The frame compare with slider does not work properly. If you pause preview playing and slide cursor, the frame used for compare is not the same bteween “before” and “after”, so it is hard to see the true difference and adjust settings accurately.
Topaz Video AI v5.0.4
System Information
OS: Windows v11.22
Been a known issue for ages and as you say is frustrating.
I have found setting the slider back to the preview begining, hitting play then pause seems to bring it back into sync.
Giving a try to your method after my current encoding.
Also I noticed that after being processed, the preview frame rating is very slow as if it was computed again. i have to fully watch the preview scene, to watch it in a second pass for the godd frame rate.