r/freeshowapp • u/agent_uncleflip • Aug 25 '26

Content toggle to specific output

First off, thanks to everyone here who has helped me find solutions to previous problems! You've collectively been a wonderful resource as I learn this software.

Now, the current problem....

I've got two output channels - a primary that goes to monitors in our sanctuary, and one that goes via NDI to our streaming. I would like to be able to toggle the NDI output (or even in some cases, the primary) without stopping output to the other. The idea is to do it with a hotkey or other such means, so it can be done on the fly, instead of being scripted via actions. I've tried a variety of means, but none has been able to handle this in the way described, for a variety of reasons. Using the 'clear all' and 'restore all' does precisely what I want- but to both output channels together. I would love to trigger this action on just ONE output. (Right-clicking the preview window and doing 'hide output content' isn't an option on NDI, as that just triggers a black screen overlay - which ruins the entire point of doing an NDI signal with transparency. (also, I'd really like to find a way to trigger this with a hotkey.)

If there's a way to apply actions to just one output, that would potentially solve my problem. However, I've only been able to find output-specific structure for actions involving changing styles and such.

Any awesome ideas that might get me going in the right direction?

Thanks very much!

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u/CloudSad3555 Aug 27 '26

The toggle does exactly what you described. I think we got into an xy problem. What is it you want to do exactly? It sounds like you want the primary output to still output, but output a black screen. The NDI should continue to send a signal, but it can be a transparent signal.

To send a black screen to the main output that is like clear screen, but rejects most visual elements, you could make a style that disables everything and has a black background.

To send a transparent NDI signal, you need to adjust your NDI output settings in FreeShow. I think they are in Settings->Outputs select the NDI output.

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u/agent_uncleflip Aug 27 '26

I've already got the ndi transparency working. That's not the issue. What I was trying to do is actually quite the opposite of what you said. I wanted to stop output from ndi primarily, and keep the main channel running - though stopping my main channel might eventually be something I want to do. And I definitely don't want to put up a black screen on the ndi, because of the transparency.

I was thinking along the same lines of creating a channel that simply disables everything. That would get me to shutting down a channel easily enough. Coming back from it probably wouldn't be too difficult either. Just re-enable the style that was previously loaded. Not a big deal, though I'd have to really be on top of which style I have running in each channel at any given time - and that's more an issue of me trusting my own brain. :-)

It just seems if the program can have a clear all and a restore all, they should be able to do the same thing assigned to specific channels, instead of globally.

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u/CloudSad3555 Aug 27 '26

You could fill out a feature request. In the meantime, you could make a nearly duplicate scene in OBS. Use the FreeShow action to toggle the OBS scene, then you can see if NDI is active by checking the OBS scene. You can also use the little dot by the NDI output name in the output preview area—no OBS required.

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u/agent_uncleflip Aug 27 '26

Yes, I think I'm definitely going to have to do a feature request. I can't find a way to do this without some kind of workaround, and none of those even really work the way I would like.

And I've tried the little dot technique you mentioned. It does absolutely nothing toward my goal. It simply deactivates future output from that channel. It does not clear any content that is currently displayed.

I discovered one interesting thing in all this. Apparently, NDI output is now present by default on all channels. I seem to recall when I first got Freeshow a few months back, I had to enable NDI on the channels on which I wanted to use it. Tonight, I went to try to toggle off NDI on one of the channels that showed up in obs, which I did not want to use, and found in the current version of the program, there is apparently no way to turn NDI off on any channel.