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Check Project
Check Project is a pre-show validation report. Before you go live it scans the whole project and flags anything that commonly causes problems on stage — missing files, mixed audio sample rates, codec pitfalls — so you can fix them while there is still time.
Open it from the Header menu (☰) → Check Project. The report recomputes every time you open the modal, so it always reflects the current project state; use Re-check to refresh it after making changes. The report text can be selected directly in the browser, and Copy to Clipboard exports a plain-text version you can paste into a mail, ticket, or chat.
New in 3.2.
The Report
A summary banner at the top states the overall result and how many clips were checked. Below it, each check appears as its own block with a severity, a short summary, an optional recommendation, and a list of the affected items.
| Severity | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 🟢 OK | Nothing to do for this check |
| 🔵 Info | Worth knowing, no action required |
| 🟠 Warning | Likely to cause trouble — review before the show |
| 🔴 Error | Will break playback — fix before going live |
What It Checks
| Check | Severity when it triggers | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Missing media files | 🔴 Error | One or more clips reference a file that can't be found. Relink them (right-click the clip → Relink media…, or the Missing file block in the Inspector — one relink can re-point every missing clip from the same folder), or restore the files to the listed paths and load the project again. See Missing Media. |
| Mixed audio sample rates | 🟠 Warning | The project mixes several audio sample rates. Standardise on one rate and set the output device / ASIO driver to match. |
| Demanding video formats | 🟠 Warning | Video clips are in a format the GPU decoder cannot take, or are past what one machine carries. Re-encode just these — see Which video files get flagged below. |
| HAP block alignment | 🟠 Warning | HAP clip dimensions are not a multiple of 4. HAP encodes in 4×4 blocks, so unaligned dimensions can cause edge artefacts — re-export at aligned dimensions. |
| HAP encoded as a single chunk | 🟠 Warning | The clip was encoded with one chunk, so HAP decodes it on a single CPU core however many the machine has. Re-encode with chunking on (Exaplay's own encoder chunks by core count). |
| NDI sources present | 🟠 Warning | The project depends on live NDI sources. Confirm the senders are online and reachable before the show. |
| Empty compositions / tracks | 🔵 Info | Compositions or tracks contain no clips — usually harmless, but often a sign of leftover scaffolding. |
A clean project shows every check as OK with a "Project looks good" summary.
Which video files get flagged
Changed in 3.4. Earlier releases flagged every clip that was not HAP and recommended transcoding the whole show. That is no longer good advice: Exaplay decodes ordinary H.264 and H.265 on the GPU, so those clips cost no CPU at all and re-encoding them buys nothing. The check now names only the files that really are hard work.
Left alone — no action needed:
- H.264 and H.265/HEVC in 4:2:0, 8-bit or 10-bit (HEVC Main10). These run on the GPU's video decoder.
- ProRes 422 / 422 HQ / LT / Proxy at normal resolutions.
- HAP in any of its variants.
Flagged, because no GPU decoder accepts them and they fall back to the CPU:
- H.264 / H.265 in 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 chroma, 12-bit, or 10-bit H.264 (High 10 — graphics cards decode HEVC Main10, not this).
- ProRes 4444, 4444 XQ and ProRes RAW — 4:4:4 or raw mastering formats at a very high bandwidth.
- Any clip past what one machine carries: beyond 4K60 for GPU-decoded H.264/H.265, beyond 4K30 for a CPU-decoded format like ProRes or DNxHD, or a long-GOP file above roughly 120 Mbit/s (a camera master).
For the flagged files, either re-encode to HAP (a GPU-decoded, all-intra master — the best choice for scrubbing and looping) or to plain 8-bit 4:2:0 H.264/H.265 if file size matters more; both play on the GPU.
A file whose format Exaplay could not read is never flagged — the check reports only what it can actually see, so an unreported clip means "no information", not "no problem".
Related
- Media Playback — supported codecs and the HAP family.
- Audio Settings — matching the output sample rate.
- NDI Support — live-source setup and auto-connect on project start.