Promised video engine update for Cubase 8.5

Dear Steinberg, please let us know when you will finally make good on your promise to release the new video engine for Cubase – and not just Cubase 9, but also Cubase 8.5 as originally promised.

The new video engine has finally been released, but it has only been released for Nuendo 8 so far. Steinberg has promised in the past when this whole abandonment and security issue from Apple QT happened, that they were going to release the new engine for Cubase 8.5. However, the new engine was delayed for various reasons, including for licensing issues for various codecs.

In the extended delay, Steinberg released Cubase 9, and also (from what I understand, the last maintenance patch for Cubase 8.5).

Now that the licensing issues have finally been addressed, will Steinberg now come through with the new video engine and release it right away for both Cubase 8.5 and 9?

An update from Steinberg is surely in order.

So far, all they have said is that “Please note that a new video engine has been introduced with Nuendo 8 (Cubase will follow at a later point)” on their support page – https://helpcenter.steinberg.de/hc/en-us/articles/206103524-Video-Support-in-Nuendo-and-Cubase

I’d love to know what “at a later point” means, and if they are including Cubase 8.5?

They’ve already said that 8.5.30 was the last C8 update – i.e., you’re not getting an updated video engine.

Understood that 8.5.30 was theoretically the last update, but that doesn’t mean they will not release the video engine update. After all they did promise it for 8.5. Since the video engine itself was supposedly finished a while ago (and just waiting for codec licensing issues), for all we know, the pipes for the new video engine are already included inside 8.5.30, and the video engine will be a separate installer. OR they WILL revise that statement and release a new 8.5.40 update with the new video engine. OR they will break a promise they made.

In any case, we deserve an answer, right?

FYI in case anyone missed it, Steinberg posted in another thread in the C9 forum:

We are planning to implement the new engine in Cubase 9 with the next maintenance update.

However, no word on Cubase 8.5 yet.

Well, that’s a shame.

If Steinberg can’t be held accountable for what they say they’ll do, then how can we trust a company like that? Now people who are perfectly fine using Cubase 8.5 are forced to upgrade to Cubase 9 if they want the new video engine -_-.

It would be very disappointing indeed if Steinberg backs out of their promise. The whole problem developed well before Cubase 9 was released, and Steinberg promised the new video engine for Cubase 8.5. Even though they had several delays – in part having to do with the licensing issues of some codecs (which has arguably nothing to do with the development of the video engine itself and the codecs that didn’t require extra licensing) – that’s not an excuse to cancel a promised release for Cubase 8.5.

Exactly!

no your not…just get Studio one 3.5, that’s what I’ve done…best move I’ve ever made, If Steinberg do not give the video to 8.5 users wouldn’t that be illegal or something? when I upgraded from 7 I didn’t expect to have an element of what I’d bought taken away from me never to return… :astonished: :astonished:
they’re not gonna force me to upgrade to 9 just to get the video engine…rather spend my money elsewhere…( bit more money I agree, but worth it ) :slight_smile:

best, Kevin

Hi Shadowfax! Great to see a long-time Cubase user reply to this. If memory serves, I think I remember you from all the way back from the old Cubase forum. Anyway, not to take this off-topic, but I promise to bring it back on topic –

  1. In the interim of Steinberg’s poor handling of the video engine situation, I also bought Studio One Pro, and I have to say, it’s extremely impressive. I don’t want to make this a product advertisement, but I think it’s useful and honest to say that Steinberg has a lot to learn from their DAW-developing brethren over in Hamburg. Studio One has been a huge surprise to me – the workflow, elegance and simplicity have convinced me that it’s now a world-class DAW and quite frankly, in some key areas, I feel they’ve moved a full generation beyond Cubase.

HOWEVER, at least for my usage for film projects, I will be the first to admit that Cubase is still ahead of Studio One in two key areas that make it a tough choice for me to switch: a) Cubase still has superior MIDI tools for composers overall, and b) Cubase has other minor but important features that give it overall a stronger toolset for working with film. And I’m well aware that everyone has their own personal set of preferences and needs, so someone else might find even more (or less) to love about Cubase for their project requirements.

Having said that, the advantages of Studio One’s superior interface and overall workflow IMO, plus the fact that in my testing it actually performs better, has been a real eye-opener, and I’m seriously considering moving a major film project over to Studio One, to my utter shock. In my moderately involved testing so far, Cubase feels comparatively bloated, laggy, glitchy, and frankly less intuitive (and this is coming from a long-time Cubase user).

I haven’t decided yet, but I’m working on it.

  1. I am embarrassed to say I broke my own promise to myself and I bought the Cubase 9 upgrade, in anticipation of Nuendo 8 and the new video engine, and I thought Steinberg was going to release the new video engine simultaneously. Well, I was wrong of course. To my great disappointment, Steinberg has chosen to release the new video engine just for Nuendo 8 so far, while saving the new engine for a future update to Cubase – a product that has an EXISTING security issue by continuing to use the old engine. And to top that off, it looks like Steinberg may not even release the new engine for Cubase 8.5, breaking a promise they made.

Anyway, now that I have Studio One 3.5, Cubase 9 and Cubase 8.5, (among other DAW software) I’ve had the chance to test them back and forth with my kind of work, including on a fresh installation of Win 7 and Win 10. I’m saddened to say that Cubase 9 performance – for me in both cases of Win 7 and Win 10 – has been inferior to both Cubase 8.5 and Studio One 3.5.

I have also experienced crashes with Cubase 9 on both Win 7 and Win 10, along with a number of glitch issues that I almost can’t believe are happening… Cubase 8.5 performs better for me! And Studio One Pro 3.5 performs better still!

While I will admit I like the lower zone, sampler track, and multiple marker tracks inside Cubase 9, overall, at least as of Cubase Pro 9.0.20, I’d have to revert back and use Cubase 8.5 on my system anyway! So I really regret jumping the gun and buying Cubase 9 at this point, except for the benefit of getting a little education about Steinberg’s increasingly poor decisions about release cycles.

In any case, Steinberg’s delay has opened a window for me to consider using Studio One as well. While I will miss certain key features of Cubase that I’m used to if I switch, I have to say the workflow in Studio One might just make up for it. I’m not there yet, but I’m very close to diving in completely with Studio One.

And to bring it all back on topic, it all comes back to Steinberg and their choices lately. I know I’m just one guy – and yes, I’ve spent a lot of money on Steinberg over the years – including on a variety of Steinberg and Yamaha hardware – but Steinberg’s pattern recently reminds me of the OLD Steinberg, back before Yamaha bought them and they were very inconsistent at times – those were some really crappy years on and off for a while. I know I’m not the only person that feels this way… and if I’m right, Steinberg should take notice of what I’m seeing as a growing trend among long-time users that are growing increasingly frustrated.

And this whole video engine thing – while seemingly minor – is just one more little thing that might just tip the scales for me, personally. It’s symptomatic of a Steinberg that, like Cubase, has become bloated, glitchy, and a generation behind in their thinking.

I do wish them well, and I hope they get their act together, but Cubase 9 is basically unusable for me (unless I want to accept the laggy, glitchy and more crash-prone environment, even compared to Cubase 8.5). So I’ve wasted my time and money, and hope the developers and team read this not as a complaint from a grumpy customer, but as a serious reminder of a long-time paying customer that has been there through Steinberg’s ups and downs, that I’m getting tired of this process and I’m losing faith. For the first time in a long time, I regret paying for an upgrade. That’s not a good sign.

I use other DAW software, like many of us do, but when it becomes a CHORE to use a particular tool, or when you can’t trust a developer, you know something is wrong. This isn’t a complaint to Steinberg… this is an appeal to Steinberg to raise the level of their own expectations.

And they can start by releasing the new video engine for Cubase 8.5, as they promised.

I too am in the process of moving my projects from Cubase to Studio One. I was planning/hoping to be a long-time Cubase user but the combination of a disappointing C9 release, failure to fix long-standing bugs, and increased disregard for their product and the customers that use it has soured me on Steinberg.

I’ve decided to wait and see what happens with C10. If it meaningfully addresses the above issues, I’ll stick with Cubase. If not, I’ll switch to Studio One (which should be at version 4 by that time). Cheers…

I agree with everything you say…my move to Studio one is permanent!!..apart from everything else I have projects that Cubase 8.5 just cannot handle while Studio one runs at around 40% and Mixbus at around 50%…Cubase is banging the red all the time…not matter what permutation of the power scheme I use…
moving to Studio one was like getting off an old bus and boarding a spaceship… :sunglasses:
you can also use all the Cubase shortcuts in Studio one…

I would be happy to stay with Cubase because it is a good DAW…no doubt about that!! but what the heck are they doing to it? and their update policy is…well, you’ll just have to wait…wont ya!!
and if they do not give the update to cubase 8.5 users in a desperate attempt to force them onto 9 then, that’s all you need to know about their attitude to their customer base!!

best to all and I hope Cubase 8.5 users get their video engine… :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Crossing fingers 8.5 gets the new engine, but I’m getting the vibe that it won’t. The silence on the issue is deafening. I hope I’m wrong, but I think Steinberg is bailing on Cubase 8.5. They have already announced that upcoming patches for Nuendo 7 and Cubase 9 will have the new engine, but no mention of C8.5. Sure, that’s welcome (and expected) news for N7 and C9, but very frustrating that they chose to wait even longer for existing security issues compared to releasing a new product - N8. That says a lot right there IMO.

At this point I can’t use Cubase 9.0.20 due to glitches, lag and crashes. Cubase 8.5.30 is more solid for me. As much as I hate to say it, Studio One looks better and better each passing day. Started a 5-minute film scoring project in Studio One 3.5 this week for a film. Looking forward to seeing how it holds up compared to C8.5. I’ve already taken C9 off the table for now.

Very frustrated.

I’ve been hearing great things about Studio One, the only thing that puts me off is lack of chord tracks - I use them all the time on Cubase for sketching stuff out. If they were to introduce something similar in S1 I think I’d jump ship. Sad to say - I love Cubase but performance and stability have just got steadily worse since V7. I now have a monster of a machine and it still doesn’t feel snappy although I’ve not run out of CPU (yet) on the new machine. Mixbus and Reaper fly - but then they did on my old PC too.

Yeah, I miss the the chord track also…but I’ve reached my limit of what I’ll put up with!!
the only way to show Steiny you mean business is to move on and take your money elsewhere…I managed before the chord track, I’ll manage without the chord track…I wouldn’t bet against S1 coming up with something similar in the not too distant future though…

best, Kevin :slight_smile:

I did get Studio One v3 a few months ago and I LOVE IT!

Unfortunately, as uarte mentions, Studio One is a bit behind when it comes to MIDI and Film scoring tools. Otherwise, I agree that the workflow in Studio One is MUCH better than Cubase. It is such a pleasing experience, so I really hope that version 4 brings in the missing tools that will make it my go to DAW for everything music.

In the mean time, I will NOT be upgrading my Cubase license until I see that Steinberg has done us right by fixing long standing bugs, as well as improving the workflow and stability of Cubase. Until then, it is Studio One for me. Presonus actually cares about their products and they listen to their customers, so that’s where my money is going :slight_smile:.

Take care!

I bought Cubase 8.5 Pro for working with music for video clips and movies. I knew about QT engine problem but I also read Steinberg promise to update this engine.
One year after purchase I still can’t import ANY video (I’m on Win10 PC) into Cubase because new video engine wasn’t updated.
And as I saw in another topic - Steinberg guy said its final maintenance patch for C8.5 Pro

Here are two soultions (if Steinberg really don’t want to update 8.5Pro anymore):

  1. I want full refund of my license, it’s useless to me (I used this software for 10 hours over ONE YEAR, configuration purposes mostly) and you didn’t deliver product you advertised (in features of C8.5 there is clearly said VIDEO SUPPORT).
  2. Give me a free upgrade to Cubase 9 where new video engine is working as advertised. I already got mail with offer for Cubase 9 upgrade for 40% of price, but hell no! I will not pay for another crippled software with broken promises.

Can anybody give me some links where I can contact steinberg about refund / licensing issue? Because I can’t find anything and I don’t want to wait any longer.

Your dead right my friend, If they do not update 8.5 with a video engine they’ve got to be in breach of some law or other, I, like you bought a product that had a video engine…now it hasn’t, and for so, so long…they really are taking the PEE out of us…I’m sure they are hoping the long wait will force peeps onto 9…didn’t work with me, I bought Studio one…
best of luck to you my friend :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

If a promise means nothing to the folk currently calling the shots for Steinberg then they do not deserve to make one sale of anything new.

R.E studio one, having spent a bit of testing time on it I have been recommending this to others who are not in a MacOS environment (logic) and do not do extensive video scoring work.

p.s forum looks terrible.

Don’t waste your time, I have been trying to get some kind of compensation for so many hours lost due to terrible bugs in Cubase 8.5 with Steinberg for over 6 months and there very clear message is “We don’t care”. They continually refuse to admit there are bugs crippling Cubase now and could care less about long time users like myself (I have been going since Cubase 1.0).
It’s a difficult problem to deal with, you have a very powerful DAW, one can argue much more powerful out of the box than Pro Tools, and the company has been around so long that they really don’t need to care about long time customers any more which is sad because its a great software that could be number one in the market if not for the poor support and declining technical performance.
It’s really such a shame big companies now just care about marketing and features rather than making stable, functional software, Apple being one of the worst, so how can we expect Steinberg to be better? It’s an epidemic and were the perpetual beta testing victims.