A few weeks ago Xsplit officially came out of beta and removed some functionality for free users.
First of all you’re greeted with this fancy Purchase your Xsplit-license today! screen, which forces you to wait 10 seconds every time you start Xsplit.
Limitations for free users are as follows:
- FPS limit of 25 (Not a huge problem for me)
- Limited to 4 scenes instead of 12
- Resolution limited to ~460p or lower (<= 1024×768)
- Audio codec forced to Speex mono
The only deal breaker for me is the limitation to Speex, which results in lousy audio for your stream. Using the AAC codec entails licensing fees, so I understand that Xsplit doesn’t allow it for free users. But forcing monotonous Speex audio as only alternative seems like a manufactured incentive to buy a Xsplit license. Why not just go ahead and force a 400×300 resolution with a fullscreen watermark?
According to the Xsplit Support Team the limitation of the Speex codec to compressed mono sampled at 16 kHz is out of their hands and just a fault in Adobe Flash itself. Be that as it may, I can’t believe there is no better alternative than horrendous Speex.
Long story short, I will change my streaming setup back to FlashMediaEncoder combined with VH Multi Cam Studio and Dxtory. ( the handy Xsplit-scenes will be missed, though )