Topaz Video AI Review 2025: Is It Worth the Price?
- Last updated on 2024-11-16
Table Of Content
Introduction
Whether you are a casual user, vlogger, or photographer, upscaling video quality is often essential in life. Topaz Video AI has become one of the best upscalers that users would choose. This post offers an in-depth Topaz AI review, covering its key features, AI model's introduction and test results, advantages, drawbacks, pricing, and the best alternative UniFab-All-In-One, which can help you learn about this product and decide whether to pay for it. Keep reading to learn is topaz AI worth it.
What is Topaz Video AI？
Topaz Video AI is an advanced video enhancement software, building on Topaz Lab’s Video Enhance AI, that upscales video quality using specialized AI models like Nyx, Apollo, and Chronos. It also supports noise reduction, sharpening, detail recovery, stabilization, and focus correction. With a redesigned user interface, multi-threaded architecture, and customizable presets, it provides an efficient solution for video enhancement. Read on for a review to see if it meets your needs.
Key Features of Topaz Video AI
Topaz Video AI supports all the functions that an excellent AI Video Enhancer should has, and its key features can be concluded into several parts.
Here is a summary table of the various models in Topaz Video AI, highlighting their purpose and key functions:
| AI Models | Purpose | Functions |
|---|---|---|
| Proteus | Enhancement | Upgrade and sharpen medium quality video, fix compression artifacts, anti-aliasing and denoise. |
| Gaia | High quality video optimized for HD and 4K resolutions. | |
| Theia | Sharpen and add additional detail to your input video. | |
| Artemis | Provides a balanced enhancement of detail and noise reduction, with variants tailored for low, medium, and high-quality source footage to address issues like halos and aliasing. | |
| Nyx | Noise reduction and sharpening for low quality video. | |
| Iris | Reducing noise and compression, it's great for recovering faces in low to medium quality footage. | |
| Rhea | Allows fine-tuning several parameters for optimal quality. It's great for fine details. | |
| Apollo | Frame Interpolation | Specializes in non-linear motion and slightly blurry inputs. It can generate 8 interpolated frames per run. |
| Apollo Fast | Fast frame interpolation; suitable for small motion with non-blurry and less-textured inputs. Generates 4 interpolated frames per run. | |
| Chronos | It is suitable for FPS conversion or slow-mo. Processing speed increases linearly with the number of generated frames. | |
| Chronos Fast | Specializes in fast motion with larger changes between frames. (May not be faster processing than Chronos, despite the name.) | |
| Aion | Improves Apollo at handling large motion. Fewer tiling artifacts in high resolution videos. It supports up to 16x slow motion. | |
| Themis | Motion Deblur | Reduce motion blur caused by panning, rotation, or zoom. |
| HyPerion | SDR To HDR | Convert videos from SDR to High HDR. |
Performance of Topaz Video AI
Many users are unable to distinguish the main functions of each model. The following will introduce several commonly used AI models and their evaluation results.
Testing machine
GPU : NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070
CPU：AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Gra
1. Proteus
Proteus supports upgrade and sharpen medium quality video by fixing compression artifacts, anti-aliasing and denoise.
Effect
The Proteus AI model enhances video details, making textures sharper and improving overall clarity.
Disadvantages
It offers balanced enhancements across the video, without focusing on one specific feature.
Facial restoration is limited, with only slight improvement in clarity.
Processing Speed: Exporting a 720P, 30-second, 60fps original video to 4K takes approximately 12 to 14 minutes.
2. Nyx
It is suitable for noise reduction and sharpening for low quality video.
Effect
Noise Reduction: The Nyx AI model delivers excellent restoration results, effectively eliminating nearly all noise from the video.
Sharpening: This model sharpens edges and contours, enhancing the perceived resolution and clarity of the video.
Disadvantages
Possible Over-Smoothing: With footage that has high noise levels, the Nyx AI model may over-smooth the image, causing a loss of fine details.
Limited Impact on Well-Lit Footage: Nyx works well in low light, but its benefits are less noticeable in well-lit footage with minimal noise.
Processing Speed: Exporting a 30-second, 25fps original video takes around 1 minute.
3. Iris
Iris is a general enhancement model for reducing noise and compression. It is great for recovering faces in low to medium quality footage, which is the best model for face recovery.
Effect
Enhanced Facial Details: It sharpens facial features like eyes, lips, and skin texture, making faces more detailed.
Improved Saturation and Contrast: It boosts saturation and contrast, giving the video a soft, realistic look.
Disadvantages
Artificial Appearance: The model enhances face detail well, but at higher resolutions like 4K, the effect can seem over-processed and lack a natural feel.
Processing Speed: Exporting a 720p, 30-second, 25fps original video to 4K takes around 4 minutes.
4. Themis
Themis supports reducing motion blur caused by panning, rotation, or zoom.
Effect
We can see the subtle difference between the before and after, where the edges of the original video were slightly blurred. The restoration has sharpened the edges and eliminated motion artifacts.
Disadvantages
Stuble Changes: It effectively stabilizes and reduces noise, but the overall visual changes may be subtle, making it ideal for users looking for moderate improvements rather than dramatic transformations.
Processing Speed: Exporting a 720p, 30-second, 25fps video takes between 30 seconds to 1 minute.
5. Hyperion
Hyperion SDR-to-HDR model is a new model being tested by Topaz Video AI, designed to convert videos from SDR to HDR, and is expected to launched officially soon, although the test results were not favorable. Here is the comparison between the native HDR and Topaz HDR enhanced videos.
Enhances colors and contrast, making the image more vibrant.
Delivers a natural, realistic HDR look without over-saturation.
Some content may not benefit from the conversion as much as others.
Processing Speed: Exporting a 10-minute SDR original video to HDR10 format takes approximately 14 to 15 hours.
Topaz AI Models Comparison: Rhea vs. Proteus vs. Iris
Overall, all models offer smoother facial restoration compared to the original video, significantly improving the character's appearance.
- Rhea delivers the best restoration, with the character's details and facial texture looking just right.
- Proteus still appears a bit fuzzy overall, with less defined texture.
- Iris provides clearer results with sharper details.
When zoomed in, Proteus and Iris both show some facial distortion or warping after processing, though Iris tends to maintain better clarity.
Is Topaz Video AI Free?
You might be wondering if Topaz Video AI is free? We want to inform you that the price of Topaz Video AI is $299 lifetime, includes one year of unlimited upgrades, If you want to subsequent update the software, you need to pay $149 per year, and the prices change every year.
Steps Involved In Enhancing Videos Using Topaz Video AI
Step 1: Get Started with a Free Trial
Step 2: Import Your Video
Step 3: Explore Enhancement Options and Adjust Settings
You will find various video enhancement options on the right side of the interface. The functions can be broadly grouped into the following categories: Preset, Video, Stabilization, Motion Deblur, Frame Interpolation, Enhancement, and Grain. You can set the parameters you need.
Step 4: Export Enhanced Video
Click the "Export" button to export videos and you can adjust detailed settings, including container, quality level, bitrate, profile, codec and more.
Pros of Topaz Video AI
As one of the most popular video enhancers in the world, Topaz Video AI has its own advantages and unique features.
- High Quality Output: Video enhancement is outstanding, especially when upscaling low-resolution footage to higher resolutions such as 4K or 8K, with excellent detail retention.
- Cross-Platform Compatibility: Supports operating on Windows 10 and 11 and macOS for Intel and Silicon variants.
- Batch Processing: Allows processing multiple videos simultaneously to save time and effort.
- Crash Recovery: Ensures that your edits resume exactly where you left off, even after a crash, system reboot, or power loss.
- Instant Previews: Experience real-time previews with automatically rendered frames as you navigate with the cursor.
Cons of Topaz Video AI
Now that you have gained an understanding of its features and advantages, let's analyze its disadvantages to decide if Topaz Video AI is worth it:
- High Price: The price of Topaz Video AI is relatively high compared to other video enhancement software, which can cause casual users or amateurs to refuse to buy it.
- High System Requirements: Topaz Video AI is resource-intensive and may not perform well on lightweight systems, requires at least 32 GB of RAM and high-performance CPUs and GPUs for smooth operation.
- Learning Curve for Advanced Features: While the basic features are easy to use, it can take some time and learning to fully understand and use the advanced settings and models, especially for less experienced users.
- Potential for Overprocessing: Overuse of certain features may lead to unnatural results.
- Slow Motion Encoding: The tool's slow-motion encoding capabilities do not meet the desired standard.
- Output Size Increase: The enhanced output size increases substantially and processing large videos is time-consuming.
User Feedback from Topaz Video AI
Despite being a highly promising video enhancer, Topaz AI has many loopholes and many claims made by users that have been listed below:
- Stability Problems: The software's stability is poor, with users frequently encountering crashes and errors during use. Moreover, version updates often bring a host of bugs. Topaz should focus on the practicality and stability of the software's features rather than just on model updates and marketing strategies.
- Color Shift Issue: Users often report that Topaz Video AI alters saturation, hue, and brightness levels, causing the final product to look significantly different from the original, affecting output quality. Topaz should support lossless OCIO profiles for major color spaces to ensure color consistency.
- Pricing Concerns: A one-time payment of $299 may be prohibitive for some users, and users have to buy a license for software upgrades yearly. In recent years, Topaz's operating model has been changing and prices have been increasing.Topaz AI should consider offering additional monthly and quarterly payment plans similar to those its competitors provide.
- User Interface: User feedback that fonts are too small and need to be adjusted and the new logo on the 5-issue version makes it look cheap.
Topaz AI has attracted a large user base with its powerful video enhancement capabilities, but recent issues and the emergence of numerous competitors have put its market position at risk. To maintain its leadership, Topaz AI must make significant improvements.
Best Alternative to Topaz AI: UniFab All-In-One
If you're dissatisfied with Topaz Video AI's results or its high price, UniFab offers an effective and affordable alternative. With versatile features for various video types, UniFab might be the solution you're seeking. Read on to see if it's the right fit for you!
UniFab All-In-One contains 8 AI video and audio enhancing tools. Offering rapid GPU-accelerated performance and advanced AI technology, it outperforms Topaz Video AI with superior video noise reduction, 4k/8K/16K upscaling, and lossless compression. Its intuitive editing options simplify tasks like flipping, rotating, and cropping. Discover how UniFab's exceptional features can enhance your video quality and boost efficiency!
Key features of UniFab-All-In-One
✅ HDR Upconverter AI: Allows converting videos from SDR to HDR (HDR10 or Dolby Vision) to enhance video quality by improving vibrancy, contrast, and clarity.
✅ AI Video Upscaler: Supports enlarging video resolution up to 720P, 1080P, 4K, 8K, and 16K.
✅ Denoise AI: Allows remove noise accurately and quicky from any cause.
✅ Smoother AI: Allows improving video fluidity by increasing frame rates and reducing flickering and jittering, creating smoother and more natural motion in fast-moving scenes.
✅ Deinterlace AI: Supports using AI to deinterlace interlaced sources, removing motion artifacts and edge blurring caused by interlaced scanning.
✅ Stabilizer AI: Analyze the motion trajectory and automatically remove the shaking to achieve smooth and stable output.
✅ Audio Upmix AI: Allows upmixing audio tracks from your video to premium EAC3 5.1/DTS 7.1.
✅ Video Converter: It is a video conversion tool that supports converting various video formats from multiple sources, including the internet, digital camcorders, and capture cards.
Three free AI tools:
✅ Colorizer AI (Beta): Supports separating vocal and background audio tracks from music/MV files, creating new video/audio files.
✅ Video Background Remover: Removes backgrounds and unwanted objects with a single click by AI, handles blurred edges of subjects, and provides precise cropping.
✅ Vocal Remover AI: Supports separating vocal and background audio tracks from music/MV files, creating new video/audio files.
How to upscale videos with UniFab
30-day Free Trial with full feature access!
Select a Feature
Open UniFab, then head to the 'All Features' section to pick the enhancement mode that matches your requirements. Then, click the '+' icon to upload your video, or drag and drop it directly into the interface.
Configure Output Options
Modify settings like resolution, format, quality, codec, frame rate, and audio preferences. Customize further based on your needs.
Process Your Video
Press the "Start" button to initiate processing. UniFab will complete the task swiftly with enhanced speed and efficiency.
I tested the UniFab HDR upconverter AI to convert a video from SDR to HDR. Below are the original SDR image, the original HDR image, the HDR image generated by UniFab, and the HDR image generated by Topaz Video AI. Comparing these, we can draw the following conclusions:
- UniFab handles the depth and layers of wide scenes more effectively and creates a more three-dimensional effect, with brightness and contrast closer to original HDR10.
- Topaz simply brightens the video content in a rather simplistic manner, resulting in overly saturated colors and a lack of spatial depth in the image.
| Original SDR | |
| Original HDR | |
| SDR to HDR10 | |
Hyperion(alpha 400nit 0730) |
Topaz Video AI vs. UniFab All-In-One
In the field of video processing, choosing the right tool is crucial. Topaz Video AI and UniFab All-In-One are two highly regarded video processing tools on the market, each with its unique strengths and applications. To help you better understand the differences between them, we will provide a detailed comparison table and video demonstration, offering an in-depth analysis of the features and performance of these two tools, enabling you to make the best choice.
| Comparison | UniFab All-In-One | Topaz Video AI |
| Supported OS | Windows/Mac | Windows/Mac |
| Pricing | $299.99/Lifetime
| $299/Lifetime, includes one year of unlimited upgrades $149/Upgrade per year
|
| Free Trail | 30-day free trial | 30-Day Free Trial with Watermark |
| User Experience |
|
|
| Main Features |
|
|
| Custom Configuration | Codec, Resolution, Format Rate, Color Space, Encoding Method, Bits/Pixel, Audio Passthrough (Codec&Channel, Sample Rate, Bit Rate) Output Visual Mode, Format | Output type, Codec, Profile, Bitrate, Quality level, Audio mode, Container, Apply LUT |
| Processing results | 720P to 4K effect comparison for an urban landscape video | |
UniFab can provide more realistic results, especially in the lines and details, and it can make the video image more colorful. | Topaz Video AI can provide smoother and visually results with less pixelation, but it can not match the realistic detail UniFab offers. | |
| Processing Speed | Testing machine GPU : NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 CPU：AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with Radeon Gra | |
| 720P to 4K speed comparison | ||
Original video for 30 seconds Export video for 8 minutes 16 times the original video | Original video for 30 seconds Export video for 13 minutes 26 times the original video | |
You can get a more intuitive understanding of UniFab and Topaz Video AI by watching the video below, helping you choose the product that best suits your needs.
Conclusion
We hope today's Topaz Video AI review has answered all your queries about this tool. Topaz Video AI significantly advances video enhancement technology, offering broader format support, a refined user interface, and a helpful preview feature that elevates the user experience. However, it is not without its drawbacks, including limited advanced enhancement capabilities, slow processing speeds, high hardware requirements, and sometimes unnatural face enhancement results. For those seeking to overcome these challenges and achieve superior performance in content revitalization, exploring UniFab may be a worthwhile alternative.
FAQs
Is Topaz's AI Video Enhancer Worth It?
Topaz Video AI provides robust tools for enhancing your videos by upscaling resolution, reducing noise, and effectively deinterlacing, making it particularly useful for older footage. A free version is available to help you determine if the results meet your expectations. However, the software is quite pricey, with a one-time cost of around $299.
Is Topaz Video AI Safe?
Topaz Video AI is safe to use. It does not collect your information without your consent and does not share any collected data with third parties.
Are there any alternatives to Topaz Video Enhance AI?
Yes, there are several excellent alternatives to Topaz Video Enhance AI. For a detailed comparison of the top 10 alternatives, check out this article: Topaz Video Enhance AI Alternative.