Video AI speed question

Video AI General
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Computer: MBP 2023, M2 Max, 96 GB RAM, OS: Sonoma 14.0
File: 6 second clip exported from FCPX as a .mov

This is the trial version I downloaded and installed today: v.4.1.0, using all default settings as set upon first launch.

Just wondering if this is normal behavior as this is my first time trying this software and have no idea what I am doing. From the few YouTube videos I tried searching through, no one really seems to show playback, some even made adjustments and jumped straight to export without showing the playback preview within Topaz at all… so not sure if that’s because they don’t want to show how painfully slow it is?
After opening the file I checked the stabilization option and had to wait maybe 20mins or so before it would playback a preview. Couldn’t see much change as my subject is completely overlayed with the Topaz logo. So thought I would check the Motion Deblur and see what that does, hoping for a more noticeable change… but the preview never became accessible. Just shows the darkened overlay + logo with the words processing over it. After another 25 - 30mins, got bored and tried checking the Enhancement on. Had to wait another 20 - 30 min (possibly longer?), but at least the preview finally became available, although extremely slow and jerky. I am currently trying to export it rather than preview it, since that’s what the YouTubers seem to do, in the hopes that I can just watch it playback smoothly but it’s been maybe half an hour and it’s 30% done. It just seems overly slow for something that FCPX handles with ease and nearly no wait.I assumed slower processes because I assume Topaz will be doing a lot more, but this just feels unusable. Does the non-trial version perform better?

I also did try abandoning the file at one point, closing everything and starting over, but ended with the same results. Just wondering if this is normal? Can anyone recommend any YouTube videos that actually showcase using Video AI 4 while doing playback inside the interface vs just exporting without previewing. Preferably someone using features such as Stabilization, Motion Deblur and Enhancement? I am trying to see how this would improve my wildlife videos.

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Thanks for taking the time to reply. I perhaps didn’t explain what was happening very well. I had been (trying) to use the Preview button. That’s what most of this post is about, the Preview button and the lack of performance from it. I only attempted the export as a last ditch effort.

I guess the sort of good news is that the export did successfully complete at some point over night. So yay for successful export, but having to let the computer run while I sleep just to see a 6 second clip with some edits applied the next morning doesn’t seem like a good workflow.

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Sounds like you’re trying to do uncompressed 8K footage. What are the details of the clip: Codec, resolution, frame rate? What is the AI model and settings you’re trying to run?

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That’s such an awesome offer, thank you. It was more of a test run to see if purchasing Topaz was worth with it, but I decided not to, or at least to hold off for now, based off this experience. Super cool of you to offer to help though. Thank you.

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Wish I had come back earlier to see this before I threw the files I had been testing with away so that I could get those details for you. Once I got the export out the next morning, and I didn’t see too much improvement, I dumped all the files and figured Topaz just wasn’t for me yet. I do remember the AI model was literally just the default when you flip the on switch (for the few that I mentioned earlier), at that point I was too leery of trying to customize anything for fear of it grinding to a halt.

Perhaps in the future I will give it another go and pay more attention to the specifics of my export settings from FCPX.