This is my experience with Steinberg customer support and service regarding a matter that I initially opened a case for over a year ago.
It is not good…
After countless hours over the past year trying to suss out the problem I finally traced it to an incremental update, 6.03. After that update video playback ceased working. Part of this update was a so-called improvement to the video engine that rendered my system useless for playback from within Cubase. It would have been fine if the “improvement” had been in 6.5 but it was part of the incremental updates to 6.0 that include bug-fixes. As a result, all bug-fixes beyond 6.03, are unavailable to me.
Let me be clear. When I purchased Cubase 6.0 my system was working fine; video playback was solid. An “improvement” implemented within an update for bug-fixes rendered my system unusable for its intended purpose. This wasn’t the result of an upgrade to a new version; it was an update withing the existing version, the same version I purchased which, heretofore, had worked as advertised.
A rep offered a solution about a month ago that was equitable and, after a few days of consideration, I chose to accept the offer but since then I keep getting told management is working on a solution that I’ll hear about “soon”, “tomorrow”, “end of week”, and that was only after someone suggested I consider upgrading to 7.0; trying to turn my tech support query into an opportunity to up-sell. I’ve tried to be polite and patient. I hoped my issue could be resolved in a more discreet fashion but a year is quit enough.
Updates/grades can be a real PITA and my studio simply cannot afford
downtime due to this type of thing.
Once this state of ‘bliss’ is achieved, my approach is:
1-‘Partition’ your hard drive.
2-‘Clone’ the 1st partition to the 2nd partition.
3-Then try all new up-dates/grades etc only on the 2nd partition.
4-When all is well, install the up-date on the 1st partition.
Thanks Curteye, unfortunately I have tried your solution except instead of using a single partitioned drive I used separate but identical drives, swapping each as needed for trouble shooting.
I am confident that over the past year I have conducted an exhaustive troubleshooting routine (detailed troubleshooting is part of what I do for a living) which is how I was able to isolate the problem. I went so far as to talk with a couple of folks who would be considered computer experts (I live in JPL country). The “improvement” to the video engine involved changes to how the software accesses the multiple cores of the CPU; not something to implement in the middle of a software version.
It was suggested by Steinberg that I upgrade my video cards. Had this been an upgrade, not an update, that would be a reasonable suggestion. I don’t expect a piece of software to be compatible with my hardware from one full version to the next and prepare accordingly. In this instance I insured that Cubase 6 was compatible with my system and wouldn’t require any system upgrades. Had this video engine “improvement” been implemented in 6.0, I would have known that my system was incompatible. Had it been “improved” in 6.5 I could still avail myself of the bug-fixes issued for 6.0. but the change to core allocation was made in the middle of the 6.0 life cycle.