Topaz Video AI is a wonderful tool already, but many users do not have access to either powerful or multiple computers. The temptation is to use our main or most powerful computer to do the video rendering, but the downside is that this computer is now tied up, many times for days or weeks (months?) trying to clean up, or upscale, and render one, or more, video(s).
I know many have already requested this, but I’m also requesting a Linux/Unix version which supports both GUI and CLI, much like other video processing projects do, such as HandBrake, and of course ffmpeg (mostly CLI).
Many users have one or more Linux/Unix boxes because it is less expensive, and allows reuse of older computers which have outlived their usefulness as desktops.
If Topaz Video AI could offer a Linux-based version which opened up CLI access, it would allow background, and possibly batch, processing of video files using our older, non-primary computers, so we could continue using our main/higher powered computers for day-to-day projects.
Network Rendering would be another request. If the program has already been optimized for multithreading, it should be well on the way to take advantage of implementing network rendering, so we could use multiple, older computers to help with reducing the rendering time.
The master computer could either be the desktop/workstation (Windows or Mac based… possibly Linux), or could have a Unix box designated as the master for the render queue, to render by itself, or with the help of slave computers to network render the queue jobs. The job or queue itself could be moved as needed back and forth between the desktop/workstation or the Unix master box on the network. To simplify interaction with Topaz on model updates, the designated master would be the computer to pull updated models from Topaz, and could share or handoff those updates with the desktop/workstation.
Of course, any feature/version request is normally very simplistic compared to all of the work involved to get the program working, but the additional features could be monetized to offset the expense.
It would be nice to have all of the features included in a one-program price, of course, but additional levels of enhancement could be offered as an add-on, or a more complete version for additional cost.
This would also position Topaz Video AI to not just be a workstation-only program, but also have the option of being adopted as a workflow component for larger content companies looking to batch process multiple videos.
Thank you for considering these suggestions!
