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Netflix Used AI To Upscale 'A Different World' and It's a Melted Nightmare (vice.com)

(Wednesday March 12, 2025 @11:30PM (msmash) from the oops dept.)


Netflix has deployed AI upscaling on the 1987-1993 sitcom "A Different World," [1]resulting in significant visual artifacts documented by technology commentator Scott Hanselman. The AI processing, intended to enhance the original 360p footage for modern displays, has generated distortions resembling "lava lamp effects" on actors' bodies, improperly rendered mouths, and misshapen background objects including posters and tennis rackets. This marks Netflix's second controversial AI implementation in recent months, following December's AI-powered dubbing and mouth morphing on "La Palma."



[1] https://www.vice.com/en/article/netflix-used-ai-upscale-a-different-world/



Re: (Score:2)

by brunoblack ( 7829338 )

>> has generated distortions resembling "lava lamp effects" on actors' bodies, improperly rendered mouths, and misshapen background objects including posters and tennis rackets.

> Sounds just like translivergrunt posts!

What is a "translivergrunt" post? I can't find anything on DuckDuckGo and then I tried Google.

Re: (Score:2)

by ihavesaxwithcollies ( 10441708 )

No, there is one crazy person that follows him around and writes long-winded, lunatic rambling, crazy, obsessive posts about him. The lunatic is a rabid trumper that has overt and obvious mental issues and should be locked up.

Re: (Score:2)

by rsilvergun ( 571051 )

That would be anything I post while wearing drag. Which is fewer posts than you think but still more than you'd expect.

Also my stalker is now commenting even before I do. Which is hilarious.

What else can AI do? (Score:2)

by RightwingNutjob ( 1302813 )

Can it slice? Can it dice? Can it prepare a five-star, three-course dinner out of a can of beans, an onion, and leftover cold cuts?

Can it replace too-big-for-their-britches skeptics who doubt the flawlessness of AI-generated content?

Can it down-vote my post before breakfast?

Can it play a game?

Can it dominate all the slashdot headlines for days on end to stay relevant?

Who knows?

Where's a link to the video? (Score:3)

by backslashdot ( 95548 )

There's one screenshot on there, I think .. but where's a video showing this? A link I could find was [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] but it doesn't look terrible. I think this is a great idea though, though they definitely need to keep improving the technology. I would like to see my favorite 70s and 80s shows get upscaled.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLX5qaZOaOM

Re: Where's a link to the video? (Score:2)

by topham ( 32406 )

There's a funny thing with video where if you distort anything other than the focus of the scene the core audience doesn't notice it. You pretty much have to be neurodivergent to notice because it isn't the part of the scene that is intended to be the focus.

Re: (Score:2)

by rsilvergun ( 571051 )

I guess but then why bother upscaling in the 1st place?

The ***** Show (Score:1)

by Kunedog ( 1033226 )

I was planning to link this vid even before the one liner at the end:

[1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vI-cTiUj7s

The original 360p video (Score:2)

by 50000BTU_barbecue ( 588132 )

Was the summary written by AI as well? Standard definition NTSC video would be described as 480i, come on now.

Do they have any quality control? (Score:2)

by MpVpRb ( 1423381 )

Does anybody critically watch it before release?

Or do they simply not care

Old-school upscaling doesn't require AI and it's probably all the show needs

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