How to add a countdown timer in vMix

Set up the timer before touching vMix. In MaestroTimer you create a room, add timers to it, and copy the room's viewer link — the viewer is the clean output view meant for screens.

The steps:

1. ✓Create a room and add a timer. Give it a name and a duration — for a show rundown, name each timer after its segment.
2. ✓Set a wrap-up threshold so the timer changes its appearance when time runs low. The color change is visible in vMix without any extra configuration.
3. ✓Open the room's viewer and copy the URL. Every view in MaestroTimer is a link, and this URL is all vMix needs.

The timer enters vMix as a Web Browser input pointed at the viewer URL. Once added, it behaves like any other input: you can put it on program, preview it, or route it to an output.

In vMix:

1. ✓Click "Add Input" in the bottom left corner and choose "Web Browser".
2. ✓Paste the viewer URL into the URL field.
3. ✓Set the width and height to your production resolution — 1920 × 1080 for a standard HD setup. A lower resolution like 1280 × 720 works, but looks soft once vMix scales it up; the viewer adapts to the size it is given.
4. ✓Select the latest browser version offered in the dialog.
5. ✓Confirm with "OK", then select the new input to check that the timer is displaying.

A few settings on the Web Browser input decide how the timer behaves mid-production. Open the input's properties to reach them.

Turn mouse input off. vMix enables mouse control on a Web Browser input by default — keyboard input is off by default — and the timer is controlled from its own controller view, so vMix never needs to interact with the page. An input that cannot be clicked cannot be disturbed by accident during a live show.

To switch to a different room or view mid-production, change the URL in the input's properties window; re-entering it also reloads the page. Right-clicking the input gives you Go Back and Go Forward through pages it has already loaded. A reloaded viewer reconnects to the room and shows the current timer state, because the timer runs in the room, not inside vMix.

One resource note: a Web Browser input renders on the GPU. A timer viewer is a light page, but if your production already runs many browser inputs, keep the timer on its own simple view rather than a busier page.

A speaker-facing countdown does not belong on the program feed, and vMix does not force it there: a monitor or projector attached to the PC's graphics card can show the timer input on its own, through vMix's Fullscreen output.

External Output is a different path. It drives AJA, Blackmagic Design and Bluefish444 output hardware, not a screen on the graphics card, so use it only when the confidence monitor hangs off an SDI card. In that case click "External" on the bottom bar — bottom right, next to the Settings cog — and assign the timer input to an output in External Output Settings, reached through that same cog. External Outputs 2, 3 and 4 exist only in vMix 4K and vMix Pro.

The Fullscreen setup:

1. ✓Connect the stage monitor or projector to your PC as a second display, extending the desktop rather than mirroring it.
2. ✓Open Settings and go to the Display tab. Choose that display for the Fullscreen output, and select the timer input as the source it shows.
3. ✓Click the Fullscreen button on vMix's bottom bar. The timer fills that screen while your program feed stays clean.
4. ✓If the timer should only appear on that screen, keep it off your main production layers.

For an on-air countdown — a break timer, a starting-soon clock, a segment countdown — put the timer input on an overlay channel and scale it into a corner.

Position and size are handled by vMix: select the input's position settings and adjust zoom and pan until the timer sits where you want it. If you want the page background gone, use vMix's colour key effect on the input and key out the timer page's background colour, the same way you would key any browser source.

Before going on air, open the room's live connections view in MaestroTimer. It lists every device attached to the room — when the vMix input is connected, it appears there, so you can confirm the overlay is receiving before the stream or recording starts.

The vMix input is a live view, not a recording. All control happens in MaestroTimer's controller view, open on a phone, tablet, or second computer — start, pause, and time adjustments appear in vMix immediately.

Messages travel the same way: send a bold, colored, or flashing note to the viewer and it appears inside the vMix input, next to the timer. Use it for wrap-up cues to a presenter reading the confidence monitor.

For a multi-segment production, link timers so each one starts when the previous ends, or schedule a timer to start at a set time of day — a countdown to your published start time runs without an operator touching it.