freezes.

Getting started

Install freezes, point OBS at it, and take your first delay while live.

Requirements

  • Windows 10 or 11
  • OBS Studio 30 or newer
  • Memory for the history buffer, roughly 450 MB per ten minutes at 6000 kbps

Install

Grab freezes-Setup-X.Y.Z.exe from the latest release and run it. It installs per user, so it does not ask for an administrator.

The installer is not code signed yet, so SmartScreen will put up a blue box the first time. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Signing costs a few hundred a year and freezes is free, so this stays until there is a reason for it not to.

To run it from source instead:

git clone https://github.com/dancer/freezes.git
cd freezes
bun install
bun dev

First run

  1. Point OBS at freezes.

    In OBS, open Settings, then Stream, and set the service to Custom. Use rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/live as the server and anything you like as the stream key, since freezes never checks it. Full encoder settings are on the OBS setup page.

  2. Hand over the real key.

    In freezes, hit twitch or youtube to fill the ingest, or paste your own, then paste the stream key you would normally give OBS. Both are kept on this device only and are never uploaded, and both are remembered, so this is a one time job.

  3. Go live.

    Press start in freezes, then start streaming in OBS as usual. freezes connects out to the platform and shows the stream as on air.

  4. Take a delay.

    Drag the slider, or type a time straight over the readout: 2:30 for two and a half minutes, or a bare 90 for ninety seconds. The change applies at the next keyframe, so it lands within a second or two rather than instantly.

Verifying it works

Open your own channel in a browser and compare it against your preview. At a delay of zero the gap should be whatever your platform normally adds. Raise the delay and the gap should grow by the amount you asked for.

Do not test with the platform player open on the same machine at high volume. You will get feedback through your mic and, more importantly, you will be watching a delayed copy of yourself which makes it very easy to misread what is happening.

Next

  • OBS setup for the encoder settings that keep cuts clean
  • Delay modes for the difference between building a delay and seeking into one

Introduction

freezes is a local RTMP relay that lets you change your stream delay while you are live, without restarting OBS.

OBS setup

The exact OBS stream and encoder settings freezes expects, and why each one matters.

On this page

RequirementsInstallFirst runVerifying it worksNext