[Released] The Twilight Zone 2x08 - “The Lateness of the Hour” – AI Restoration Test

[Serling]

As most Twilight Zone fans know, six episodes from Season 2 were shot on videotape rather than 35mm film:

• The Lateness of the Hour
  
• The Night of the Meek
  
• The Whole Truth
  
• Twenty Two
  
• Static
  
• Long Distance Call
  

Because of this, even on the official Blu-ray editions, these episodes are still limited by their original SD videotape sources and look noticeably softer than the rest of the series.
I wanted to see how far current AI restoration could push one of them.

I started with S02E08 “The Lateness of the Hour”, using the official Blu-ray as the source and processing the episode through Topaz Video AI / Starlight.

This is obviously not the same thing as a true restoration from original film elements, since the episode was never shot on film in the first place. AI cannot recover information that never existed in the source.

However, I think Starlight manages to reconstruct a surprising amount of apparent detail, improve facial definition, textures and overall clarity, while making the episode feel much more consistent with the HD presentation of the rest of the series.

I’m including several before/after comparisons from the Blu-ray source and the restored version so people can judge the result for themselves.
The main drawback is processing time. Starlight is extremely slow, and restoring all six videotape episodes represents a considerable amount of computation.

So for now, I have completed The Lateness of the Hour as a test.

If people here think the improvement is worthwhile and there is enough interest in the project, I will probably continue with the remaining five videotape episodes.
This is purely a fan restoration / preservation experiment.

The goal is simply to see whether modern restoration tools can finally give these six unusual episodes a presentation closer to the rest of the Blu-ray set.
The original series and all related material remain the property of their respective copyright holders. This project is unofficial and is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.
I’d be very interested to hear what people familiar with the Blu-ray version think of the comparisons.

The restoration is complete. Feel free to contact me privately if you'd like more information.

Do you think the improvement is significant enough to justify restoring the other five episodes?

[Beber]

It's quite impressive what can be acheived, for sure. Especially on set props like the books and the stair patterns. However I'd say you went too far and the woman's eyes are now overdefined compared to the other facial features. The skin texture seems to miss something as well. I'm only reacting to screenshots, I don't know how it looks in motion, but I guess adding a fake layer of 35mm grain could make the whole thing feel less artificially processed.

[Serling]

It's quite impressive what can be acheived, for sure. Especially on set props like the books and the stair patterns. However I'd say you went too far and the woman's eyes are now overdefined compared to the other facial features. The skin texture seems to miss something as well. I'm only reacting to screenshots, I don't know how it looks in motion, but I guess adding a fake layer of 35mm grain could make the whole thing feel less artificially processed.

Here is the first restored minute: