A restored still from the Miles Brothers' “A Trip Down Market Street.” via Denis Shiryaev

A 1906 film of San Francisco was “upscaled” to 4K and the result is stunning

On this day in 1906, the motion picture pioneer Harry Miles climbed aboard a San Francisco cable car and cranked a movie camera. The film by the Miles Brothers movie company captured a view of the thoroughfare — bustling with horse-drawn wagons, bicycles, and newfangled automobiles — as it would never be recorded again. That’s because just four days later, San Francisco was devastated by the great earthquake of 1906.

Now Denis Shiryaev, a YouTuber known for restoring vintage videos, someone has boosted the resolution of “A Trip Down Market Street” to 4K using image-editing techniques that essentially fill in missing details to heighten the realism of grainy films. The result, embedded below, is remarkable. (For full effect, make sure the playback quality is set to 4K under the gear icon at the bottom right.)

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