People are talking about Topaz Video AI because they stopped upgrading their product to Topaz Video, which effectively meant a subscription-based version.
While this might sound like a discontinued product, a user base still exists, and this base consists of people who have purchased a product and own it, and who have rejected the transition to a subscription-only application.
Yes absolutely right a user base does indeed exist however, I suspect many of those users include current subscribers as well as previous customers helping one another as we do within this community and nothing to going to change certainly in the near future.
But, I can only go by past experiences having an Adobe Subscriptions myself since the beginning and before that products knowing Adobe arenât like Topaz when comes to previous versions.
Because, Adobe only allow a limited time of several years before deactivation plus, Adobe have no binding agreement to keep them active.
Looking forward to seeing this play out a year or two from now:
Thereâs no getting around the fact that past Topaz products like Video AI, Photo AI and Gigapixel AI, not to mention even older stuff like Denoise, Sharpen, Mask, etc., are legacy products. We donât have any expectation that these products will continue to get support forever, but we should be able to expect that already paid-for âperpetualâ licensed products should continue to work for as long as the operating systems they were designed for continue to run them.
That means that at some point, these products should no longer need to log into authorization servers that may someday go away, and they should enabled to download and store any support files (i.e., models) they need to run in case that capability goes away as well.
I still have legacy Adobe apps from the days before Adobe went to subscriptions, and although Adobe no longer updates them, Adobe hasnât crippled them and they all still work. Topaz legacy apps should follow the same path.
What happens to existing Topaz software and customers?
Statement:
After the transaction closes, Topaz Labs customers of all sizes can expect continued support and investment in future innovation and Topaz Labs products will remain available as standalone offerings through the companyâs website. Upon close, Topaz Labs CEO Eric Yang will continue to lead the Topaz Labs team.
Translate into English:
If you already use Topaz software, donât panic.
Adobe isnât killing Topaz off or instantly forcing everyone into an Adobe subscription.
The Topaz apps Topaz Photo, Gigapixel and Topaz Video will still be sold on the Topaz website, and the current CEO Eric Yang is staying in charge of the team, and Adobe promises to keep investing money into upgrading those standalone apps.
Why would Adobe kill off Topaz that doesnât make economic sense because, I bet most of the current Topaz customers are also, Adobe Subscribers therefore, itâs better for them to keep a double Subscriptions going then, a single one for the foreseeable future.
In addition, the statement did say customers of all sizes I canât say for definite but I hope that includes maintaining Founder Status because Adobe has shown they are willing to keep legacy setups for instance, the original Photography Plan, they grandfathered existing users who stuck to the original annual Subscription, keeping a 12 year old price structure alive for loyal users while shutting it out for anyone new.
Please donât panic and please donât listen to information you have heard from other sauces that you cannot confirm or do not know to be true itâs just heresay nothing is changing for a while please be patient and wait and see
Andy
Appreciated not all software
If you own an old standalone, boxed version of Adobe software like Creative Suite 4, 5, or 6 that you bought with a permanent serial number, the software itself doesnât expire, but Adobe has taken down the activation servers for many of these older versions.â
The Problem: If you need to reinstall CS4 or older on a new machine, the software will try to âpingâ Adobeâs servers to verify your serial number. Because those servers no longer exist, the software cannot complete activation and will effectively lock you out or limit you to a trial mode.
âThe Exception: If you already have CS5 or CS6 installed and working on an older machine, Adobe wonât magically reach into your PC and delete it. It will keep running assuming your computerâs operating system still supports it.
Hope this helps
This is extremely disappointing, Adobe has predatory billing practices and the last good grace was with their CS6 suite. They continue to destroy and cripple software; an example is the substance painter team and other products they have bought out.
I am all for supporting topaz labs and have throughly enjoyed being a long term subscriber from their perpetual models and new subscription only plan. But the moment I see Adobe try to touch and alter any of this I am instantly out which I fully anticipate. Any long term benefits of being a legacy customer doesnât matter at that point.
With Topaz apps, the big sticking point is that the apps need access to model repositories to function, because all the necessary support files are not installed locally.
If the only problem is authorization servers, there are ways around that, which we probably donât want to discuss here.
Devs, please start a new company and we Founders will all support you!
I recall a very good image processing program called ULEAD PhotoImpact many many moons ago. One day, it was acquired by COREL, another company with a similarly âgoodâ reputation as Adobe.
First, they promised to continue and further develop the product and did so for a couple of years. Then came the end with PhotoImpact X3. Right the âXâ stood for Ex.
I still have a host of native ULEAD files in their âufoâ file format (similar, but incompatible to âpsdâ). None of present days programs, including those from COREL, is able to process them. (Paintshop can open them, but not edit.)
Given the business practices by Adobe already mentioned, I am deeply disappointed by this move. But customers donât count, itâs the shareholders.
I have been associated with Adobe since CS5, but have never used their later products because of the predatory practices, and have been mildly amused by their acquisition of Topaz Labs. Their acquisitions are aimed at improving revenue and sidelining technology to make their products more attractive ⊠note most of their products are purchases not innovation as their core products, Photoshop and Lightroom, use very old technology that is falling down.
Topaz Labs have every right to use this as a return to their investors but the effect on their supporters, their customer base, will be devastating. Once this transaction closes, Adobe will be the primary corporate stakeholder, integrating Topazâs visual enhancement and on-device processing tech into Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Firefly.
Note this will mean that much core technology of Topaz Labs will no longer exist. Topaz have already discarded their original technologies in favor of so called ai and the development of products that have now reached the end of life as development is becoming too expensive so the way forward is to sell to a company that was shaken by the acquisition of Affinity by Canva and the new model they are using ⊠note also that the new development of Affinity has taken a major step forward.
Remember also that the Topaz Labs processing does not respect the Chain of Title to prevent intellectual property infringement lawsuits on any products ⊠that means that individual owners of Topaz Labs products are legally liable.
I only wish that Albert Yang and the original developers were there as the original focus, although a flawed pricing structure, was on groundbreaking technology. Note I have been a user since Topaz started but no longer use their products since their foray into the current pricing structure. So these are my thoughts on a 14 year journey that ended in 2020 as many of us were loyal users.
As a final thought it is unfortunate that Canva did not acquire Topaz Labs as their model is so much better than Adobe ⊠as can be seen since the acquisition of Affinity.
Yeah, Corel did a number on usâŠ
I also still have a number of old .ufo files and a couple of older machines with PhotoImpact Pro that runs.
I found a very efficient method to load and clean up defective video frame images in PI that I havenât been able to duplicate in the retired Affinity stand-alones and, now, Affinity.
Yes very true
Understandable, the only change I see in the short to medium term is probably we will be asked to sign in with an Adobe Account other than that I see why we canât carry on as usual for quite a while.
One thing though a few months ago I put forward an idea as Adobe are using Topaz AI as a Partner Models couldnât that work both ways and allow Topaz, tap into Adobe Lens and Camera connection for Lightroom and Camera RAW instead of using third party software.
yes, please
Will the Topaz stuff be integrated into Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Photoshop? I have been using LrC and Ps for about 15 years. And have had the subscription since Adobe did the switch years ago.
That is what I am worried about concerning my Photo AI, Sharpen AI, Denoise AI, and Gigapixel AI apps. I suspect the activation servers will go away before too long. Topaz should provide an update for all of them that do not require the activation server.
I also have the Studio apps, but want my legacy apps to still work because I donât know what the future holds and may not want to keep the Studio subscription.
Iâd tentatively planned to keep up the Studio subscription as long as there were continued improvements and access, but this turns there whole situation into a huge question mark. (And I have a hunch we already know the likely answer⊠
)
I also have the old AI versions/legacy apps, but they are on a second equally-capable machine with a 20GB AMD GPU that I bought before local Starlight came around with local processing on Nvidia. Itâs great to have the option to split up jobs between that and my 5070Ti machine, but it now seems that I could forfeit the ability to use either if Adobe tightens the scews on us, and I, as serious hobbyist and retiree, find it too expensive to continue paying subscription fee(s).
I fully understand this and find it frustrating that there are frequent references to Topaz Video AI in discussions/groups dedicated to Topaz Video, and vice versa. Itâs not that difficult to keep the names straight, and for the sake of clarity, I think some users should try a little harder to make it clear which app theyâre talking or asking about.
The best article I have read about this so far:
