SplitmediaLabs has finally decided to give its focus group early access to the upcoming XSplit Broadcaster 1.1 update. Not only does the latest version include new features, but also crucial fixes to problems that have been plaguing users ever since early beta. I won’t dive into every little detail here, as the developers have been kind enough to post the patch notes on their public blog. Personally, I am quite excited for this update, and you should be as well (that is if you’re a dedicated user). The upcoming list may not seem too impressive to most, but keep in mind that there is more to come.
These are some of the features already available for focus group testers.
- Justin/TwitchTV & Own3d ingest location ping tester dropdown – There have been one or two third-party programs offering this feature for a while now, but it’s nice to see that the developers have decided to make it native to XSplit. In case you are wondering, this basically allows you to view your latency on all servers with a simple click.
- Update to latest libx264 build 124 software encoder – We have not been given any details as to whether this is significant or not, but any update to the encoder is a welcome one.
- Integrated Skype video source (Premium feature) – This new feature allows users to directly hook into Skype video calls instead of having to use the Screen Region option.
- Offline image for game source (Personal/Premium feature) – I am not able to test this at the moment, but it seems to be a method to have an image display as soon as your game is exited. Much better than a frozen / black screen, wouldn’t you agree?
- Support has been added for the new AVerMedia Live Gamer HD capture card, in addition to allowing it to use its built-in H.264 Encoder.
Here are some upcoming features that SplitmediaLabs has decided to share with us as well.
- Remote Presenter (Premium users only) – Once users are able to download the Remote Presenter source (downloadable via the Source Plugin Store), they will be able to share their audio, screen & webcam across LAN or internet.
- Support for Game Source capture of 64 bit games (Premium/Personal feature)
Finally, here are some important fixes to problems that I know have been affecting multiple broadcasters on TwitchTV.
- 4579 – Hotkey delay causes unresponsive switching - This basically fixed an issue with hotkey scene switching.
- 3198 – Virtual Camera does not work in Google Voice and video chat / Google+ Hangout.
- 4568 – Audio stutter issue (machinegun-like or helicopter-sounding audio) when using useloopback startup argument - The developers have also suggested another way to fix this bug on the actual blog post.
- 4585 – MP4 recordings fail when file size becomes very big - There is now also an option to have XSplit split the file once it reaches a certain size.
While there are still some bugs to iron out, I’m sure this update will please many. As I said before, this may not seem amazing but I truly believe that all of these features and fixes will combine to create a more stable and fluid experience. I will personally do my best to help test this Beta version before it’s released to the public, and I will post impressions as we go along. Thank you for reading!
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You forgot to mention the local streaming plugin ryu :p
Turns out ( even though they say it’s for premium users only ) that it’s just a very small java based RTMP server. You don’t actually need xsplit premium to use it ( just navigate to the xsplit folder, and run it via command line ), and it’s more useful than just sharing things with people on LAN.
To run it, follow this format: java -jar miniserver.jar server uniqueID [port]
ie: java -jar miniserver.jar server test
this will launch the server on the default port ( 1935 ) and it will sit waiting for connections.
You can then add a custom RTMP server with the following info:
address: rtmp://127.0.0.1:1935/uniqueID
stream name: stream
(stream name always has to be ‘stream’)
Go live and you’re streaming to your very own local RTMP server.
Why this this interesting, you ask? If given your public ip address ( and presuming you have port 1935 TCP IN opened/forwarded ), one can add your livestream /to their xsplit presentation/. For own3d users this is nothing new, they give you the ability to pull the direct stream from their servers by default.
Twitch, however, does not offer such access. This means that for things like speedrun races ( which have found a home on Twitch ), you would have to open each stream’s page and screenregion each individual caster’s window.
However, with this server, the following scenario would be possible:
Each racer runs the server and streams to it
The race coordinator adds each participant’s livestream /directly/ to their XSplit presentation
The race coordinator sends a single stream to twitch with all participant’s streams neatly composited together, and since you can configure the buffer of added livestreams on twitch, the coordinator could sync up every racer regardless of stream delay.
To top it off, the server isn’t xsplit specific, you can use it with FMLE and likely Wirecast as well, since it’s simply a small RTMP server.
The stream can also be played with any RTMP client if you are so inclined, and can be streamed to over lan/the internet if your firewall is setup correctly, so you could use it for a small private streaming session so long as you have the bandwidth for each user.
Remember: Upload*viewers=Total upload bandwidth, if you are streaming at 1000kbit and you have 3 viewers, you are sending out 3000kbit, 1000 per viewer. This is why we stream to sites like twitch, they have the massive bandwidth required to sustain huge amounts of viewers… think about those hundred thousand viewer streams running at 2-5 megabit, ouch.
I would like to point out however that due to the licensing on the server, it is /technically/ illegal to distribute the jar. Considering that most everyone who’s going to use it either already owns XSplit ( and will thus likely have it downloaded to their machine, as I’m not sure the installation differs between premium and personal licences ), or doesn’t care about the license anyway.
the problem is that the .jar will probably be embeded in the application, therefore not callable directly, unless you find where it’s hidden in the application file…