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AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

nytimes.com

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Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#231

Post by shepherdjerred »

dusted wrote: post #158

It used to be that (rational) people would be fairly in agreement that one cannot extract information which is not there. That's why we laugh at the "zoom -> 9 pixels -> enhance -> clear picture -> zoom ->.." trop in movies.. AI does not change this.. It adds stuff that's not there, sure, it adds stuff that might be there, or could have been there, but it literally cannot know, so it just paints in plausibility.. Whi…

> AI does not change this.. It adds stuff that's not there, sure, it adds stuff that might be there, or could have been there, but it literally cannot know, so it just paints in plausibility.. Which is horrible and gross already in principle.

That's essentially how the brain works, too.

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#232

Post by [deleted] »

incrudible wrote: post #205
MrVandemar wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious, how is Aliens a "goofy 80s film"? It contains very little of humour, all the cast and the director are taking it seriously. I'll buy Goonies as a goofy film, but Aliens? I remember someone glued to a wall and screaming in agony as a creature tears its way out of her chest. I remember the ratcheting tension of the motion-detectors getting more and more high pitched as nothing is happening but we're expecting…

To me, there is something intrinsically goofy about space marines going out to fight the insectoid aliens, even when it is not as much on the nose as e.g. Starship Troopers. It is also not meant as a negative, I really like the movie for what it is.

[deleted]

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#233

Post by recursive »

mort96 wrote: post #212
crazygringo wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's not all. Just a lot of the ways. Too many of them. That's the point I'm making. You can buy expensive HDR displays that actually display correctly where it's not dark. They're just expensive, and so most people aren't buying those ones. So I will repeat, the problem is not with HDR content . It's with displays advertising themselves as HDR when they're simply not.

Maybe people should stop publishing HDR content if it worsens the viewing experience for almost everyone then?

Maybe "almost everyone" should stop buying it?

Spatial audio is like this too.

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#234

Post by mort96 »

recursive wrote: post #233
mort96 wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe people should stop publishing HDR content if it worsens the viewing experience for almost everyone then?

Maybe "almost everyone" should stop buying it? Spatial audio is like this too.

Oh yeah spatial audio (at least what iOS calls "spatial audio") is horrible. I disable it everywhere I can, but it has to be disabled in control center per app. Some apps stop playing audio when you open control center, making spatial audio seemingly impossible to disable there. There's not a single instance where I prefer having the audio sound like it's coming from the device.

However, like HDR, it can be difficult to avoid. My laptop screen supports HDR because the laptop is otherwise exactly what I want and it doesn't come in a non-HDR variant. My earbuds support spatial audio because I elected to get AirPods Pro for their other qualities and they don't come in a non-HDR variant.

"Vote with your wallet" isn't really an option with things like this.

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#235

Post by bobbylarrybobby »

mort96 wrote: post #234
recursive wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe "almost everyone" should stop buying it? Spatial audio is like this too.

Oh yeah spatial audio (at least what iOS calls "spatial audio") is horrible. I disable it everywhere I can, but it has to be disabled in control center per app. Some apps stop playing audio when you open control center, making spatial audio seemingly impossible to disable there. There's not a single instance where I prefer having the audio sound like it's coming from the device. However, like HDR, it can be difficult…

I thought that Spatial Audio is different from “audio coming from the device” — the former is better physical separation of sound, the latter adjusts left/right balance when your head turns. And the latter can be disabled globally for AirPods.

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#236

Post by [deleted] »

MyFedora wrote: post #116
dmitrybrant wrote: post #10

My biggest gripe with these AI film enhancements is that they are adding information that was never there. You're no longer watching the original film. You no longer have a sense of how contemporary film equipment worked, what its limitations were, how the director dealt with those limitations, etc.

Most people don't care. Photographers had a real great time pointing out that Samsung literally AI replaced the moon, but some Samsung S21 Ultra users were busy bragging how great “their” moon pictures turned out. Let's judge AI enhancements like sound design: Noticeably good if done well, unnoticeable if done satisfactory and noticeably distracting if done poorly. The article shows a case of noticeably distracting,…

[deleted]

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#237

Post by recursive »

mort96 wrote: post #234
recursive wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe "almost everyone" should stop buying it? Spatial audio is like this too.

Oh yeah spatial audio (at least what iOS calls "spatial audio") is horrible. I disable it everywhere I can, but it has to be disabled in control center per app. Some apps stop playing audio when you open control center, making spatial audio seemingly impossible to disable there. There's not a single instance where I prefer having the audio sound like it's coming from the device. However, like HDR, it can be difficult…

It's one of the weights that you put into your purchasing decision. The phone that has all of my desired characteristics is kind of hard to find, and getting harder.

But, the net effect is still in the right direction, maybe.

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#238

Post by mort96 »

bobbylarrybobby wrote: post #235
mort96 wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yeah spatial audio (at least what iOS calls "spatial audio") is horrible. I disable it everywhere I can, but it has to be disabled in control center per app. Some apps stop playing audio when you open control center, making spatial audio seemingly impossible to disable there. There's not a single instance where I prefer having the audio sound like it's coming from the device. However, like HDR, it can be difficult…

I thought that Spatial Audio is different from “audio coming from the device” — the former is better physical separation of sound, the latter adjusts left/right balance when your head turns. And the latter can be disabled globally for AirPods.

I guess the option I'm thinking of is "Spatialize Audio", not "Spatial Audio". My bad.

Anyway I've listened to music mixed for Apple Music with "Spatial Audio" too and it sounds like crap compared to normal stereo mixes IMO so I guess my opinion stands.

Where do you configure "Spatialize Audio" globally? I can't find anything in the Bluetooth settings (where they've hidden every other AirPods config)

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#239

Post by nerdix »

The AI upscaled 4K UHD version of Aliens is freakin' amazing.

I know the main complaint with upscaling older movies is that it can remove most of the film grain and that can give people a waxy, mannequin like look. But they really found a nice balance in Aliens.

I watched the non-UHD a few months ago and just recently saw the 4K version and the difference was pretty stark.

Re: AI made these movies sharper – critics say it ruined them

#240

Post by robertlagrant »

incrudible wrote: post #159
chefandy wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right. That director almost certainly chose that particular film because that particular grain lent the film the vibe they were looking for. Directors always look for ways to implement their artistic vision within the bounds of the medium, but the end results is almost certainly their artistic vision. A lot of that missing information is missing for a reason. Surely someone could use AI to invent things that go in al…

In the case of Aliens, James Cameron is explicitly saying he just went with Kodak film that was available at the time, which everyone was using. I will submit that directors are not generally the right people to call the shots here. A director can never watch his own movie the way the audience does. They always see an unfulfilled vision, a compromise being made here and there because of technology being limited, and…

> In the case of Aliens, James Cameron is explicitly saying he just went with Kodak film that was available at the time, which everyone was using.

State of the badass art.

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