Includes:
Video AI 4
Photo AI 2
Gigapixel AI
DeNoise AI
Sharpen AI
Also some other bundles available with less items at a lower cost.
I got charged $461.34 with westpac.
Here's last year's deal for comparison: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/737070
Yeah, it's a fair amount. I justify it due to the fact that you're getting lots of quite amazing products on a permanent licence. Although, the AI industry is moving very fast and you only get 1 year of included updates I think.
One thing that is definitely holding me back is the way they do their licensing.
But the best thing about them is their licensing?
Compare to Adobe, at least.
@[Deactivated]: 1 year's worth of upgrades doesn't sound that great to me. I don't buy a lot of software so I don't know how it compares to other companies.
@ozbs25: No worries. I'll put it this way…
Would you rather;
A) Pay $460 to own the software and get a year of updates; or,
B) Pay $460 for a one-year subscription, and the software stops working immediately at the end of the year unless you renew?
A is Topaz's business model, while B is Adobe's business model. Also, Adobe would charge a lot more than $460 anyway :P
@ozbs25: Adobe is by far the biggest though.
Do you know anyone who offers similar software with a better model?
There are some FOSS out there, but none of them compare imo.
@[Deactivated]: I just think you should just get free upgrades for your version, for example, Video AI 4.
@ozbs25: Sure, that would be nice, but I'm not aware of anyone in this market that operates that way.
Developers would argue that it's akin to buying a car then expecting free servicing forever.
It doesn't seem that way to us because we see our individual car being worked on, but not our official software, but those are essentially the economics of it.
@[Deactivated]: But new versions come out every two years or so, so it's not that much of a stretch.
@ozbs25: Release logs show more frequent updates than that, about quarterly for their main products:
@ozbs25: Ah, do you mean you want updates for the software version 4.x.x until it's end of life, which is only ~2 years?
@[Deactivated]: Yes, I don't think I'm asking for that much really. At this stage I'm basically asking for an extra year upgrade thrown in for free.
Maybe once/if the tech becomes more mature and they don't change their versions so often, then paying for major upgrades like 4.0 -> 4.6 make more sense. You can hold off upgrading until they introduce something that really matters to you. As it stands now, you're really just paying for an upgrade which would just be encorporated in the next complete version next year.
Edit: I suppose if they give you some sort of discount for the next version that would help too. I haven't looked to see if they do that.
@ozbs25: To be fair, paying for a second year of support updates on Topaz is still cheaper than actually buying the software again, which is essentially what you're doing when you subscribe to any of the competitors I'm aware of.
Adobe is about $500 year-on-year without any added storage, which is damn-near necessary on Creative Cloud (though Adobe is a lot better overall, and now include just of this AI functionality).
There's only 2 products that receive updates. Photo AI 2 and Video AI 4.. The rest have been abandoned. As someone who uses these products a lot, I've felt that Photo AI 2 went backwards and AI Sharpen did a much nicer job. I have the option to buy another years worth of updates for $99 USD. It's funny because last year it cost me $79 for a years upgrades and that was across 3 products.. Now it's $99 for 1 product.
Do you feel the need to update?
I don't really want to pay $149 USD to buy Photo AI again so $99USD saves me $80 AUD…
I guess I meant, what's stopping you from just not upgrading and continuing with what you've got?
Is anything not "AI" now? …Just another marketing term for most cases.
Might as well call it Topaz Labs Video AI Blockchain Quantum 5G IoT
It's not a sentient GAI or anything, but Topaz does utilise Machine Learning.
At the pace AI is moving I would say these features will be commonplace and free in a lot of apps in the coming years as it's a basic function. Considering it's not lifetime updates they are definitely just taxing the current trend of AI.
Looks as you're right. VideoProc Converter AI claimed to do it as well with fraction price. Lifetime License A$67.95 down from A$115.90 on BF.
edit:But probably they didn't use avx-512 or avx2 for AI.
I use Video AI, great upscaling and framerate recovery tool, gives my 3080 a good workout!
That's a lot of money but it is a significant discount. Maybe one day I'll bite.