Topaz Video Enhance AI experience

Video Enhance AI Discussion
#1

For starters, I can’t post in the “Video Enhance AI Discussion” so maybe someone can move this message there.
I bought Topaz VEAI recently and it’s not been a great experience. I started with 2.6.0 and the 2.6.1 update came out and of course the update failed to install. The download of 2.6.1 also failed to install. I followed the directions in the forums to get 2.6.1 to install cleanly and it still ran into all sorts of weird problems.

Here’s one bug. I tried to start a Gaia HQ upscale and Topaz started creating tons of tiny mp4 files. (I can’t upload pictures because I’m apparently an untrusted user that only paid hundreds of dollars to be here). https://imgur.com/cbXLtUF You can see in the image (I cropped the file name) but it’s created tons of little files. I quit Topaz and restarted it and the next time it didn’t do that.

Another bug. Sometimes none of the buttons work on launch except the browse button. I can browse to a video file select it but then the entire right panel of “AI Model” choices doesn’t respond to mouse clicks.

For now I’ve dealt with the bugs above by uninstalling 2.6.1 and installing 2.6.0.

Lastly, and this one is a deal breaker. I’m getting about 26 hours into a Gaia HQ upscale on a 4K file to 8K and it crashes my computer every time. I’ve done this 3 or 4 times now. I’m at the point where I’m almost ready to return the software. The entire render is estimated at 3 days, but it never makes it that far.

I did switch from the Nvidia Game driver to the Studio driver. I’m on the latest Studio driver which is 472.47. I’ve got a more than capable system:
Intel i9-10900K
Nvidia 3080
32GB of RAM

I also have a portable A/C unit with some insulation running on the computer the entire time, That plus the water cooling means my temps are extremely reasonable.

Are there any tricks for figuring out why Topaz is causing my system to Blue Screen? Any settings I should be looking into?
Thanks.

#2

What does the blue screen message say?

#3

I took a photo of two of the blue screens. One says the stop code is UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODE_TRAP the other said DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. Other crashes I wasn’t able to see the blue screen, by the time I looked at my PC the screen was just black but the PC was powered on. I couldn’t get the screen to come on, so I always had to force power down.

#4

Hello, I can not use the application 2.6.1 at all under Win 10. The downloads do not work at all - neither when I want to download them via the manager nor when mods should be downloaded if I directly select a model. Each time the downloads hang just before completion or start over in a loop. This application frustrates me in the highest degree. I have contacted support and am now waiting for a response. Despite the relatively low price of black friday I will see that I get my money back.

1 Like
#5

My opinion: 2.6.1 was a rough release. You can download the older 2.6.0 version from this post: Video Enhance v2.6.1 scroll just a bit down and look for the v2.6.0 version. It seems much more stable to me.

I have currently asked Topaz to refund me the difference between what I paid a few weeks ago and the 99.99$ Black Friday sale price. Their support site, until yesterday, said that they would refund the difference if the product you bought goes on sale within 30 days of purchase. They removed that reference sometime in the last 24 hours but oddly left the link in the table of contents at the top of this page. Topaz Labs Refund Policy - Topaz Labs
Edit: Topaz already approved and processed my partial refund. Their support is FAST on a day when they are likely overwhelmed with new users due to their sale.

Anyways, for 99$ I’m willing to jump through a bunch of ffmpeg hoops to get the app to do what I need it to do. Someone Private messaged me a bunch of ffmpeg steps to split up my file into smaller files that I can process individually and recombine. Supposedly I’ll end up with a better output anyways this way. But I wish I could pay Topaz Labs to simply include those steps into Video Enhance AI for me. As it’s time consuming and seems error prone. I’m especially worried I’ll end up with audio out of sync when I start down this path.

Good luck to you.

#6

I’m also having issues with 2.6.1
Trial version was fine so I took the Black Friday deal and now today after processing a bunch of vids, using the same settings as before, it crashes after a short processing time. It hangs my machine as well.

Gonna take your advice and try to download the older version. Thanks for letting us know where to find it.

#7
  1. My VEAI closes by itself after processing for awhile sometimes
  2. Sometimes Chronos Fast v2 stuck progression on last frame
  3. Chronos Fast v2 original 100% speed with higher output fps speeds up my video?? I just want to convert 29.97 fps to 60fps for smoother video.

Overall VEAI feels buggy.

Specs
AMD 2700x
Nvdia 2070 Super
16GB RAM

#8

Same here, mine just closes itself halfway processing. It doesn’t always happen though.

#9

Exact same situation as you. Downloads ‘fail’ and loop over…

I’ve found a workaround for my laptop Dell Precision M6800 with NVidia Quadro K5100M and Intel video.

If I use NVidia as the GPU, and I select ANY model other than the default one, I get the “Downloading ‘a file’, my poppet - don’t you worry your pretty little head about it”, and the program just chews through my seriously expensive internet quota. A real shame that we cannot queue up and download these models overnight etc…

BUT if I swap my GPU for the Intel option, the downloads ‘complete’ and the program starts working as you might expect. Can’t wait for my new Mac to arrive, next year!!!

#10

An update on this situation. I’m still using 2.6.0 but I did notice a couple of crashes there. That got me looking into my GPU temps and I was able to stabilize my system by underclocking my 3080 GPU. I guess they ship them not expecting you to run them full throttle for 6 days straight. I’m tempted to upgrade back to 2.6.1 but for now I’ll just wait until 2.6.2 comes out and the upgrade/installation issues are ironed out.

1 Like
#11

@worldjoe, You’re not alone with the 2.6.0 and 2.6.1 issues. You may want to try v2.3. IMO it’s a stable release and no bugs for me. Your power supply may be having issues. I have a 900 watt one which is ok for my hardware, but you need like 1200w. I’ve had no BSODs or VEAI crashes but it did shutdown (not cleanly) one time before I added the window AC not in a window (funny you have similar cooling too!).

I’m using a GTX1080Ti and that’s fast enough for me. The AC is only temporary and I run it when I do x264 or x265 encodes at max speed (8 core 4.9GHz Intel). Without the AC, the CPU runs around 93C, too hot. At some point I hope to get to a better CPU cooler (if not, I’ll have to lower the OC). The GPU runs around 70C when VEAI is upscaling (no AC). It’s only that cool because I figured out how to create a custom GPU cooling profile in the BIOS (fans are now at max at 50C). The case covers are off to allow cooling from the AC. The driver is whatever gaming driver was available a year ago.

I also disabled Windows 10 updates and telemetry (I don’t web browse on this box). I’ve done work to a 56TB server and also to a local 10TB software RAID1. Speeds are slightly slower over the LAN but in both cases it’s stable. There’s no antivirus on the box.