I have been working with Topaz Video AI Starlight Mini since its initial release. Following the most recent update (version 7.0.1), I have encountered a consistent issue affecting all videos I attempt to restore, regardless of the notebook I use: a dark, defective band always appears at the bottom of the video.
For comparison, I processed the same video on the same machine using both versions: the previous version, 7.0.0.4b, does not produce this artifact, whereas version 7.0.1 always does.
I would like to report this issue to the developers, as it significantly impacts usability. The presence of this visual defect necessitates cropping the final video (e.g., using HandBrake) to eliminate the flawed lower section—otherwise, the artifact remains quite noticeable.
I conducted testing across various high-performance processors and multiple NVIDIA graphics cards (including the RTX 3070, 4070, 4080 Super, and 4090), and the issue consistently occurs across all configurations and with every video processed.
It is truly unfortunate that updating the software has resulted in such a regression, rather than an improvement over previous beta versions.
I would also like to confirm reports made by other users: there is no significant increase in processing speed (in terms of frames per second). While the software appears to start faster during the first 2–3 minutes of processing, performance soon reverts to previously observed levels.
I have been working with Topaz Video AI Starlight Mini since its initial release. Following the most recent update (version 7.0.1), I have encountered a consistent issue affecting all videos I attempt to restore, regardless of the notebook I use: a dark, defective band always appears at the bottom of the video.
For comparison, I processed the same video on the same machine using both versions: the previous version, 7.0.0.4b, does not produce this artifact, whereas version 7.0.1 always does.
I would like to report this issue to the developers, as it significantly impacts usability. The presence of this visual defect necessitates cropping the final video (e.g., using HandBrake) to eliminate the flawed lower section—otherwise, the artifact remains quite noticeable.
I conducted testing across various high-performance processors and multiple NVIDIA graphics cards (including the RTX 3070, 4070, 4080 Super, and 4090), and the issue consistently occurs across all configurations and with every video processed.
It is truly unfortunate that updating the software has resulted in such a regression, rather than an improvement over previous beta versions.
I would also like to confirm reports made by other users: there is no significant increase in processing speed (in terms of frames per second). While the software appears to start faster during the first 2–3 minutes of processing, performance soon reverts to previously observed levels.
It happens with 2x and 3x. Also with 1920x1080. I have not tested the others due to time constraints. I also tried to use videos converted well with previous versions, but now with the new version they come out with the same defect.
Same issue here. I didn’t think about looking for issues after upgrading and that has cost me 138 hours of upscaling that will have to be redone.
UNACCEPTIBLE Topaz.
Further to this issue: The line happens in 7.0.2 as well.
In talks with T/S, I found that part of my issue was my source.
Upscaling archived 480p video to 1080 FHD, I didn’t crop out the distortion at the bottom of the video and T/S thought that might the culprit as starlight processes everything it “sees” and I had the dark area and also some flickering.
So I cropped the video and ran a test through 7.0.0 and 7.0.2.
The 7.0.0 output was clean but the 7.0.2, while there was no flickering, did have the problem at the bottom of the video.
Hope that helps.
I have just encountered the same issue. Source footage is clean, cropped correctly so there are no distortion at the bottom, but the result has the same kind of darkened deformed bar that what you’ve posted.
I believe this is due to the resolution. My footage is 696x408 which starlight is trying upscaling to 1280x750. Perhaps the fact that it cannot fit it properly in 1280x720 is causing issues.
