OBS countdown timer: starting soon, breaks and speakers
A countdown is the first thing your viewers see and the graphic people most often build badly — a text source driven by a script, in a font that does not match anything else on screen. Here is how to run a proper OBS countdown timer for the start of a stream, for a break and for a speaker on stage.
Why not the script that ships with OBS
OBS includes a countdown script that rewrites a text source once a second. It works, but it is plain text: no animation, no design that matches your other graphics, and it lives in the scripts dialog rather than with the rest of your show.
A countdown on the graphics page is just another graphic. It uses the same theme as your name straps and score bug, animates in and out the same way, and is started from the same panel.
Starting-soon countdown — step by step
- Add the CueFinch output page to OBS as a browser source if you have not already (settings).
- On the Live page open the Countdown object and write the heading, for example STREAM STARTS IN.
- Click a duration — 1, 3, 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes. The countdown goes on air immediately in the centre of the screen.
- Or type a time of day and press set to time. A time that has already passed today is set for tomorrow, so a stream that starts after midnight still counts correctly.
- When it reaches zero the closing text flashes. Press CLEAR to remove it as you go live.
It keeps time when OBS does not
The target time is held by the CueFinch server, not inside the browser source. Refresh the source, switch scenes, or open a second output for another platform, and each one shows exactly the same remaining time. Nothing restarts from the top.
Changing the heading while the countdown is on air does not touch the clock. Only changing the minutes sets it again.
Breaks and half-time
For a break, use the full-screen break card: a label, a title such as BACK SHORTLY, a sponsor logo if you have one, and an optional countdown in minutes. It covers the screen while you step away, and comes off with one press when you return.
A clock for the person on stage
At live events the presenter needs a countdown the audience does not see. The speaker timer is a separate graphic shown only on a dedicated stage output — a second browser source or a screen at the front of the stage — with +1 and +5 minute buttons and warning colours as time runs out. The programme output never shows it.
Start your next stream on time. Download the free beta and put a designed countdown on your starting-soon scene in a minute.
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