GLSmith Loc: Tampa, Fl

After working in IT for 30 + years, in R&D, planning, tech support etc. I used to explain to my customers..."just because the vendor says you need to update, or an update is available....B4 you download & update, READ what the update is for, it may NOT be applicable in your situation and/or environment. With all of the thousands of HW vendors for computers, video cards, scanners etc, there is not one software product that is going to be perfect & 100 % bug free. The Operating System, be it Windows or IOS, Linux are developed as a best case scenario & with other less used hardware devices, the bug fixes are made". In essence, each & everyone of us are beta testers for the software companies
If there is a download I read about & do not want, I do not download & install it....Roll backs to previous environments are not as straight forward as updates

brooklyn-camera I Loc: Brooklyn, NY

I don't see what the big deal is about updating Topaz programs. Takes a minute or two, nothing to get excited about. I have four of their programs and if needed to be updated, done!
Guess I have too much time on my hands and that is why updating is nothing at all.

DanielJDLM

I recently saw Topaz AI sharpen 3.2 being offered for free…and I am not talking about an update. Wonder if that means they are coming out. With another Sharpen AI program, since I have read about many issues with the updates

goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

Blurry ...

This is the new mantra of modern-day software companies. In my humble opinion, they developed the softwareto ato a minimal point, then release it primarily to have the rest of the world be there beta testing facility.

You see that happening in software and is like, in my opinion - Lumen AI, and DxO products

When I owned luminar AI back in December, the only way you could contact technical support was through their email channels, it would take 72 hours and in many cases more for them to respond and after lengthy investigation I learned that the entire company had less than 150 employees for the entire world. That was global for the entire company including everything from top-level CEOs down to tech support and they're evangelists.

In my on most recent personal centure, I found it to be the same with DxO PureRaw. I downloaded their trial, encountered a problem, I have sent them three emails, and as of today, almost two weeks later, I have still not heard anything back from the company.

Neither of the above two companies have 1-800 tech support numbers or, do they even have phone numbers for their sales department. Strictly online, and strictly email support.

We took consumer-based group, continue over time, to get further and further away from real customer personal support. They don't care about the customer, what they care about is the bottom line and the almighty dollar

Yes, I still use Lightroom to this day, because Adobe has over 22,000 employees and, if you need them, you can actually chat with them, and you can actually talk to them on the phone.

What a novel difference

My Opinion Only....

Cheers
George Veazey
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goldstar46 Loc: Tampa, Fl

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Blurry...

In the beginning, several of the Topaz products such as Sharpening AI and Denise AI were slow as molasses...

I watched a great number of tutorials presented by Anthony Morganti on YouTube when it was first released and his biggest complaint was a fact that it was... "Dog Slow" and it's rendering process.

Yes, it has gotten better but, here again, that is because they were using the general public as their beta testing group...

Again, my humble opinion

Cheers
George Veazey
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gessman Loc: Colorado

I think it's been a couple of years since I was offered a free update. I'm beginning to think they have unequal treatment for different customers?

Nikon1201

I get updates from Apple , Adobe , topaz etc. I know there there but I do my updates at the same time . There is nothing that can’t wait.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Have you visited your online Topaz account?

I discovered they were offering me Studio 2 free because of my years-ago purchase of a couple of stand-alones (Simplify, Detail) that had been discontinued.

Tracy B. Loc: Indiana

I pay every year for my Topaz updates. I'm glad the keep improving them.

gessman Loc: Colorado

Yep, just yesterday. I'm a long time user, selectively, and by that I mean certain modules. I got Studio when released, likewise Studio2. I upgraded Denoise and Sharpen to AI when released and added GigapixelAI. If I haven't missed something, which is always possible, all my upgrade offers since then have been a paid upgrade which I have not done. Yesterday I got a message that my yearly subscription upgrade renewal for SharpenAI was due for $49 and I could get a yearly renewal of all the modules I use, which was referred to as "the photo bundle," comprised of SharpenAI, DenoiseAI, and GigapixelAI at a reduced price of only $63, "which only makes good economic sense." It sounded like they had opted me into a yearly subscription deal to which I had not only not been informed of previously but had not agreed to. I didn't ask them about it - just went ahead and paid the $63 so I don't know the downside of not going along with them. I'm just really tired of discussing this with people in the ever-evolving software industry who committed to certain behavior like "always free updates" only to subsequently discover they had "counted their chickens before the eggs hatched" and have to change their minds when they discover they clearly didn't understand the downside of a saturated market and had to bail on their commitment or sink. It is what it is. They may be phasing in the new process that I've been hit with gradually, starting with older users to dampen a backlash storm. It'll be interesting to see...

chasgroh Loc: Buena Park, CA

I keep Topaz icons on my desktop as stand-alones...pretty easy to do updates from there instead of inside a running app like LR. <shrug>

pithydoug Loc: Catskill Mountains, NY

If it's fix or function you need, do you want them to update every 6 months. I'll take the frequent updates in heartbeat. They don't take long.

DaveO Loc: Northeast CT

Free if you have an active "subscription."

Nickaroo

I wonder if the OP would complain about updating PS/LR CC also. Wow, complaining because a Company is updating their software programs. I wonder if he gets upset when his computer, phone, or tablet has to be updated. Maybe someone could clue him in on the fact that a lot of times updates are done to fix bugs and add security to the Computer that is using their particular software.

srg

Yup, me too.