: Focused on a 960p variable bit rate (VBR) release, arguing that 4K produced diminishing returns and increased "hallucinated" AI artifacts. Technical Challenges of Season 1
: Joel Hruska documented a massive undertaking using high-end hardware, including an AMD Threadripper 3990X, to process episodes through Topaz Video Enhance AI. star trek deep space 9 s01 ai upscale 4k 2020
: Released an AI upscale of Season 1 in 4K by May 2020. By September, they pivoted to a "1080p+" release—upscaling to 4K first and then compressing to 1080p to maintain high visual fidelity while reducing massive file sizes (Season 1 was approximately 99 GB in 4K). : Focused on a 960p variable bit rate