I've written a small open-source tool that serves preview thumbnails of all your vMix inputs over HTTP — a modern replacement for the old vmix-snapshot-proxy some of you may remember.

What it does: it connects to the vMix Web API, reads all inputs, captures previews via the SnapshotInput API and serves them on port 8098. Inputs are identified by their key/UUID instead of the input number, so nothing breaks when you reorder your session. Thumbnails are optimized to ~10 KB (with ffmpeg, optional), there's a visual web UI with a live grid, and the legacy /{number}.jpg URLs still work so existing integrations keep running. Single .exe, zero configuration, no Node.js required.

Useful for custom dashboards, Companion button images, tally or monitor pages — anything that wants to show what's actually on an input.

Full disclosure: I originally built it as a free companion for my own vMix tooling, but it's completely standalone and stays that way. MIT license, full source public on GitHub: https://github.com/adelv...ware/dp-thumbnail-server — it has also been picked up by the community-maintained awesome-vmix list.

If anyone is interested or has ideas for it, let me know.

Max, sorry for the very late reply. I expected the forum to send me a mail and it never did, and the thread had been quiet for so long that I stopped checking. Thanks a lot for testing and reporting it.

You were right: a Video List is one input with one key, so its thumbnail only ever shows the item vMix has loaded. Your SelectIndex idea would have fixed the picture, but it changes the list's selection live, under the operator's hands, so I did not want the server to do that in the background.

Version 1.1.0 solves it without touching vMix at all. vMix lists the file path of every item in its XML, and since the server runs on the vMix machine, it now reads the files directly with ffmpeg / ffprobe:

• /key/{key}/items.json: every item with file name, path, which one is selected, and its duration
  
• /key/{key}/item/{n}.jpg: a thumbnail of item n, taken from the file itself
  
• In the web UI, list inputs get an "items" link that shows all entries with thumbnail and duration
  

No SelectIndex, nothing loaded to Preview, so it is safe during a running show. It needs ffmpeg including ffprobe (PATH or the same folder as the .exe), works for files but not for streams or cameras inside a list, and the duration is the file's length, so in/out marks set in vMix are not applied.

Same release page on GitHub as before, MIT as always. Let me know if it works with your lists.