This page covers the rundown as a file. Saving it, opening it, and the one thing to understand about what a .playout actually contains.
Saving
Save, on the right of the toolbar. Lists go to
DocumentsUltimate PlayoutLists as a .playout file, and that is where Open
starts — so in day-to-day use you never navigate anywhere.
There is no separate “save the settings you just typed”: a value you change in the list is in the rundown immediately. Saving writes the rundown to disk.
What is in a .playout
The rundown, and pointers to your media.
| In the file | Not in the file |
|---|---|
| Every cue, its title and its number | The video and audio files themselves |
| In and out points, volume, transition, follow action | Your settings and outputs |
| Groups, parts, the archive folder | Your scenes |
| Music beds and where they run | |
| Links between playouts |
So a list is small — a few kilobytes — and it depends entirely on the media being where it says. That is fine within one building and useless between two; for that, see bundles.
Opening
Open, and pick a file. It replaces what is in the current playout’s list.
If any cue points at a file that has moved, you are told when the list opens: how many cues it concerns, with a warning mark and the full path on each line. Open the list early, so there is time to fix it — see missing files.
Coming back to yesterday
Settings → General → Reload last list on startup brings back the list you had open. For a machine that runs one recurring show, that is what you want: switch on, and Sunday’s rundown is there.
For a machine that does different things every day, switch it off and open the list deliberately.
Working with several lists
A rundown per service, per event, per week. They are ordinary files: copy them, rename them, keep them in dated folders, put them on a share.
Two habits worth having:
Name them so they sort. 2026-08-23 morning.playout sorts by date on every machine; Morning service final v2.playout does not.
Start from last week’s. Open it, replace what changed, save under a new name. Building from scratch every week is how items get forgotten.
What a list does not carry
Scenes are of the machine. A cue that points at a scene finds it by name; if that scene does not exist there, the cue has nothing to show.
For a show that has to travel completely, check that its scenes exist on the other machine — or use a bundle: it brings the scenes the cues use (a scene that already exists there is left as it is).