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Also a rather significant achievement: people are actually watching these old videos. Seems like it stands a chance of being the widest distribution of such co

by Groxx 6y ago

Also a rather significant achievement: people are actually watching these old videos. Seems like it stands a chance of being the widest distribution of such content ever, by a large margin. When was the last time most of us consumed century-old media of any kind? Though I understand the historian side of things... every time I've seen major colorizing or cleanup efforts, I've seen far more people looking at them and talking about the history around that time than I'd normally see in, like, a year or more. Feels like a massive net-win to me.

dimtion 6y ago
The difference with a colorizing, cleanup or restauration effort of a material object is that in that case the source material is not destroyed. In that regard, the only downside for historians is that it might become more difficult to find the source material if upgraded versions of it proliferate, but this is not like rewriting or erasing history like some have claimed.
- not2b 6y ago
  I think that as much as possible, links to the "upgraded versions" should include links to the original (the originals are public domain now in almost every case so this shouldn't be a problem). The only danger is if people don't have the originals for reference and think that details in the "enhanced" versions (that might be completely artificial) have more reality than they do; I don't think the historians have a gripe if promoting these colorized, upsampled versions is done in a way that also promotes the originals.
underwater 6y ago
Classical music, Shakespeare, da Vinci, the Bible?
srtjstjsj 6y ago
> I understand the historian side of things You mean the contrarian side of things? There isn't a big movement of historians against this.
- Thuggery 6y ago
  If even that. Really a journalist at Wired that put his voice behind two whole "historians." One of which, Luke McKernan, has this to say recently in the blog where quotes were lifted from: > There has been renewed interest in this 2018 post after it was quoted in a piece by Thomas Nicholson, ‘YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K. Historians want them to stop‘, for Wired.co.uk. The piece is chiefly concerned with the recent ‘upscaling’ of early films done by Denis Shiryaev on the Neural Love site. I rather admire this work, which is reasonably honest about how it has treated the originals, and is fun. Contrary to what the article’s title states, this historian does not want them to stop. I just want there to be better understanding, not least of the consequences.

by Groxx 6y ago

dimtion 6y ago

The difference with a colorizing, cleanup or restauration effort of a material object is that in that case the source material is not destroyed. In that regard, the only downside for historians is that it might become more difficult to find the source material if upgraded versions of it proliferate, but this is not like rewriting or erasing history like some have claimed.

not2b 6y ago
I think that as much as possible, links to the "upgraded versions" should include links to the original (the originals are public domain now in almost every case so this shouldn't be a problem). The only danger is if people don't have the originals for reference and think that details in the "enhanced" versions (that might be completely artificial) have more reality than they do; I don't think the historians have a gripe if promoting these colorized, upsampled versions is done in a way that also promotes the originals.

underwater 6y ago

Classical music, Shakespeare, da Vinci, the Bible?

srtjstjsj 6y ago

> I understand the historian side of things You mean the contrarian side of things? There isn't a big movement of historians against this.

Thuggery 6y ago
If even that. Really a journalist at Wired that put his voice behind two whole "historians." One of which, Luke McKernan, has this to say recently in the blog where quotes were lifted from: > There has been renewed interest in this 2018 post after it was quoted in a piece by Thomas Nicholson, ‘YouTubers are upscaling the past to 4K. Historians want them to stop‘, for Wired.co.uk. The piece is chiefly concerned with the recent ‘upscaling’ of early films done by Denis Shiryaev on the Neural Love site. I rather admire this work, which is reasonably honest about how it has treated the originals, and is fun. Contrary to what the article’s title states, this historian does not want them to stop. I just want there to be better understanding, not least of the consequences.