Blowing up images

[Zebbie]

Anyone watch the CSI programmes on TV and wonder just how they blow-up the images on their screens to the required degree without pixilating.  I do. 
Are these programmes in the realms of stretching the truth a bit or can it be done, but costs the earth?

[RJ_Paton]

Are these programmes in the realms of stretching the truth a bit

By quite a margin 

or can it be done, but costs the earth?

If the image has the information already there the information can be extracted but the idea of a computer system which can create non existent information from a few clues isn't quite with us yet.

Most (if not all) professional photographers who use digital imaging do so using RAW files  at the highest settings available and wouldn't touch jpeg's with the proverbial bargepole .....

Many digital CCTV systems are capable of capturing images at much higher resolutions than ordinary video and again if the required information is there a suitably high powered computer system could zoom in without as much pixellation as normally seen but I believe a lot of "artistic license" is used in those shows

[Zebbie]

Many thanks for replying to my query - and in layman's language.

I was mulling over this topic after looking at some old photos.  Occasionally you can lighten the image to see inside the rooms of houses or perhaps people who thought they would be out of camera range (in the shadows).

But if would also be great if it were possible to see what was in a shop window.  See example.

Zebbie

[RJ_Paton]

You would possibly find that the original negative developed and printed with modern methods and materials would allow a much higher quality print than jpg would