I've been re-watching star trek voyager recently, and I've heard when filming, they didn't clear the wide angle of filming equipment, so it's not as simple as just going back to the original film. With the advancement of AI, is it only a matter of time until older programs like this are released with more updated formats?
And if yes, do you think AI could also upgrade to 4K.
So theoretically you could change a SD 4:3 program and make it 4k 16:9.
I'd imagine it would be easier for the early episodes of Futurama for example due to it being a cartoon and therefore less detailed.
They were shot on negative 35mm film, and edited on tape in that aspect ratio.
Only some odd scenes and shots were captured on tape, but it was mostly film. They won't need to upscale any live scenes, but they would have to work on rendering all the digital effects and blue screen shots for example. As it was only ever edited on tape, it's unlikely that the digital effects could be ever rendered or upscaled, it would probably need to be entirely reworked from scratch.
Very daunting task.
Although, they did it for TNG. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Edit: Someone pointed out the obvious in a reply. Yes, of course they will need to be scanned for a better resolution scan. I already pointed out it's on film, and even mentioned why it's not just that simple. (Hence the digital effects needing to be redone).
It's worth noting that edited on tape also means that to make hd versions, you have to re-scan all the camera negatives (if they even still exist), then re-edit all the scenes to be exactly the same editing as the tape editing. Plus, all the colour timing needs to be redone.
It's a huge amount of work, and the tng stuff wasn't profitable because of it. It's just too much.
It's too complex to go over in a comment, but for film, it's a process of exposing the film through different filters for different lengths of time to produce the final colours you want
I want to see AI Voyager episodes like people are doing for the Simpsons and family guy. Basic 3d models interacting with each other using generated dialog.
Just Janeway and crew wandering the Delta quadrant violating the prime directive in the name of coffee.