a consequence of their backlight technology. Samsung says the panel has earned a certification of “Eye Care Display” from SGS in Switzerland.
Samsung also says its new screens are “5G-optimized.” You’re probably thinking that OLEDs don’t have anything to do with 5G, and you’re right. The connection to 5G mobile networks is tenuous at best, but Samsung is doing everything in its power to shoehorn 5G into the discussion. Its angle is that these screens are better than others, and 5G can (theoretically) deliver higher-quality streaming media and games. That is technically true but also doesn’t matter on a phone-sized screen.
There is one element of these new displays that might actually improve your mobile experience. Samsung’s latest OLEDs will only require 1.3W of power compared with 1.5W for older versions. That’s a 15 percent reduction in power consumption, which could help to offset the added drain of high refresh rates, as seen on the Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Samsung is still using the “old” OLEDs with more blue light in its new lineup of S20 smartphones, which will begin shipping next week. However, you can expect this new display technology to find its way into the company’s late 2020 launches, and we’ll probably hear more about the blue light improvements when that happens.
Astronomers observing the universe have detected some massive bursts of energy over the years, but nothing compares with the blast recently spotted by scientists at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. The explosion some 390 million light-years away is the largest ever recorded. The epicenter of the eruption appears to be a supermassive black hole, but the team is still puzzling over why it was so gigantic.
The explosion came from the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. Like most large galaxies (including our own), the one at the epicenter of the blast has a supermassive black hole in the center. Astronomers have seen energy bursts from black holes in the past, some of which were staggeringly powerful even from millions of light-years distant. This one didn’t just edge out the previous record-holder, though. The Ophiuchus blast was five times more powerful than the next most powerful explosion. So, we’re lucky this explosion happened in a galaxy safely on the other side of the universe.
According to the team, the burst was so powerful that it punched a hole in the cocoon of plasma surrounding the black hole. That hole was about as large as 15 Milky Way galaxies, which really drives home how enormous the explosion was. The X-ray energy pouring out of the fissure was intense enough that we could see it here on Earth. The researchers used four telescopes to observe those signals, including NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and the ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory.
The Chandra observatory is one of the instruments that led to the discovery of this enormous explosion.
In addition to being massive, the explosion took place very slowly over the course of hundreds of millions of years. Tracing the X-ray signal back pointed the way to the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster. It’s a bit like archaeology,” Johnston-Hollitt said. “We’ve been given the tools to dig deeper with low-frequency radio telescopes so we should be able to find more outbursts like this now.”
Initially, the team dismissed the idea the X-ray signal came from an energetic outburst because it would be “too big.” That turned out to be exactly what it was. It’s unclear what made the black hole expel so much energy, but the team is attempting to find out. They’re not conducting more observations of the blast’s origin using more antennas, which should increase the sensitivity of readings by at least ten times.
The 2020 Geneva Motor Show got the hook early Friday in the wake of the Swiss government’s concerns about coronavirus and a ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people. The show’s first events were scheduled for Sunday, with media days beginning Monday, and public days from March 5-15. As of Thursday, show organizers had been reassuring exhibitors, the media, and the public that the show was definitely going ahead.
Geneva draws about 600,000 to its annual, early March dates. While other major shows draw a million visitors, Geneva has been important because it’s not seen as the host country’s show, the way Frankfurt, Tokyo, and Detroit are seen highlighting German, Japanese, and American cars.
The immediate issue is keeping the public safe, dealing with coronavirus (also called COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2), and its implications. Current research suggests coronavirus is fatal in 2 percent of cases while influenza is fatal in about 0.1 percent of cases – 20 per thousand infected versus 1 per thousand. What’s not known is what percentage of the population might be afflicted; with the flu, it’s about 8 percent, but can vary depending on the strain that season.
New Car Intros We Now Won’t See in Geneva
Among the major Geneva show introductions that now will have to be handled in some other way include:
Audi A3 Sportback (wagonlike), and possibly a sportier, longer-range e-tron S EV.
BMW i4 EV, as well as plug-in hybrids on the 3 Series and X2 crossover. Tesla scoffs at plug-ins, but they’ve got at least a decade of life where they can provide many of the benefits of EVs, but without the range anxiety.
Fisker Ocean, an electric SUV that was teased at CES.
Honda Civic refresh, plus EVs that won’t come to the US (Jazz, Honda E).
Hyundai was to reveal a new electric-drive platform with the Prophecy concept.
Jeep was to provide more details on its plug-in hybrids that were shown at CES.
Kia Sorento SUV, fourth generation.
Mercedes-Benz, E-Class midlife refresh, and the Mercedes-AMG GLA 45, claimed to have the most powerful inline-four-cylinder engine ever.
Toyota crossover based on the subcompact Yaris sedan.
Volkswagen Golf GTI and (for Europe if not the US) and the sport Golf GTD, where D is for diesel.
Concerns for the Health of Auto Shows
The cancellation of the Geneva show will amplify the discussion about the financial health of auto shows in general. The last traditional Detroit show (NAIAS) was in January 2018, with soft attendance and the absence of many high-end, international automakers tired of spending millions to market cars Michiganders aren’t likely to buy when they have friends-and-family discounts for Fords, Chevys, and Ram pickups. And with the Detroit show in January, more high-profile introductions shifted to CES in Las Vegas. So that’s the reason for problems in Michigan. Detroit hopes for a reset with the re-emerging as a celebration of spring with more outdoor events, running June 9-20.
A worse sign for auto shows is the absence at the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS), which begins with press days the Wednesday before Good Friday, then has public days through April 19. The three biggest German automakers are gone this year: Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. Porsche will exhibit. Audi issued a statement that it will “continue to evaluate auto shows on a case-by-case basis moving forward to determine if they are the best platform for US and world premieres of our upcoming models.” For every luxury automaker, metro New York is typically their biggest market, and if not it’s in the top three along with Los Angeles and Miami.
Auto shows serve multiple purposes. New cars are introduced at the show. Automakers can sometimes milk the same car for as many as three go-rounds: world premiere, North American premiere, and on the off chance a car was introduced in Canada or Mexico first, the US premiere. Add the debut of the concept car, sometimes early concept and late concept, and you’ve got five. All this gives the media something to write about, and gets the public thinking about buying cars. But splashy events can become expensive. An off-site event with special effects and transportation of guests easily tops a million dollars.
The public days give potential buyers a chance to see cars. That’s when the automaker staffs are for the most part departed, leaving the regional dealer associations to staff the booths. There’s an open question about how effective shows are now at luring serious prospects when they can learn so much online. If automakers skip the shows, the dealer groups wind up shouldering more of the cost of the booth space.
Finally, there’s the interaction of automakers, media, analysts, and academics. The LA Auto Show, Nov. 20-29 this year, again has a conference and showcase focusing on green cars and the environment, called Automobility LA, that has been well received. Detroit countered with Automobili-D but it didn’t get quite the response. It’s also a time for automakers and suppliers to talk on background about future plans, and for job-seekers to pass around business cards.
The cancellation hit so quickly that Geneva’s media page was still offering credential information Friday morning.
All through the week, show organizers had said game on, but they urged automakers and media to be screened if they had concerns about being infected. At the same time, automakers had been pulling top executives from the show, which meant canceled briefings for analysts and media. And some organized media trips supported by automakers had been canceled as well. For small companies and individuals who bought non-refundable airline tickets and reserved hotels, that money is lost.
By midday European time Friday, the Geneva International Motor Show (GIMS) landing page carried a brief note:
The 90th edition of the GIMS, which was supposed to welcome the media from next Monday and the general public from 5 to 15 March 2020, will now finally not take place. This is an injunction decision of the Federal Council of 28 February 2020 that no events with more than 1,000 people are allowed to take place until 15 March 2020.
Last year, we covered one man’s efforts to upscale Star Trek: Deep Space Nine using Topaz Gigapixel AI. If you’ve ever attempted to watch DS9 on Netflix or Amazon, you know what a shame that is. The version of DS9 that you can stream via online services sucks, to put it kindly. The streamed version of the show ranges from slightly worse to much worse than what you’d get from an MKV rip or original DVD. Even if you own the original DVDs, however, DS9’s quality leaves much to be desired.
There are a number of shows that were shot from the early 1990s – early 2000s that didn’t broadcast in HD and were never upconverted to 720p or 1080p. If you love series like Babylon 5, Voyager, or Deep Space Nine, you’ve had few-to-no options for a decent viewing experience… until now. Topaz Labs’ new Video Enhance AI software ($299) uses artificial intelligence to upscale low-resolution video in ways that can dramatically improve on the original image. I’ve spent the last few weeks taking the application for a test drive.
While Gigapixel AI can upscale content, there are actually multiple reasons not to use it for the task. The app will not allow you to load large numbers of images at once and in the past, it’s had a bad habit of crashing every 500 – 600 frames. Considering there are roughly 66,000 frames in an episode, it looked as if improving DS9’s image quality would require an absolutely insane amount of work.
Way of the Warrior upscaling in progress. Click all images to enlarge.
Then, a few weeks ago, Topaz released a new product, Video Enhance AI. Instead of literally unpacking a TV show into each individual frame and then upscaling them one by one, Video Enhance AI is designed to convert entire video files at once. Performance on a GTX 2080 is roughly 95 frames per minute, or approximately one episode every 10.5 hours. While this represents a non-trivial time commitment to rip several seasons, it’s vastly better than Gigapixel AI’s demonstrated performance. Whether GP produces better results or if these results can be further enhanced via application of Topaz AI’s other software suites is something I intend to explore in greater detail in future articles. For now, we’re focusing on Topaz Video Enhance AI, specifically.
How Topaz Video Enhance AI Works
Topaz VE allows you to choose the quality level of your source from three options: High Quality, Low Quality, and HQ-CGI. HQ-CGI boosts anti-aliasing in CGI scenes, and I also ran some specific tests of this setting on the test episode I converted and will be demonstrating today. On a show like Deep Space Nine, you’ll definitely want to use LQ — a 720×480 initial input is basically the poster-child for a low-quality upscale. If you were trying to scale 1080p video up to 4K or 8K, you’d want to use the HQ setting. The application has very few options beyond choosing your file output name, your desired level of upscaling (200 percent and 400 percent were both tested here), and what file format you want to output in. Choose your starting and ending frames, hit the button, and away you go.
Be advised, however, that Topaz Video Enhance AI isn’t capable of passing audio to the newly encoded file in at least some cases. All of our test encodes came out sans audio. We recombined the audio streams into the primary video file using FFMPEG.
How We Tested
I’ve performed all of my testing with MKV files I created from the DS9 boxed set years ago. After seeing how this project came out, I actually intend to dust off my old DVDs (when I can find them) and try this project directly on the DVD source itself. ExtremeTech does not endorse piracy or recommend stealing Deep Space Nine or any other television show. If you’re interested in this kind of upscaling, you should buy the DVDs. It’s entirely possible you should do that anyway, given that the source will almost certainly be a better target for this kind of scaling.
I’ve performed a number of test runs and gathered comparison data from HQ-CGI versus LQ, as well as a wide range of Netflix – MKV – Upscaled comparisons at both the 2x and 4x scaling factors. I’ve also included a range of screenshots to show the benefit of increasing the default brightness a bit even if the DVD source is all you have. And we’ve got some YouTube uploads for you, to show the benefits of the upscaling using the DS9 credits.
Let’s get started. For starters, here’s the Defiant under attack in three frames from “Way of the Warrior.” These three are not frame-matched identically, so focus on the architecture and clarity of the ship, not the disruptor fire striking it. This is Netflix, MKV, and 4x upscale, in that order. All images can be clicked to enlarge in a new window.
Netflix, in all its smeary glory. The phrase “USS Defiant” around the saucer edge looks more like a row of windows.
The MKV rip based on DVD source. The shot is much clearer and “USS Defiant” is legible, but the overall quality still isn’t very good.
Finally, our 4x upscale. The quality level here still isn’t truly HD, but it’s vastly better than anything in the previous frame.
These were some of the first tests I did, and I was quite impressed with the results. Let’s look at a larger cross-section of an episode. Click on each image to enlarge (and you’ll want to, in order to see the degree of improvement).
Call to Arms Comparisons
All of the following screenshots and comparisons are taken from “A Call to Arms”, the 26th episode of the fifth season. I’ve included both 200 percent and 400 percent comparison images in this collection to illustrate the trade-off from each size. The best balance between visual quality and image size that I’ve seen is to upscale either 200 percent from the original DVD or to upscale 400 percent and then watch the stream at half-size.
Obviously most of you are going to be reading this on monitors, not TVs, but I checked the output quality on a standard TV set as well. If you’re sitting at standard viewing distances, all of the versions look better, but the 400 percent upscale benefits the most. I’ll call out which comparisons are 2x scaling and which are 4x scaling comparisons. All Netflix comparisons are 4x, because Netflix doesn’t allow for resolution-based resizing.
I’m going to cover image comparisons first, before I hit the video comparisons.
MKV versus 2x/4x Upscaling
Weyoun docked at Deep Space Nine. MKV.
Weyoun docked at Deep Space Nine. 4x Upscale.
The amount of detail recovered from this scene compared with the MKV is impressive. There’s a smeary sort of vaseline look to the MKV file that isn’t present in the upscaled version.
At just 2x zoom, the original MKV doesn’t look so bad…
But the improvement in the upscale is still very impressive.
Video Enhance does strong work with the starship battles in Deep Space Nine. The front of the Jem’Hadar battleship looks downright sharp. Compares 4x upscaling displayed at 1:2 ratio to standard MKV displayed at 2x size.
Netflix versus MKV versus 4x Upscaling
This screenshot of Deep Space Nine under heavy fire is a poster child for why the Netflix version of the TV show deserves to be drug out into the street and shot. The entire frame is noticeably orange-r (and these frames are matched — you can tell by the exact position of the pieces of debris in the lower-right-corner, inside the fireball).
The MKV original dumps the reddish lighting and looks a bit less blurred, even though it has the same base resolution. Color balance is better.
Our 4x upscale. The station and explosions both benefit enormously.
Next up: A comparison of the same Jem’Hadar battlecruiser that serves as a poster child for why the Netflix version of the TV show… wait. I already said that, didn’t I?
Well, it’s still deserved. Here’s Netflix.
Check the aliasing on the left wing of the battlecruiser. It looks like it was rendered in Quake II, which is impressive, considering DS9 is still using models at this point in time.
Here’s the DVD. Much better as far as the left-hand wing, and better overall preservation of detail, but still not great compared with what we’d want in a modern show.
Much, much better. Quite good, in fact. Alright. We’ve done two battle scenes — let’s take a look at how some of the character shots come out.
Weyoun’s unctuous used-car salesman vibe made him a great character foil for Gul Dukat. Netflix is still the blurriest option of the lot, but the gap between it and the MKV file is much smaller than normal.
Here’s the MKV file. Not much difference, though it’s minimally clearer and doesn’t have the weird color issue Netflix does.
Again, the upscale does a good job of drawing out subtle detail in Weyoun’s eyes and face. His jacket texturing is also much less blurry.
Improve Image Quality by Bumping Brightness
The color reproduction in the Netflix version of DS9 is terrible and the MKV just isn’t much better, but a small tap to brightness can improve the situation, in my opinion — and this option doesn’t require any upscaling or processing time. Here’s the Netflix version, followed by an MKV screenshot.
Netflix. Slightly brighter, but less detail.
MKV file. Dim and rather poor-looking, but slightly more detail.
Nudge brightness up a bit in-player, and you get this:
Rome — Actually Visible Edition. (season to taste)
Whether or not you consider this an improvement is in the eye of the beholder, but many DS9 episodes are much darker than I remember them being when I watched them the first time, and this tweak doesn’t require anything but a software player like VLC that supports it. Finally, here’s the same image upscaled 400 percent in Topaz VE.
Check his jacket texture compared with the image above.
I’ve also tossed a number of images into the slideshow below, with both space battles and additional characters. Check them out if you’re curious. The slideshow does a nice job of showing subtle improvements when it shifts from one image to the next.
Opening Credits
If you’d like to see what the opening credits to the show look like when rendered in 200 percent and 400 percent upscaling compared with the standard version, I’ve embedded YouTube links to all three below. Note that while the first link isn’t mine and does look slightly worse than what you’d see on Netflix, it’s honestly pretty close. Make sure to set the second and third links to 720p and 1080p, respectively. Both of these encodes were done using the HQ-CGI mode.
The standard introduction. Full-screen for best comparison — and this is only very slightly worse than what is available on Netflix.
200 percent AI upscaling using the HQ-CGI preset instead of LQ. HQ-CGI yields better results on some special effects, though I’m still working out what the subtleties are. The 200 percent upscale is subtly different than the 400 percent. Set to 720p for best comparison.
The 400 percent upscale. Set to 2160p for best comparison.
Discussion and Analysis
If I’m being honest, the existing encode quality I’m seeing is about 85 percent of where I’d like it to be. I’ve already found myself wondering if some of Topaz AI’s other tools might be deployed to perform some additional post-processing where it’s needed. The application struggles with graphics displayed on terminals or PADs, and I’m still testing to see if that can be resolved within Topaz Video Enhance AI or not.
The MKV version. Obviously not everything from the mid-1990s has aged well.
This is one place where the upscaling effect *doesn’t* improve image quality.
I’m not going to claim that upscaling like this simply makes Deep Space Nine look like it was shot in modern times. The color reproduction is bad in all cases and no matter how good an upscaling algorithm is, it’s still an upscaler — and therefore not the same as having the original data via 35mm film. These are all fair complaints. There are still some places where I’m hoping to clear up these files further. But the output I’ve gotten is leaps and bounds ahead of the MKV versions I’ve got, and vastly better than the Netflix streams. I’m already planning to encode most of the show — I just want to see how much additional improvement I can squeeze out first.
On a big-screen TV, Deep Space Nine is barely watchable via Netflix or Amazon. The old MKV rips I did years ago aren’t much better, which is one reason I’m going to return to original source for my next round of tests. But while I may not have a perfect solution to present day, Topaz Video Enhance AI has taken the idea from “Maybe someday,” to “Holy crap, this works now.”
Low quality source for DS9 is typically better than HQ source as far as I’ve seen, but I’m still checking if HQ-CGI can be spliced into an MP4 that uses LQ for everything else. I may also check Gigapixel again, just to see how the AI upscaling method compares, or if other Topaz Labs products can improve the final output further.
Performance-wise, both AMD and Intel systems perform identically when you test using a GPU — the RTX 2080 averaged between 95 – 105fpm (frames per minute). CPU encoding is 10x slower than GPU encoding, so I’ve only begun testing that mode. GPU encoding has a reputation for not being quite as good as CPU encode in applications like Handbrake, but I haven’t yet seen evidence it’s true in Topaz Video Enhance AI. Even if CPUs do give better results, 9-10 frames per minute would mean 110 hours per episode. Even if the quality jump was dramatic, I’d only use the CPU for trouble spots — the encode time is just too long otherwise.
These software packages and techniques have significant applicability to shows beyond Star Trek. Series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer were converted for HD, but fans hated the way color balance and the 16:9 conversion were both handled. Babylon 5 can’t be remastered due to massive rights entanglements and the destruction of its original assets, which means an upscale project like this would be its best bet.
I intend to write more on this topic in the future, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the preview. Topaz Video Enhance AI and other Topaz products are available for 30-day free trials, which is how I tested the application. You can also purchase it at the current introductory price of $199, down from $299 standard. If you’re a serious cinephile who enjoys this kind of editing, it’s worth it.
