[60 fps] The Flying Train, Germany, 1902
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters share it as a favorite example of upscaled vintage footage that makes the early 1900s feel present, though some find the colorization off.
What it is
Neural-network upscaled, 60 fps, stabilized and colorized version of 1902 footage of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn suspended railway in Germany. The source film comes from MoMA. It gives a vivid view of an early-1900s city and a train system that still runs.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2020 to 2023.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec peteforde · 2023-12 · on “They want you to forget what a film looks like”
I'm not a film expert, but I like to think I have taste? And yet, somehow the recent Beatles projects reduced me to tears on several occasions. Am I secretly a chud in denial, or are my tastes just offensive? Look, everyone has the right to be an elitist on their own film blog. The author didn't ask us to read what he said. However, his entire thesis is dramatically undermined by the simple fact that he didn't attempt to grab even a single comparison frame from the original releases so that a reader can A/B them and make up their minds for themselves. As to his distaste for those upscaled and colorized vintage shorts, I'm happy to go on record and say that I love them. In fact, watching thes
Recommends GeekyBear · 2021-10 · on “The Hindenburg disaster denoised, upscaled, and colorized using ML [video]”
I've really come to enjoy these sorts of upscaled videos that allow a view of various cities in the early 1900's. New York: [LINK] San Francisco: [LINK] Paris: [LINK] Wuppertal, Germany: [this video]
Cites Animats · 2020-08 · on “Ride through Wuppertal on ‘the flying train’ in clear footage from 1902”
The 4K upgraded version, with good speed correction and somewhat lame colorization.[1] Here's a cab ride today, from the back end.[2] [1] [this video] [2] [LINK]
Critical Animats · 2020-10 · on “Colorized and upscaled footage of a snowball fight filmed in 1896”
That colorized well, or seemed to, since the original had little color. It had to color "building", "snow", and "skin". That's about it. Here, though, is a similar technique applied to the Wuppertal monorail.[1] The colors are all wrong. The supports was really lime green, the overhead track was brown, and the carriages were a glossy red. Since the training set lacks data for 19th century supported monorails, it's just guessing. [1] [this video]