Dallas To Get Remastered In HD

[Matthew Blaisdel]

Well you can't remaster a complete opening sequence. It is only available as seen on TV. If you want it to be in HD you need to remake it from scratch from the source material on film and that naturally means you are recreating it, including overlaying the credits. There is no other way I'm afraid unless you just upscale it but that wouldn't be true HD.

You are not up to date here. With AI upscale you can make normal SD material look like HD, everyone can do that even at home nowadays for example with the Topaz AI Upscaler. Several shows have been transfered to astonishing HD by private persons already, the source were just normal SD-DVDs.
Of course it's not as good as it would be if they did a rescan of the film material. But it still looks quite amazing what you can do with lousy SD material that was edited on video. Take Star Trek Voyager or Deep Space Nine for example, those went to the the same video editing process as the last few Dallas seasons at the time and there are amazing looking HD clips available on youtube, done by fans with that Topaz AI video upscaler.
So, OF COURSE Warners had the possibility to make those opening credits look waaaaay better than they look now ... they just didn't give a damn about it.

 

[Knots4ever]

You are not up to date here. With AI upscale you can make normal SD material look like HD, everyone can do that even at home nowadays for example with the Topaz AI Upscaler. Several shows have been transfered to astonishing HD by private persons already, the source were just normal SD-DVDs.
Of course it's not as good as it would be if they did a rescan of the film material. But it still looks quite amazing what you can do with lousy SD material that was edited on video. Take Star Trek Voyager or Deep Space Nine for example, those went to the the same video editing process as the last few Dallas seasons at the time and there are amazing looking HD clips available on youtube, done by fans with that Topaz AI video upscaler.
So, OF COURSE Warners had the possibility to make those opening credits look waaaaay better than they look now ... they just didn't give a damn about it.

I'm very up-to-date and aware of that. It doesn't meet HD quality and it creates horrendous artefacts around fonts and busy scenes. To create HD material you don't upscale, you go back to the original prints. Why would anyone go through a painstakingly slow process, paying people lots of money when they may as well dump old SD files into Topaz or any other upscaler?

Have you tired watching STV or DSN on a big screen?

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

It doesn't meet HD quality and it creates horrendous artefacts around fonts and busy scenes.

No, it does NOT if you give it enough time and GPU power to render properly. Been there, done that myself.

Have you tired watching STV or DSN on a big screen?

Yes, i have them all on my NAS and stream them to the big TV screen and they look amazing compared to the source material. Not the youtube compressed farts, but the original AI upscaled files, that i found online, which are like 4 times the file size of what youtube on 4K settings gives as a stream - and of course that way with artifacts, but that's youtube's fault, not the AI engines'.
Those upscales are already one or even two years old and the AI gets better and better as it is in constant development.
If they had done THIS with the title sequence, i would be more than satisfied already:

And even this example is a year old and the engine is far better now. And the more GPU-power and time you give the upscaler, the better the outcome.
Of course it doesn't look the same as a new scan of filmmaterial would look, but still way better than what we got now, and if those negatives of the shots for the opening are lost, AI Upscale is the ONLY option to go anyways, so... better that than what we got at the moment.

 

[Brian Kinney]

It doesn't meet HD quality and it creates horrendous artefacts around fonts and busy scenes.

I agree, on people I saw weird light spots right under the nose, eyelids appear unnatural, skin looks too waxy etc.

@Matthew Blaisdel: You will not find many software that is good and easy to use at home (or affordable) at professional video productions. The YT-thumbnail on your link gives a very clear demonstration at the right side what I mean with "waxy" skin. The man looks like a computer game character to me. But maybe it's a question of "Sehgewohnheiten" (viewing habit for the eye? ) ?

 

[Knots4ever]

I agree, on people I saw weird light spots right under the nose, eyelids appear unnatural, skin looks too waxy etc.

@Matthew Blaisdel: You will not find many software that is good and easy to use at home (or affordable) at professional video productions. The YT-thumbnail on your link gives a very clear demonstration at the right side what I mean with "waxy" skin. The man looks like a computer game character to me. But maybe it's a question of "Sehgewohnheiten" (viewing habit for the eye? ) ?

View attachment 45601

Spot on. Just look at what it has done to his moustache! He could be a character seen on Call Of Duty!

AI upscaling is a great thing but it does not make HD out of SD. No one says that it doesn’t make huge improvements to footage but it does so at the cost of making stuff look artificial.
I’ve got a Knots Landing season 1 AI upscaled opening somewhere and while it looks crisp and clear, the ocean looks fake as do the houses during the helicopter flyover.
There is also a big problem with how AI handles overlayed credits vs footage behind them. And then there is the issue of dirt and specks that is on the SD material. AI attempts to remove them but often fails.

 

[Knots4ever]

No, it does NOT if you give it enough time and GPU power to render properly. Been there, done that myself.


Yes, i have them all on my NAS and stream them to the big TV screen and they look amazing compared to the source material. Not the youtube compressed farts, but the original AI upscaled files, that i found online, which are like 4 times the file size of what youtube on 4K settings gives as a stream - and of course that way with artifacts, but that's youtube's fault, not the AI engines'.
Those upscales are already one or even two years old and the AI gets better and better as it is in constant development.
If they had done THIS with the title sequence, i would be more than satisfied already:

And even this example is a year old and the engine is far better now. And the more GPU-power and time you give the upscaler, the better the outcome.
Of course it doesn't look the same as a new scan of filmmaterial would look, but still way better than what we got now, and if those negatives of the shots for the opening are lost, AI Upscale is the ONLY option to go anyways, so... better that than what we got at the moment.

But the one shot that stands out as "WTF?!" (Victoria's in season 10) isn't lost. It's perfectly fine in prior seasons which means the original is available. Throughout the credits of all seasons there are otherwise just a handful shots which aren't as good as others but there are a variety of reasons as to why that is the case. It still beats artificial looking stuff where every single dirt speck, scratch and black dot is not only visible but in fact enhanced.

What you're forgetting with DSN and STV is that both were filmed several years later than Dallas and therefore had their finished masters kept on Digi Beta rather than Betacam or Beta SP. So the source, despite being SD, is of much higher quality anyway.

By the way; this is what TOPAZ does to the Dallas opening straight from a SD DVD copy. Make sure you go to full screen.

Amazing manga style on the buildings in the opening shot and the oil wells

Victoria's credit for comparison. Top one is remastered in real HD. Bottom is TOPAZ'd.

 

[southfork88]

It's hard to decide. They are both pleasant in their own way. Topaz's however makes Victoria in the center a .... manga figure.

 

[Knots4ever]

It's hard to decide. They are both pleasant in their own way. Topaz's however makes Victoria in the center a .... manga figure.

Only beaten by THIS!!

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Only beaten by THIS!!

View attachment 45622

That makes the late Jim Davis look absolutely terrible.

He looks as if he's got deformities on his face and neck.

I hope that these images aren't indicative of the remastering process on the series itself otherwise I won't be touching any prospective Blu-ray release with a bargepole.

 

[captainarcher]

Only beaten by THIS!!

View attachment 45622

I'd awful , if the blu ray edition looks like that I won't buy it. don't wanna buy a cartoon

 

[Garry]

I'd awful , if the blu ray edition looks like that I won't buy it. don't wanna buy a cartoon

Of course any blu ray edition will not look like that. Seriously.

These are the HD titles for the first three seasons.

 

[Knots4ever]

That makes the late Jim Davis look absolutely terrible.

He looks as if he's got deformities on his face and neck.

I hope that these images aren't indicative of the remastering process on the series itself otherwise I won't be touching any prospective Blu-ray release with a bargepole.

I'd awful , if the blu ray edition looks like that I won't buy it. don't wanna buy a cartoon

No need to panic that's exactly the reason why a lot of people spent a lot of time on properly remastering the show rather than just dropping old SD copies into TOPAZ or some other AI upscaler.

The only screenshot of the remastered credits is the first one of Victoria in my post above (the one below the YouTube video).

EDIT: Easier to look at Garry's post and his video.

 

[Luke_Krebbs_Ewing]

Of course any blu ray edition will not look like that. Seriously.

These are the HD titles for the first three seasons.

That's all well and good.

I on the other hand want to see the season ten opening credits in HD!

How about uploading them?

 

[Garry]

That's all well and good.

I on the other hand want to see the season ten opening credits in HD!

How about uploading them?

You'd only end up whining about them for another month. The openings for Seasons 10 -14 were originally created electronically on video. They were constructed from film elements that have long been discarded. An upscale was the only way to go. It's not really a deal breaker after the excellent HD work done on all episodes from 14 seasons.

 

[Matthew Blaisdel]

That makes the late Jim Davis look absolutely terrible.

He looks as if he's got deformities on his face and neck.

I hope that these images aren't indicative of the remastering process on the series itself otherwise I won't be touching any prospective Blu-ray release with a bargepole.

Don't let yourself be fooled , Luke. How long do we know each other? Did i ever post false or missleading informations here in my 18 years on soapchat or tellytalk? That's a rhetorical question.
When i tell you, Topaz AI upscale does great things to SD material, it is the case, otherwise i would not have bothered to download around 300+ episodes of Voyager and Deep Space Nine, if they didn't look nice on a big screen, how stupid would that be?! Of course al real rescan of the film material would be better, i never denied that.
Please do me a favour and watch this youtube video on a big TV screen and make sure that you set the youtube resolution setting manually to 2160p, otherwise you won't see the real difference.

THAT is what Topaz AI does ... not what someone else around here wants you to believe.
And this is still very much compressed by youtube even in 2160p, the real TOPAZ-files on my harddrive look even way better than this.

And the artifacts you see in some places are because of youtube compression, those do NOT EXIST in the original TOPAZ files, because youtube shrinks the files down to like 20% of their real size.

The S10 SD-opening would look very nice AI-Upscaled in this way, and not stupid or waxy. Of course you find bad examples that would bully TOPAZ with putting stupid oilbrush filters over the pictures, like some other user posted above ... there is a term fo it, it's called spreading "fake news".

And for me this discussion is over now, because that's something i learned during the pandemic ... don't discuss with conspiracy theorists, because they will pull out one manipulated (picture or video) argument after another like a magician out of the hat to "proove" they are "right" and will never stop. Such people just bore me to death and that guy with his 79 posts just went to my ignore list, as that is the best one can do.

 

[Knots4ever]

Don't let yourself be fooled , Luke. How long do we know each other? Did i ever post false or missleading informations here in my 18 years on soapchat or tellytalk? That's a rhetorical question.
When i tell you, Topaz AI upscale does great things to SD material, it is the case, otherwise i would not have bothered to download around 300+ episodes of Voyager and Deep Space Nine, if they didn't look nice on a big screen, how stupid would that be?! Of course al real rescan of the film material would be better, i never denied that.
Please do me a favour and watch this youtube video on a big TV screen and make sure that you set the youtube resolution setting manually to 2160p, otherwise you won't see the real difference.

THAT is what Topaz AI does ... not what someone else around here wants you to believe.
And this is still very much compressed by youtube even in 2160p, the real TOPAZ-files on my harddrive look even way better than this.

And the artifacts you see in some places are because of youtube compression, those do NOT EXIST in the original TOPAZ files, because youtube shrinks the files down to like 20% of their real size.

The S10 SD-opening would look very nice AI-Upscaled in this way, and not stupid or waxy. Of course you find bad examples that would bully TOPAZ with putting stupid oilbrush filters over the pictures, like some other user posted above ... there is a term fo it, it's called spreading "fake news".

And for me this discussion is over now, because that's something i learned during the pandemic ... don't discuss with conspiracy theorists, because they will pull out one manipulated (picture or video) argument after another like a magician out of the hat to "proove" they are "right" and will never stop. Such people just bore me to death and that guy with his 79 posts just went to my ignore list, as that is the best one can do.

Woah mate. I spread fake news, am a conspiracy theorist?

Uncalled criticism is one thing, insults are quite another. Dein Englisch ist zu gut um das als „Lost in translation“ abzuwinken.

I could tell you that I’m talking about this professionally - i.e. that’s the work I do but I learned a long time ago not to waste time.

Enjoy!

 

[Chris2]

If we have all of this wonderful AI-based technology to make the show look prettier, why can’t we paste Barbara Bel Geddes’ head on top of Donna Reed’s body for season 8?

 

[Toni]

If we have all of this wonderful AI-based technology to make the show look prettier, why can’t we paste Barbara Bel Geddes’ head on top of Donna Reed’s body for season 8?

"They said what? And what is an internet forum, Mr. Tardis?"​

 

[Brian Kinney]

And for me this discussion is over now, because that's something i learned during the pandemic ... don't discuss with conspiracy theorists, because they will pull out one manipulated (picture or video) argument after another like a magician out of the hat to "proove" they are "right" and will never stop. Such people just bore me to death and that guy with his 79 posts just went to my ignore list, as that is the best one can do.

​

Better: stay out of the sun and drink enough water. ​

 

[southfork88]

Don't let yourself be fooled , Luke. How long do we know each other? Did i ever post false or missleading informations here in my 18 years on soapchat or tellytalk? That's a rhetorical question.
When i tell you, Topaz AI upscale does great things to SD material, it is the case, otherwise i would not have bothered to download around 300+ episodes of Voyager and Deep Space Nine, if they didn't look nice on a big screen, how stupid would that be?! Of course al real rescan of the film material would be better, i never denied that.
Please do me a favour and watch this youtube video on a big TV screen and make sure that you set the youtube resolution setting manually to 2160p, otherwise you won't see the real difference.

THAT is what Topaz AI does ... not what someone else around here wants you to believe.
And this is still very much compressed by youtube even in 2160p, the real TOPAZ-files on my harddrive look even way better than this.

And the artifacts you see in some places are because of youtube compression, those do NOT EXIST in the original TOPAZ files, because youtube shrinks the files down to like 20% of their real size.

The S10 SD-opening would look very nice AI-Upscaled in this way, and not stupid or waxy. Of course you find bad examples that would bully TOPAZ with putting stupid oilbrush filters over the pictures, like some other user posted above ... there is a term fo it, it's called spreading "fake news".

And for me this discussion is over now, because that's something i learned during the pandemic ... don't discuss with conspiracy theorists, because they will pull out one manipulated (picture or video) argument after another like a magician out of the hat to "proove" they are "right" and will never stop. Such people just bore me to death and that guy with his 79 posts just went to my ignore list, as that is the best one can do.

Youtube video ... Wow !