And for Season 1—the shaky, spiritual, Ferengi-heavy, beautiful start of the best-written Trek series—that AI upscale was a revelation.
In 2020, several major fan projects reached maturity, specifically targeting the first season to improve its notoriously soft, standard-definition appearance:
For archivalists, it’s a 7/10. For fans who can’t stomach the DVD, it’s a 9/10. Just remember to squint during the wormhole scenes. i--- Star Trek Deep Space 9 S01 Ai Upscale 1080p- -2020
By late 2020, several major AI projects were circulating, each with different visual goals:
Other notable 2020 versions included the JoyBell/UTRCorp 1080p release (12 GB per season) and QueerWorm’s 960p variable bitrate version. Technical Challenges of Season 1 Just remember to squint during the wormhole scenes
Because AI upscalers often process frame-by-frame without perfect temporal awareness, you’ll notice fine details (like the grilles on the Promenade railings or Kira’s earring) “breathe” or flicker from shot to shot. One frame looks sharp, the next soft.
The year 2020 was pivotal for AI video processing. Tools like Topaz Video Enhance AI and ESRGAN (Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks) matured. Enthusiasts, realizing that the studio would never officially remaster DS9, took matters into their own hands. One frame looks sharp, the next soft
The file responded. The video window expanded, spanning across his dual monitors. The AI—trained on billions of images of space and geometry—was no longer just cleaning up Deep Space Nine . It was using the show as a template to build something else.
| Release | Sharpness | Artifacts | CGI Quality | “Film Feel” | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | Low | High (blocking) | Original (Soft) | Natural | | Official Broadcast | Very Low | Medium | Original | Natural | | This 2020 AI Upscale | High | Very Low | Hallucinated/Bad | Waxy/Plastic | | Theoretical Official Remaster | Perfect | None | Re-rendered | Perfect |
Watching the 2020 release today is a nostalgic time capsule of early AI tech. Compared to the raw DVD, it is miraculous. Compared to a hypothetical 2025 4K scan, it is flawed.
The 2020 fan-led projects for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) Season 1 represent a significant milestone in preserving the series for modern 1080p displays. Because CBS has not officially remastered DS9—citing the high cost of rebuilding low-resolution CGI and rescanning film—dedicated fans have used machine learning to bridge the gap. The 2020 AI Upscale Movement