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Topaz Labs changes

kagharaht

kagharaht

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 7, 2007
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Recently found out Topaz going full subscription web based services. Only maintenance and bug fixes for local apps now. Looks like no more further development. Video credits to do videos so you end up spending a lot of $ doing that. Anyone have suggestions on similar apps not web based subscription? Have you tried and compared to similar quality as Topaz?
 
Black_Mage said:
Where are you getting this information? There's nothing on their website that says they are abandoning apps that run locally.

www.topazlabs.com

Topaz Labs | Professional-grade photo and video editing powered by AI.

Photo and video enhancement software powered by deep learning gets you the best image quality available for noise reduction, sharpening, upscaling, and more.
www.topazlabs.com www.topazlabs.com
Click to expand...
looks like some license holders have gotten some emails and posted about it here:
www.mu-43.com

Topaz Goes Subscription

On another forum, a member there posted THIS e-mail he received from Topaz Labs regarding a new business model; changing to subscription. I for one, will not be upgrading and will ride this dead horse until it drops. No subscriptions for this guy.
www.mu-43.com www.mu-43.com
 
Black_Mage said:
Where are you getting this information? There's nothing on their website that says they are abandoning apps that run locally.

www.topazlabs.com

Topaz Labs | Professional-grade photo and video editing powered by AI.

Photo and video enhancement software powered by deep learning gets you the best image quality available for noise reduction, sharpening, upscaling, and more.
www.topazlabs.com www.topazlabs.com
Click to expand...
From the FAQ page.

Screenshot 2025-09-08 at 8.39.07 AM.png
 
I definitely dont want to run any Topaz product on any cloud, I've got my own hardware and I want to use it. Besides the videos I upscale are absolutely huge and trying to upload/download that on my internet connection just aint happening!
 
Ok, just because they won't update perpetual versions doesn't mean all apps will run on their servers. It looks like they will no longer do business by selling apps with a one time purchase. A lot of companies are going with a subscription model. I'm more likely to give their video upscaling app a try now that I know I won't have to pay $300+ upfront. That's a win for me. It sucks for people who prefer to pay once and use as long as they want. 1Password is the same way. I keep paying because I really like it.
 
Black_Mage said:
Here's another option, but I don't know how good/bad it is because I never tried it.

www.aiarty.com

Aiarty Video Enhancer – Upscale, Denoise and Enhance Videos with AI

Aiarty Video Enhancer is the industry-leading AI video enhancer to denoise, deblur, upscale, and restore videos with more details. Made for content creators, videographers, and anyone with low-quality footage.
www.aiarty.com
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Yes that looks pretty good. I also checked out Hitpaw and Unifab. So I have 3 alternatives that can be used.
 
I thought a few months ago they announced enhancements to Topaz AI to do even better when run locally on Apple Silicon?

EDIT: Starlight mini announcement... thought it was coming to Apple Silicon?
 
BeatCrazy said:
I thought a few months ago they announced enhancements to Topaz AI to do even better when run locally on Apple Silicon?

EDIT: Starlight mini announcement... thought it was coming to Apple Silicon?
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From their users forum. A response from the Topaz person. With that statement why would a Mac user keep supporting and Paying for their products? "Unfortunately Apple devices aren’t going to be the best way to access the most powerful AI models at this time though, I’d recommend a different platform and GPU setup."
 
kagharaht said:
From their users forum. A response from the Topaz person. With that statement why would a Mac user keep supporting and Paying for their products? "Unfortunately Apple devices aren’t going to be the best way to access the most powerful AI models at this time though, I’d recommend a different platform and GPU setup."
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Booooo. Link to the discussion? I have a paid license, but I may need to re-evaluate how much I mentally invest in using the platform.
 
kagharaht said:
It's on their Support Community Forum. This link should go straight to that post. https://community.topazlabs.com/t/topaz-studio-transition-questions/95039/213?u=rdpa
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Thanks.

Dang it, I'm still confused after reading several dozen of the posts in that thread.

I have a perpetual license for VideoAI with an active subscription until Dec '25.

Starting Sept 15, 2025 - I will be a "founding member" and have 'exclusive access to powerful Studio models', which means what? I have access to cloud rendering until Dec '25, in addition to my stuck version of the perpetual/local software?

If I buy another license (like GigaPixel?) before Sept 15, 2025, I get the full suite/Studio tools in the cloud, but only until my 1-year maintenance window runs out?

I realize this is supposed to be straightforward, but it's not clicking for my brain :(
 
BeatCrazy said:
Thanks.

Dang it, I'm still confused after reading several dozen of the posts in that thread.

I have a perpetual license for VideoAI with an active subscription until Dec '25.

Starting Sept 15, 2025 - I will be a "founding member" and have 'exclusive access to powerful Studio models', which means what? I have access to cloud rendering until Dec '25, in addition to my stuck version of the perpetual/local software?

If I buy another license (like GigaPixel?) before Sept 15, 2025, I get the full suite/Studio tools in the cloud, but only until my 1-year maintenance window runs out?

I realize this is supposed to be straightforward, but it's not clicking for my brain :(
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I think the Studio apps are also local. What bothers me is that they really don't support the Mac or optimization for the Mac. It's just an after thought to make it work with the Mac is what I feel reading that post. Then going full subscription now stops further development of the 3 main apps we run locally. Just bug fixes or maintenance. Now the studio apps only works when you keep your subscriptions yearly. You stop paying it stops working and if your on a Mac it's not optimized at all.
 
kagharaht said:
I think the Studio apps are also local. What bothers me is that they really don't support the Mac or optimization for the Mac. It's just an after thought to make it work with the Mac is what I feel reading that post. Then going full subscription now stops further development of the 3 main apps we run locally. Just bug fixes or maintenance. Now the studio apps only works when you keep your subscriptions yearly. You stop paying it stops working and if your on a Mac it's not optimized at all.
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This situation keeps getting worse!

Especially when you assume today's 'frozen' local models will lose support for the upcoming macOS 2x.x (eventually, 3 years?).

I could almost justify moving workloads to my Windows machine via local versions, if my perpetual licenses kept getting updates.

I see this quote:

"As a founding customer you will get free access to the Wonder and Starlight family of models at no extra cost as well in Studio."

Does this mean I can run updated versions Starlight locally, on Mac or Windows? In perpetuity? Assuming I have an active VideoAI license.
 
@kagharaht OK, I've done some more reading and I think I've digested it all.

  1. Last year, I paid an initial (non-renewal price) $209 for VideoAI. It's set to expire Dec '25
  2. I can currently buy GigaPixel AI for $99
Assuming I do #2 above before Sept 15, 2025... I will have access to perpetual versions of both VideoAI and GigaPixel (which I have little to no use for), but stuck at their current versions/capabilities.

However, by having these two, I will have access to the full Studio suite of Topaz services for 12 months? Because my 2nd perpetual license will extend both VideoAI and GigaPixel for 12 months from date of purchase?

And, my annual subscription price for the entire Studio suite will be locked at an annual price of $xx?
 
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kagharaht said:
I don't believe this guy. They still haven't fix Gigapixel Redefine (full use) for M3 users. It doesn't work. It hasn't worked right since version 8.0.2 in December 2024. Starlight was suppose to come to local version also, but now it's only for studio. I'm not supporting these guys anymore. I'm moving on.
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Ya, yours is a very reasonable take.

I filled in a few more blanks for my personal situation. My $209 for perpetual VideoAI license is a sunk cost for me, and if I drop $99 within a few days, I get the privilege (ha!) of spending $213/yr + tax ($149 for VAI + $64 for Gigapixel annual renewals) to get the entire Studio suite. Which apparently you get more cloud credits for the Studio package vs. just just what a $149/yr VideoAI Studio sub (founder's price) would get you.

The TBD in all of this.. how much will VideoAI and the others run as a per-year subscription? We don't know. I have a suspicion the annual prices will be the same as the perpetual licenses costs are now, but you 'lock in' your rate. Mine would be $213/yr vs. at least $299-$399 for the full Studio suite.

To be clear, the photo stuff is not of much interest to me, and even the video is an occasional project.

Although my daily driver is a Mac Studio, I do have a PC with RTX-3090 that is pretty much dormant, so I could use it for local Starlight mini rendering and supplement with cloud credits to quickly experiment with models. Could be interesting to toy around with.

$19/month (after my taxes, but paid annually) is mildly interesting for me... You get $30/month worth of cloud credits (for video, cloud image processing is free) for that $213/yr price. Not a horrible deal, if you take advantage of them.

SCR-20250910-rqqs.png
 
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Well @kagharaht today is the day. The Studio apps are available (bundled only!) for an annual price of $399/yr. Maybe they run a Black Friday deal for $299?

Instead of renewing my Video AI, I bought a year license of PhotoAI ($199) and GigaPixel ($99).. so I dropped $299 in order to "lock in" an annual rate of $163 ($99 PhotoAI, $64 Gigapixel, $0/free Video AI).

I hope I end up using them regularly.. The $163/yr rate is a bit more than I'd prefer to pay, but still a huge savings over the $399/yr list price or even a potential $299/yr sale price.
 
BeatCrazy said:
Well @kagharaht today is the day. The Studio apps are available (bundled only!) for an annual price of $399/yr. Maybe they run a Black Friday deal for $299?

Instead of renewing my Video AI, I bought a year license of PhotoAI ($199) and GigaPixel ($99).. so I dropped $299 in order to "lock in" an annual rate of $163 ($99 PhotoAI, $64 Gigapixel, $0/free Video AI).

I hope I end up using them regularly.. The $163/yr rate is a bit more than I'd prefer to pay, but still a huge savings over the $399/yr list price or even a potential $299/yr sale price.
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Not doing it. I paid for all 3 and even renewed my Gigapixel License around Jan. Well that version never worked right with M3 Redefine. All of us M3 users can't even fully use that feature and they never fixed it at all. So I basically paid for an upgrade and update and can't even use it for its full functionally so I'm not shelling out money for a company that never bothered to fixed the problem.
 
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kagharaht said:
Not doing it. I paid for all 3 and even renewed my Gigapixel License around Jan. Well that version never worked right with M3 Redefine. All of us M3 users can't even fully use that feature and they never fixed it at all. So I basically paid for an upgrade and update and can't even use it for its full functionally so I'm not shelling out money for a company that never bothered to fixed the problem.
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Is that problem only for M3 Ultra? M2/M4 Max work OK? I realize macOS is never going to be a priority, so either I'll use the unlimited cloud credits for photo work, and move video stuff over to my Windows PC with a RTX-3090.
 
BeatCrazy said:
Is that problem only for M3 Ultra? M2/M4 Max work OK? I realize macOS is never going to be a priority, so either I'll use the unlimited cloud credits for photo work, and move video stuff over to my Windows PC with a RTX-3090.
Click to expand...
I believe it's any M3 Macs. From the Community support forum, all the post about the issue is for M3 Silicon Mac. They never bothered to fix it.
 
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