Thank you very much for your perspective and measured view, though I am still critical of this company, yet I can fully understand how both companies differ from their source of revenue… But my earlier comparison was less about what the company sells as much as how they sell it, and present the customer value for their money…
They take too much for what they offer, it is not an even trade in my opinion as a customer and honestly, as a layman when it comes to running a business, as I can only comment as a customer and not as someone who has studied or has experience with running a business…
The main thing that I do know, is that a business, and consumer relationship is purely a symbiotic one, as you cannot run a business without customers, and you can’t get goods/services without a business, the topaz/consumer relationship is however, heavily skewed towards the business.
As it takes too much from the customer, and heavily inconveniences them with the real potential with getting locked out of the program that they spent hundreds of dollars on, I can understand the idea of rentware, but to lock one out of the very program that they spent hundreds on is an egregious level of contempt for the business/customer dynamic…
Again, thank you for your response, it was very informative, and I learned much from it!
Everyone is entitled to an opinion based upon their personal feelings about the subject, so no disrespect intended.
I generally avoid subscriptions, but I had to look at the value offered to ‘founding customers.’ The pace of AI software development has been very rapid, and there is often a key feature added within the course of a year or so that entices me to purchase an upgrade of an individual app, especially within the realm of AI video enhancement. This past year exemplifies this with Project Starlight, and - especially - local processing of this diffusion model.
My active license for Video AI was due to lapse in just a couple of months, and this seems to be a pivotal time in improvement of the product. It’s highly probable that I would have paid for the renewal, and it’s very possible that the cost to do this would be higher than this subscription to Studio.
So I’m very pleased with the package, since I’ve also already paid for Photo AI and Gigapixel AI, which were due to expire in November. This one annual cost will cover all three products, along with the other apps & credits. For my use, it’s an incredible value, as long as development, support and improvements continue.
I do have one concern: that there may be promises broken, whether it’s removing or otherwise changing existing features, backing away from the frozen subscription price, or pulling a stunt like renaming an existing app that has added a new feature and claiming that it’s a whole new product.
I’m very happy to be able to take advantage of this opportunity. But I’m keeping my eyes open to potential abuse in the future.
I got the “transition completed” mail the night from Monday to Tuesday, but my account still says “pending studio transition”. Contacted support this morning.
Likewise thank you for your viewpoint and to be frank you delivered an interesting perspective with a well considered argument if that’s not to strong a word and I honestly have to agree.
Not really excited about this sudden change out of nowhere. Everything you guys have produced is a beta project and has been for years. I got rid of Adobe because of the subscription nonsense, and at least I had warning they were going to do this, way in advance. I won’t be spending another dime for Topaz products. I’ll use the ones I have until they won’t work for me anymore, since I know the workarounds to most of the bugs by now.
If anyone has any questions about their account, or what the transition status is for your specific account, make sure to reach out to help@topazlabs.com and the Accounts team can have a look at your account and clarify any questions you have. While you are welcome to share here, this is a user forum to talk amongst yourselves, to avoid being misinformed, it is best to reach out to us directly at help@topazlabs.com and we can see your account and clarify any questions you have.
If you are not interested in the Studio offering altogether, you can cancel your auto renewal from your Subscriptions page and keep using your owned perpetual apps instead and not have any further charges made. It is important to mention you would lose the locked in lower price you had by doing so, and if you revisit Studio in the future, you would access the regular pricing: Product Pricing - You can contact us if you want guidance on the best choice for your needs!
For any late joiners wanting to turn on auto-renewal or add in perpetual apps to their account, you still have until October 3rd (extended deadline). To get the full Studio offering, you need 2 active Subscriptions and it will unlock the full Studio offering.
Then choose the product needed from the below links (they will only be renewals if you own the app already, or be the full license if you do not own the app yet).
You can contact help@topazlabs.com if you want to confirm any details before or after the addition. Again, the deadline was extended to October 3rd for any late additions.
Want to use the new apps?
Even if your account is still being transitioned, you can access the new Desktop Studio apps right away, here: Topaz Labs | Downloads.
Since the email said, “The transition to Topaz Studio is currently in progress and will take a few days. For now, there’s no action you need to take. You’ll receive an email notification once the account transition is complete.”, I thought I didn’t need to do anything at all.
I now realize that in order to unlock Studio, I needed to turn on annual auto-renewal for my products (in my case, Video AI and Gigapixel). I had assumed I could just wait until closer to the expiration date to enable auto-renewal, but I was mistaken.
I have just turned on auto-renewal for both Video AI and Gigapixel, and it looks like the transition has now started.
Sorry for the confusion, and thank you for your clarification.
This is a brilliantly compiled wealth of information, I gained much respect, about topaz due to learning the origins of this company, as they did start literally from programming plugins, now they are the leaders of AI video enhancement to date.
So thank you very much for this!
They do, however, need to take the millions upon millions of video collectors, hobbyists and data hoarders, who absolutely engulfs the entirety of the average user, by a far margin into account.
As there are millions of forums dedicated to collecting legitimate videos, films, and the like and those millions upon millions of collectors are constantly on the hunt for new programs and will ditch one if it’s no longer convenient for them to keep using and/or they find a suitable replacement…
I mean, once you establish yourself as a company you should be securing as large of a demographic as possible, while making your program convenient and flexible, as well as the tech, as that will attract more people to your software…
And you don’t do that by locking out access, nor charging for simple program *updates retroactively, once they bought your program, this is however, an established trend for the tech industry, so it comes down to Topaz’s choice to follow them or not.
*(although upgrades are another matter altogether)
Thanks cbrillow - because of your reply I did read all infos again and got in contact with topaz support - and I changed my mind!
I didn´t know before how this founding customers price works and that I could benefit from it too.
You are right - if it really works this way it is an incredible value and I have to say:
Sorry Topaz for blaming you because I got things wrong! That was my fault.
It wasn’t my intention to change your mind, but I’m pleased that you read my words without feeling insulted and carefully considered your initial decision.
I hope that the change-of-heart is one that you will appreciate in the coming months and that you have a great experience with the suite of tools we now have at our disposal!.
Does the price and date apply for EVERY of the three main apps? My Gigapixel ‘old’ sub ends a bit earlier, than the ‘old’ Video AI sub, and Photo AI has it’s sub ‘prolong-ement’ button wiped out of existence ().
Hence my question, since I don’t know if should I watch out for the ‘main’ (screenshot) subscription date, or ‘old’ ones?
The current payment system will continue as normal meaning as and when a payment is due Topaz will take that money as usual so, if Gigapixel’s payment is due first followed by, Topaz Video Topaz will collected those payments as before and Photo will be collected when that’s due so, no chance to your current payment schedule.
Having said that, there maybe a time in the future when Topaz will decide to make things a little easier and collect one payment for the year.
I don’t know I don’t work for Topaz but, it would seem to be the logical thing to do.
That would be troubling as ‘legacy’ Photo AI doesn’t have an ‘extend’ option anymore (so no time expansion), and when I had also Gigapixel, as well as Video AI added as ‘legacy’ subscription, the Gigapixel one got cancelled, and the Video AI got transferred as a ‘main’ one to the new page. I’m assuming that is the subscription I am supposed to be ‘watching’ (with the pricing and stuff, as a ‘founder’).
Yes, if Topaz Video is your only application the payment will be taken as and when your original Topaz Video AI payment is due and not forgetting the price is locked in for as long as you maintain your Auto-Renewal Subscription meaning, no future price increases.
Yeah, but my question is - as it’s a ‘Studio’-marked sub - if the two other apps also are included in it. I’m assuming they are, but I’d like a clarification on this from Topaz.
No sorry, if you have a single qualifying application you are only entitled to the Founders Topaz Studio version of that one application which includes the Pro Starlight Models and the price locked in
If you want the full Founders Topaz Studio then, you need to purchase one more application to gain access to Seven Applications including Topaz Photo, Gigapixel and Topaz Video and a whole host of goodies which includes Pro Models for all three applications and you’ll be paying the Locked in price for two of them.
If you’re interested in that deal may I suggest getting Gigapixel on an Auto-Renewal Subscription because, that will give you the cheapest deal with your Topaz Video.
Unfortunately the deadline was yesterday so, I suggest contacting Topaz Support immediately here’s the link I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to help you
).