4K upscaling: when 1895 looks like 2020
AI-based up-conversion is one of the marketing concepts dominating the TV industry. While Samsung and co are trying to sell new TVs, a few tinkerers on the net are reworking old films. Here's how a film from 1895 looks today.
Auguste and Louis Lumière are pioneers in the history of cinema. They were among the first filmmakers in the history of mankind, invented the first cinema technologies and, with "L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat", they made a film which, according to urban legend, terrorised the cinema when it was first shown. Because all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a life-size train appeared on screen in the silent 50-second documentary. It was too much for an 1890s audience.
This film is certainly a classic, but it does not shine for its quality. Until now, a digitised version of the original film was the best version we had. Until it proved to us that upscaling by AI can be useful after all.
Artificial intelligence at work
In 2020, 125 years after its premiere, youtuber Denis Shiryaev reworked the film. He uploaded the video above, only available in 720p quality on Youtube, and then applied Gigapixel AI, developed by Topaz Labs, to the train.
The video is now available in 3840×2160 pixels, the definition known as 4K or UHD. To achieve this, Denis has managed to increase the frame rate to 60 frames per second with Depth-Aware Video Frame Interpolation - software developed as a result of cooperation between Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the University of California and Google.
Denis thus demonstrates what AI upscaling is capable of achieving. When Samsung and co talk about AI upscaling as a TV technology, it's usually to convert the latest 4K blockbusters to 8K. When it comes to upscaling these blockbusters, however, the difference is minimal. Denis, on the other hand, has taken a piece of history and reworked it to achieve the best possible photo quality. If you'd like to compare the original and the 4K60fps version directly, head over to Youtube Multiplier. It is not possible to determine exactly what resolution and frequency was used when the original film was shot. At the time, the Lumière brothers had not thought about resolution and frame rate. These concepts were not invented until much later.
The Youtube channel DeOldify Video has also contributed its two cents. As part of DeOldify's Jason Antic project, the film has been colourised.
Of Terror
One final note: the urban legend that the life-size train arriving right on the canvas in 1895 and spreading terror among the public may have been invented. The legend was picked up in 1994 by journalist and literary critic Hellmuth Karasek in the Spiegel.
A short film once had a particularly lasting effect; it sowed fear, horror and even panic. Panic, is a word that describes the communal experience, a reaction not of individuals but of the public.
Ten years later, historian and film scholar Martin Loiperdinger contradicted H. Karasek in the film magazine The Moving Image. Although the public was impressed, there was certainly no panic.
It wouldn't be the first or last time a film has, according to legend and/or marketing, been too awful for audiences.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.