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Media & Files Troubleshooting ​

Missing Media ​

When Exaplay cannot find a file at the stored path, a dialog listing the missing and unloadable files appears as the project finishes loading. Your original project is protected: saving creates a new file with a _missingfiles suffix rather than overwriting the show — until every file is found again (see below).

Causes:

  • The media file was moved or renamed after being added to the project.
  • The project was opened on a different machine where the files are at a different path.
  • The drive letter changed (e.g. USB drive was reassigned).

Where the expected path is shown:

  • The load dialog (once, as the project opens).
  • The clip itself: a red missing marker on the timeline clip and on the cue-list item (hover it for the path).
  • The Inspector: select the clip — a red Missing file block names the exact path the project expects, with Copy path and Relink….
  • Check Project (header menu) lists every missing clip with its path.

Fix — relink:

Walkthrough

☰ menu → Walkthroughs → Media, effects & generators → Relinking missing media plays the whole flow, recorded from the real interface.

  1. Right-click the clip → Relink media…, or press Relink… in the Inspector's Missing file block.
  2. Browse to the file's new location and select it (or double-click it).
  3. If other missing clips come from the same folder, the dialog offers to relink them all at once: Also relink the N other missing clips from <old folder> to the new folder — same file names, new folder. That is the whole fix when a show moved from one drive or folder to another.
  4. Press Relink. The clip keeps its position, length, mapping, effects and keyframes; only the file path changes.

Once every reference is resolved, the _missingfiles save protection is lifted automatically and the project saves to its original file again.

Picking a file with a different name is allowed (the dialog warns): the clip keeps its settings and plays the new file.

Fix — restore the file: copying the file back to the path shown also works; load the project again afterwards.

File exists but "could not be opened"

The Inspector block says File could not be opened when the file is on disk but this engine cannot decode it — a codec or format problem, see Unsupported Codec. Relink to a converted copy.

Replacing a live clip's file: press Replace… in the Inspector's File block (which also names the clip's current path) — for a cue-list clip, right-clicking it and choosing Replace media file… opens the same dialog. Either way, same rule: every setting of the clip survives, only the file changes. The dialog takes a typed path as well as a browsed one, for a drive this browser cannot reach. (Dragging a file from the media pool onto a clip still replaces it as before.)

Multiclient: relink on the master; the fleet follows live. A client that does not yet have the new file receives it through the normal file sync.

Prevention:

  • Use the Project Export feature to create a self-contained archive before moving to a new machine. This is the supported way to move a show between machines: it copies every referenced file and rewrites the paths inside the .vpp to media/<name>, so the show opens wherever the archive is extracted.
  • On a fixed installation, keep media at a stable absolute path — paths are stored absolutely, not relative to the .vpp. To see where a clip plays from, select it: the Inspector's File block names the path, and Replace… re-points it (same dialog as Relink; a path can be typed).
  • Sharing one show between two machines with different drive letters: keep the media inside the project folder and switch on Settings → System → Portable media paths (clips are saved as $[project]/… and resolve wherever the .vpp is opened — see Portable Media Paths), map the media drive to the same letter on both, or relink once per machine (folder mode re-points every clip of a folder in one go). A multiclient rig needs none of these — clients play from their own sync folder.

Unsupported Codec ​

If a clip shows a codec error or plays as a black screen:

  1. Check the file format in the Inspector — unsupported codecs are flagged.
  2. Transcode the file to a supported format.
  3. For H.264/H.265 files that stutter, transcode them to HAP (GPU-decoded, lightest playback, bigger files) and check Settings → Decode & GPU → Video decoding is not set to Software. Video Decoding explains which formats are decoded where.

Common codec issues:

FileProblemFix
.mov / .mp4 with HEVC4:2:0 HEVC (8/10-bit) is hardware-decoded and plays; 8-bit 4:4:4, 4:2:2 or 12-bit is decoded on the CPU; 4:4:4 above 8-bit is blocked with a messageTranscode to 8-bit 4:2:0 H.265, or to HAP / HAP Q for heavy playback or many layers
.mov with ProRes 4444Plays (the decoder ships with Exaplay), but mostly on the CPU at a high bandwidth; flagged by Check Project, and the alpha channel is not keptTranscode to HAP Alpha or NotchLC for transparency, HAP / HAP Q otherwise
.png sequenceImage sequences do not play as a clipExport as a single video file (ideally HAP)
.mp4 H.264 stutteringToo many or too large streams for the decoder, or a profile that falls back to the CPUTranscode to HAP; see Check Project for the files that are demanding

Audio Not Playing with a Video ​

  1. In the Inspector, confirm the Volume for the clip is above 0 %.
  2. Confirm that neither the Composition volume fader in the Transport, the Master volume (☰ → Audio Mixer) nor the Output trim (☰ → Settings → Audio) is at zero.
  3. Check that the correct audio output device is selected: Menu → Settings → Audio.
  4. Check the Timeline — audio clips on muted tracks will not play (mute indicator is a speaker icon with a line through it).

Video and Audio Out of Sync ​

Audio/video sync drift is usually caused by:

  • Different sample rates: The media and the output device run at different rates (e.g. 44100 Hz vs 48000 Hz). With the Windows Standard Audio Device set ☰ → Settings → Audio → Sample Rate to the media's rate; with ASIO set it in the driver's control panel. The Audio tab names a mismatching file.
  • Large audio buffer: Increase the ASIO buffer size for stability; decrease it to reduce latency-induced drift.
  • LTC sync drift: If using LTC timecode, check that the LTC source is clean and stable.

Still Images Not Displaying ​

  1. Confirm the file is in a supported format: PNG, JPEG, BMP, TIFF, GIF or WebP.
  2. PSD, TGA and SVG files are not supported — export them to PNG.
  3. Very large stills (e.g. 10 000 × 10 000 px) may take several seconds to load. Check the DiagnosticsPanel for VRAM usage — large textures consume significant VRAM.

Media Loading Slowly ​

  • Large files take time to buffer on first play. Exaplay opens a clip and starts filling its buffer a few seconds before the playhead reaches it, not when it is placed on the timeline — so the first play of a cue you jump straight to is the slowest one.
  • For the fastest possible start, leave the composition parked just before the cue rather than jumping to it cold, and give the clip a larger Buffer size in the Inspector.
  • Storage speed is critical: use NVMe SSD for 4K content. Network-attached storage is not recommended for real-time playback.

NDI / Spout Source Not Appearing ​

See the dedicated troubleshooting sections in NDI Support and Spout Input.

Exaplay 3 User Documentation

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